Marek Liyanage

You have a big advantage being a market professional but that also can turn into baggage bc you need to settle the time frame you want to focus on. Even if you already know it's "intraday" that's still a wide spectrum and that's where many of us stumble bc we mix and match different styles that we haven't totally mastered well. I began trading with TS at the 2 year mark of my day trading journey which is August/September. It's been great now for 2 months straight with only a few days of losses. After two years I consider myself consistent even though I knew what my "edge" was after about 3 months into trading. It took another 12-15 months chip away at the big losses scalpers suffer every now that wipe out weeks of hard work. I attribute a good amount of that to switching platforms. One thing that has greatly improved has been stock selection in pre market and at the market open where for scalpers speed is absolute key. A lot of times the best stocks at the open are not necessarily the ones that showed in pre market so you need to keep a good eye not just on your scanners but also on a good number of charts. TS flexibility displaying number of charts and switching time frames just blows DAS away by light years on this. For scalpers DAS probably has the better fills overall but if you trade anything over a few minute time frames there's really no good reason not to use TS. Time in pre market is better spent researching stocks and not trading....I had to give up post market trading too with the switch. Would have loved to short INTC on earnings but that's just the way it is...it frees up the mind. Remember trading can become an addiction just like any other gambling activity so you need to be mindful about your mental resources, energy and the rational limitations that sometimes might make more sense than having unlimited options.

Weekend chart review in TradeStation... $SPY $QQQ $IWM now at or below the 50MAs on daily and weekly charts. Most tech leaders ended the week soft...pulling below 9/20MAs and hovering at or below the 50. $ZM $RH $PTON $FVRR $PINS $CRWD $APPS $QCOM (closed above Friday's open!) $CMG are still trading around 9/20DMAs 9/20/50 daily and weekly MAs as well as 52-week channel indicator in RadarScreen on TS used to triage stocks. The stocks I follow fall into 2 categories: A. High Volume Day (Options) Trading Stocks High volume growth names I focus on for intraday trading. Mostly to the long side or when the market corrects (like right now) also to the short side. Syncing the trade direction of growth names with the overall market direction makes trading a lot less complicated. Something I picked up from Mark Minervini. B. Intermediate to Low Volume Stocks (some suitable for day but others more for Swing or Options trading) Stocks with strength defined by Investors Business Daily lists according to CANSLIM and William O'Neills strategies. Many stocks especially PINS, CHWY, PTON, QCOM or CRWD can be traded (scalped) intraday but many are just not liquid enough and have large spreads so are better for swing trading (e.g. CMG, NOW, SEDG and TTD daily volume last Friday was below 1 Million shares traded)

TradeStation is a power hungry piece of software...I have gone thru several upgrades to my gaming rig since the upgrade...it's also 32-bit, I am not sure bc I am not a programmer but don't think that helps with a 64-bit Windows 10 system either. I am curious why they don't lift the software up to 64-bit so it can take advantage of better performance under a 64-bit environment. Maybe someone else can comment on this. Anyways the jist for those considering it would be ...you need a pretty solid PC rig bc if you load it up with workspaces and charts which I love to do it will push your system to the limits quickly. If all you use/need are a few workspaces and charts you won't have any issues. The best way to start out is load your basic workspace and then slowly keep adding charts, watchlists, scanners and other workspaces.

TradeStation makes it easier than you might think bc you can just use your keyboard for everything. They took a nifty route to cover the need for many different hotkeys....rather than programming every single setting into separate hotkeys they use a few keys to separately control: ORDER TYPES PRICE VOLUME ROUTES plus a few other misc variables (see image of my current config below). This configuration gives the user a lot more flexibility...the issue with Streamdeck here is the XL gives you several levels of programming but you need to dig down a level which makes it almost like working in a DOS files and folders...w TS approach you need to know a few keys well but you have unlimited flexibility, e.g. you can set share price at the 3- or 4-digit level and then just up the ante by hitting the PgUp or PgDn key to go from 1000 to 6000. re. Price markers for trading from charts...see the second attached infographic it's self explanatory.

its unfortunate but not a deal breaker considering all the other benefits you get with the software and trading commission free...

Here's what TSLA and AAPL intrday charts look like with intraday levels from today, yesterday and past days on the montage screen. With the studies tied to windows the levels show for different tickers automatically when you toggle thru a RadarScreen or Hotlist window

With Y (previous day's) HOD, LOD added as a separate study

here's a chart with daily OPEN/HIGH/LOW indicators in TradeStation. In TS studies are connected to specific windows so simply create a layout with charts that all have the studies you would like to see and it will be applied globally to any chart you pull up regardless of the ticker. Makre sure to save that layout...et voila....you got what you needed. BTW, you can copy and paste any window in TS which is another great feature once you have created the a chart window with the studies you would like to have on each chart.

