Customer Reviews

Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation (Book & CD-ROM)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For new system developers using TradeStation:

First, read the Tradestation Manuals. From the main menu, choose Help -> TradeStation Books. Read "Getting Started with TradeSation EasyLanguage" then move on to "EasyLanguage Reference Guide."

Next, bring up a TradeStation chart and add some random strategy. Click View -> Strategy Performance Report. In the Performance Summary and Trade Analysis tabs, click on each statistic's name type and read the description. It is pretty informative.

Then read chapter 5 of this book if you need more info on the stats.

Chapter 6 is the real meat of this book and the reason you should add it to your library. Unfortunately it is riddled with typographical errors. It's a shame. If the authors would have just copied and pasted the code from a verified strategy, they would have caught most of the problems.

Chapter 7 and 8 also have some valuable information.

Again, if you can find this book used, go ahead and buy it. There are a couple strategy coding, debugging and printing, and EL tweaks for research that you will find interesting.

Also, look into

"Professional Stock Trading: System Design and Automation" (more good ideas and examples of TS coding)

"Design, Testing, and Optimization of Trading Systems" by Robert Pardo (oldie but goodie on system design, but no TS).

"The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies" by Jeffrey Katz (there is good chapter on basic statistics originally published in 1997 Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities)

Much of the text here is already covered in TradeStation's free EasyLanguage reference. The book is sloppily written and edited, and the coding style leaves much to be desired. It is a weird combination of EasyLanguage syntax, trader interviews (get Market Wizards series instead), and a few "winning" trading systems, which really are not winners at all. Basically, the text was cobbled together without any underlying insights into how to really build winning trading systems.

The systems are very good.
You will of course need to tune them, but I am generally very impressed.
The prose is also very good, and I have much better insight about how to design systems like this.

The only downside is that the code fragments in the book
1) are not available for download on the web, which is just silly in this day and age;
2) are very poorly edited; they contain syntax errors and obvious bugs.

So poor technical editing, but great content.

I acquired this book because the authors had previously written a very good one, "The ultimate trading guide". I am very dissatisfied. There is nothing here that you can not learn by reading the Trade Station manual. I was expecting to learn some of the fine points of the software, the use of DLL's, or the interphasing to other software. Unfortunately, I did not learn a thing. There are also some strategy examples which are slight modifications of the ones appearing in their previous book, and some interviews with system developers, that are unfortunately about 2 years old. What can you learn from the answer to questions like "What do you think the hot markets and stocks are this year?", when the answers are two years old?
In summary, overpriced and almost useless.

The information about TradeStation is easily replaced with the manuals available from the company. The trading systems included have some interesting features, but the design and analysis is far inferior to what you'll find in, say, Conway & Behle's "Professional Stock Trading: System Design and Automation". And the editing of the text is very sloppy. This would be a decent value were it a $30 paperback, but as a premium priced book it dissapoints. There are much better ways to spend this much money on books about stock trading.

I gave this book the maximum 5 stars because its overall impact on me as a trader was so profound. I would say it catalyzed a revolution in my success rate to such an extent that I now feel capable of making a living at this profession for the first time in my career. Obviously (as the title suggests) the book is primarily about how to use Tradestation software, or more specifically, the programming language that comes with TS known as Easylanguage. Long regarded as an oxymoron by those in the know, 'Easylanguage' is in fact anything but easy...it can be downright daunting at times. But this book really helps to break the ice by enabling dedicated students to get a working feel for the ins and outs of Tradestation and its various idiosyncrasies. Worth the price of the book alone is the chapter about trading strategies (chapter 6), subtitled by the authors "The Big Damn Chapter on Trading Strategies". A word to the wise - the SuperCombo System elucidated in this chapter contains all the elements to propel the reader much closer to that final elusive goal of consistent profitability. Perhaps you will need to modify it a bit here and there to suit your chosen market, but in the final analysis the seed concepts embedded within this single mechanical trading approach are robust and universal enough to grind out real money day in and day out for a long, long time to come. Please don't get me wrong - this is not so much a ready-made formula as it is a theoretical framework which needs to be "fleshed out" through hard work in order to be fully viable. I have always had a great deal of respect for John Hill and George Pruitt, both because of their candor and straightforwardness and because of their willingness to tirelessly follow a lead through to the end in order to discover the truth. "Building Winning Trading Systems with Tradestation" is more than a book about Easylanguage, it is a Magnus Opus of sorts, weaving many different ideas on many different levels in order to reveal a tapestry of trading that borders on something resembling a Rosetta Stone for the aspiring trader. Highly recommended.

