Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation (Hardcover)

~ (Author), John R. Hill (Author) "When you code (slang for writing your ideas into a programming language) an analysis technique, you are directing the computer to follow your instructions to..." (more)
Key Phrases: buy next bar, buytocover next bar, certain price stop, Futures Truth, Super Combo, Dynamic Break Out (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Praise for BUILDING WINNING TRADING SYSTEMS with TradeStation ™

"This book will prove vital to all systematic traders. Pruitt and Hill share a wealth of innovative timing patterns and fully disclosed trading strategies. For TradeStation™ users, there are powerful tutorials on indicator design and system building. The authors’ vast expertise will benefit even practiced TradeStation™ veterans."
–Nelson Freeburg
Editor, Formula Research

"TradeStation™ systems traders will discover a virtual gold mine of knowledge, guidance, and the benefit of vicarious experience from the two foremost experts on the subject in this valuable new addition to trading systems literature. There has long been a notable lack of worthwhile reference material for TradeStation™ users, and Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation™ fills a large void in this area."
–Edward Dobson
President, Traders Press, Inc.

"Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation™ is filled with useful information and practical real-world examples. I believe TradeStation 6™ users will find it a valuable resource."
–Bill Cruz
Co-CEO, TradeStation™ Group, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

TradeStation™ has gained worldwide acceptance as the premiere investment software platform, but information regarding it has been limited and focused mainly on functionality–until now. In Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation™, systems experts George Pruitt and John Hill show you how to unlock the power of this platform–specifically TradeStation™ 6.0–and profit from it as you trade a variety of markets including the futures, commodities, and stock market, to name just a few. Since a large portion of this book involves actual computer code, a companion CD-ROM with numerous programs and data is also included.

Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation™ is essentially two books in one–a trading system development guide and a guide to TradeStation™’s programming language. Within the first few chapters of this informative resource, you’ll be introduced to EasyLanguage®, the powerful programming language that sets TradeStation™ apart from other software packages. Building on this foundation, Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation™ discusses the essentials of programming, from proper programming techniques and program control structures to data structures and analysis techniques such as PaintBar, Indicator, ShowMe, Function, and Strategies.

With the basics of programming behind you, this comprehensive guide covers all aspects of researching, building, understanding, and evaluating your own trading strategies and systems in conjunction with TradeStation™ and EasyLanguage®. In-depth analysis provides practical guidance on:

• How to understand trading system performance and proper strategy optimization
• Good trading ideas, their codes, and how to translate them into software
• How to fix your logic and programs through the art of debugging
• Developing, researching, and testing trading ideas
• And much more

With the knowledge gained from these discussions, you’ll learn how to put your trading ideas into action and make the right decisions. But that’s not all. Chapters dedicated to the utilization of TradeStation™’s Percentage Change charts, options strategies, and interviews with some of today’s leading systems developers and traders round out this definitive volume.

Whether you trade stocks, futures, options, or commodities, the one thing you need for any of these markets is a reliable trading system. Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation™ will show you how to use the world’s best investment software platform to develop and utilize trading systems that really work.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (December 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471215694
• ISBN-13: 978-0471215691
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #235,371 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buy it if you can find it used. , May 1, 2005

By	Garrett D. Casey (Hoboken, NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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)

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just get the free EasyLanguage manual from TradeStation, February 15, 2003

By A Customer

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.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful, but badly edited, March 18, 2004

By	Matt (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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.