TDAmeritrade StrategyDesk 1.2 - Looks Like Someone Is Listening

April 13, 2007 at 11:11 pm by Will

I just got the email today that StrategyDesk v1.2 is available. I haven’t downloaded it and played with it yet, but the email itself looks promising. Here are some tidbits that (coincidentally, serendipitously or otherwise) seem to directly address some of the complaints that have been raised in posts and comments on DummySpots:

  • DummySpots: …if you develop software of any kind (or hardware, or pretzels for that matter), when you release a new, improved version, for the sake of Judas Priest TELL US WHAT THE FREAKING IMPROVEMENTS ARE!!!

    AMTD email:“What’s new in this version?” [list follows]

  • DummySpots: …As of v1.0, SD doesn’t support different directories (”folders”) for groups of formulas- they’re all under the Formula Library list, which can get unwieldy really quickly as you save all your tweaks.

    AMTD email: “Expanded formula and strategy libraries, where you can also set up and organize your own folders for formulas and strategies you created.”

  • DummySpots: (in this article I described how to download and create your own StrategyDesk symbol list for the Nasdaq Comp and other indices that inexplicably were not included with the program)

    AMTD email: “New symbol lists: Russell 1000, NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX.”

  • Dummyspots: …this StrategyDesk program has potential, although it’s very much like receiving a big grill with five hundred parts and no assembly instructions.

    And here: …How can I RTFM if you won’t WRITE me a decent F’ing Manual?

    And here: …So far, the most infuriating thing I’ve found about this software (including how damned slow it is) is the fact that those three stupid PDFs are all the documentation AMTD has ANYWHERE so far.

    And here: This list is a “work in progress,” and will continue to evolve until/unless Ameritrade finally publishes a decent formula reference themselves.

    And today’s AMTD email?
    “And coming soon: The StrategyDesk Help Center - your all-in-one source for support documents, webcasts, and dynamic tools to help you get the most out of StrategyDesk - which will be accessible from the Help menu at the top of the tool.”

Well, it’s nice to see they’re getting the message from their users, and are listening and trying to improve the software. I’ll probably never know for sure, but if any of those ideas came from the discussions (or the cursing) here, then it’s been well worth it. And rest assured, we’ll continue to discuss, and to curse.

3 Comments

  1. BNJ said,

    April 14, 2007 @ 8:35 am

    Reason for cautious otimism, I’d say. The first 2 minor revisions have come about in pretty short order, and although the changes were incremental, it at least indicates that SD development is fairly active. I’m looking forward to the 2.0 release, whenever that may be.

  2. Will said,

    April 14, 2007 @ 11:38 am

    I’m hoping they’ll let it ride for a few more months, get feedback, then say, “Let’s take what we’ve learned so far, start with a clean slate, and rebuild this thing from the ground up.” Expensive at first, but over the course of a few years, that’d be cheaper and far more successful than continually applying band-aids and workarounds to the old Model-T. Guess at some level it depends on how much pride is involved.

  3. Will said,

    April 14, 2007 @ 1:27 pm

    I’ve downloaded v1.2 and played around a little. Must say I’m impressed with their having “opened it up”, allowing us to save formulas, results, strategies, etc in our own (organized, Windows-based) folders. More stock screening, less archaeology. Also the “Strategy Setup” screen has further improved and would *almost* make sense to a new user now.

    In short, BNJ, I agree that “development is fairly active” — looks like this thing is evolving! Yea!

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