"Building Winning Trading Systems With TradeStation" is brand new and probably the best 'Intro to EasyLanguage' currently available other than the manuals TradeStation itself offers. The title suggests it is a strategy book, but the 'strategy' section is only about 50 pages of a 375 page book. The rest of the text is a good intro to TradeStation, EasyLanguage and trading, including tips on debugging, performance reports, StopLoss exits and other somewhat obscure topics.

Other EasyLanguage guides are somewhat dated (though, I still find them interesting). Check out "Ask Mr. EasyLanguage" and "Using Easy Language" if you want to comparison shop.

Much of the book can be found elsewhere, particularly the online TradeStation manuals. 90 pages of appendix comes straight from the online 'EasyLanguage Reference Guide' (a pdf file). What is unique about the book is the 'system development' perspective. The online guides offer little or no help developing trading systems.

The CD contains the code described in the book. The code could have been put on 2 floppy disks, but I guess a CD is cheaper and saves space.

Table of Contents:
1. Fundamentals (What is EasyLanguage?) pg 1-29
2. EasyLanguage Program Structure pg 30-38
3. Program Control Structures (if-then-else) pg 39-51
4. TradeStation Analysis Techniques pg 52-75
5. System Performance pg 77-108
6. Trading Strategies pg 109-156
7. Debugging pg 157-166
8. Research topics pg 168-193
9. Percent Change Charts (Jan Arps) pg 194-200
10. Options pg 201-227
11. Interviews with EasyLanguage Developers pg 228-276
12. Appendix pg 283-380
13. Index pg 381-389

I'd call this book a beginner/intermediate level Tradestation guide. It starts with the very basics of EasyLanguage and then moves into some simple trading systems. If you get the Easylanguage beginners guides from Tradestation, you wouldn't need the first third of the book. I was looking for some coding ideas as well as some debugging ideas. I did get both from the book. The middle of the book is the good stuff and had some trading systems and debugging methods, but not $60 worth. The book appeared to be packed with all kinds of useful information but there is a lot of useless fluff, the last third of the book had lots of Reserved Words and reference stuff that isn't necessary to include. There was even interviews with system developers. I thought this was about building trading systems?? As was mentioned in previous reviews, try to find the book used. Also, the book was published in 2003. The code in the book is about 4 years old and is still usable but dated.

John Hill and I wrote this book to help educate users of TradeStation's EasyLanguage. The first few chapters introduce the reader to the fundamentals of programming with EasyLanguage. These chapters cover data types, if - then and other decision constructs and overall EasyLanguage program structure. The book then moves into the analysis of trading system performance and optimization. Real world trading systems are introduced as tutorials. These systems aren't just simple moving averages, but sophisticated examples of the proper use of EasyLanguage. The daytrade system that is included demonstrates the use of multiple data streams and intraday position monitoring. The other systems include trend following, break out and zone analysis methodologies. Other programming topics such as modular programming, debugging and input/output are also touched upon. The book finishes up with interviews of some of the best known system vendors in the industry today. All EasyLanguage code (6.0 and 2000i) is included on CD.

When the two biggest names in system tracking get together to write a book, a prudent investor buys.
For the price of a few commissions, this writing has substance.
This is one of the few books that not only demonstrates varias trading systems, but provides one with a CD to download the material!
The systems alone could sell for thousands of dollars apiece.
When the professionals give you this much information, buy.

Robert Estill
Former NBC Sportscaster
Current Active Trader