My wife and I like to travel a fair amount....I use 2 travel setups....the first is one using USB powered displays (Andrew uses ASUS, Lepow makes ones that uses newer USB-C standard).....ASUS has been pioneering these so those are the most reliable ones. They run between $150-200. The second option I recently turned to for more screen real estate is using 22-25" AC powered displays. You can get ones that are flat and light so are pretty portable for travel in a a car with some luggage. Here I turned to ACER 22 and 24" that were available for ~$100 on Amazon or at Costco. Most laptops have several USB ports...make sure you have the matching standard...newer USB standards 3.0 and up are usually marked in blue but you need to check this in your laptop specs. Many laptops will sport an HDMI , MiniDP port, VGA, DVI or now also USB-C that will feed video to an external display at higher resolution. If you are shopping for a laptop and will be using it for trading a lot make sure it fits your needs for external displays. The Lenovo Y545 w 1660TI GPU I use can put out video without a hub directly to 3 USB or AC powered displays. The USB displays are less than 2lbs and the AC powered ones are about 6lbs. I have attached a few pics of the AC powered setup w one ACER 22" and 2 ACER 24" displays. The Y545 is a 15" laptop/ One more thing....you gotta think about with this...as you can there's 3 different sized displays in this setup. This could be an issue with DAS s/w bc if you want to extend the screen across several displays the sizing can become a hiccup. A few others here have suggested some workaround for this. My USB displays all match the size of the 15" Lenovo screen so with those I haven't had an issue while traveling. Recently I switched to TradeStation software trading platform and w that s/w theres no issue with screen size bc you can have several different desktops and workspaces so I just use 3 different desktops for trading s/w.

it's been a couple weeks now that I began working w TS platform and broker....platform is awesome....just took time to learn and work to configure ...because it's so customizable it's also a bit more complicated but when you have things setup everything becomes so much less work going forward... you can trade off; a trade bar that's similar to how the montage works, this can be expanded to include advanced functions - off charts using point and click at selected levels - within the Matrix - a depth of market window which includes exchanges similar to the Level 2 in DAS TS uses "intelligent routing" ...similar to smart routing in DAS TS makes the choice for you that's considered in your best interest for fast execution with low or no comissions...if you prefer you can direct route using your preferred exchange for a commission that's similar to IB. Theres a few more updates on my Fintwit about TS too... Marek https://twitter.com/MarekLiyanage

sure....my email is first dot last at gmail.. @MikeB also runs a WAP group and has my number.. maybe ask him to add you as organizer and send updates to a larger group in SD, OC and LA areas...DM here or on Twitter works too.

took me a couple days just to getting things setup a bit...still learning my way around....TS is like an aircraft carrier compared to DAS...very resourceful but takes a lot of tweaking TS defines workspaces and desktops and you can have separate desktops launched from within the program each with several workspaces. This modular approach allows the user to customize which parts of the desktop he wants open and together with which workspaces. Nice when you have multiple monitors but only want to use a subset of them, e.g. in the evening or the weekend reviewing charts or trades. Also, you can fold a desktop into a separate workspace in another desktop if you simply want to save screen space. Then you can just toggle thru tabs of workspaces on a smaller set of desktop/screens. So far been focussing mostly setting up my watchlists, markets and indices in RadarScreen. RS is basically a DAS marketviewer and scanner on steroids. The screenshot shows 2 1/2 screens and between the 2 RS viewers on the left and right there's 10 tabs each with different lists of various indices, market breadth data (TICK, TRIN, etc.), futures, indices, sectors, countries, currencies, commodities and groomed watchlists of stocks I keep tabs on. No limitations to how you configure these lists and no limits on the number of rows unlike DAS which I frequently hit the ceiling (1,000 rows) with. This is also where the market data feeds provide a much bigger variety to all futures from CME, CBOT, COMEX and NYMEX, forex pairs, Emini and micro futures. DAS is a lot more limited there. Scanners are pretty good, a lot better than DAS but not as good as TI...you can customize scans a lot more than in DAS but the readouts have some fundamentals missing I like to have....e.g can't find the float or short float. This might still be good or even great for most traders...I will keep using TI for now as my primary goto scanner. Chart are very customizable....probably lots more studies than I will ever use.... and then there's Easy Language programming feature that already allowed me to import custom studies another trader programmed and shared with me. I haven't looked at most of the other stuff yet let alone traded .....too busy getting my desktop to the point my DAS layout was....but a couple other things....the fundamentals is ok, the news feeds too better than DAS but the data is imported from 3rd party so it's not the fastest...so far two mehs for news and stock fundamentals... Matrix is fashioned in DOM style aggregating bids/asks, TS is pretty much the same. The montage/trade bar I haven't gotten to so not sure how hot buttons are going to work...more later on that...

I posted an overview on TradeStations software and brokerage platform under the "Brokers" subsection bc I figured for most day traders paying for trading s/w and possibly data feeds without being able to directly trade from the platform makes no sense. Most traders therefore will have to make a decision about signing up for both the use of the software platform as well as their brokerage services. There's also been a few threads from others so search the site for those links to read up more about TS too.

Yes, its a very personal decision so you need to look at everything. Hopefully, the research I put will save others time one way or the other.

After almost 2 years trading on DAS I switched to TradeStation platform and brokerage services. I have done a lot of the leg work researching so I am highlighting features for TradeStation s/w platform and brokerage: Instruments & Commissions Structure: STOCK & OPTIONS - currently zero commission trading plans are limited to US residents. Residents in almost all countries outside the US can sign up for plans with commissions on stock trading. Canada and a few countries in Europe are excluded from brokerage subscription plans. All foreign residents can sign up for a software subscription plan. Contact TradeStation directly for more info - they will try work with you. - lightning fast executions - Level 2 DOM (depth of market) matrix - TS gives volume at price per bar, on all time frames from monthly down to 15 seconds. ... - Stock trading 8am -8pm ET - Direct routing is possible for a per share fees similar to IB - with "intelligent" (zero commission/SMRT) routing order flow could be sold to third party market makers for execution. Read up more in TS disclosures about this: https://uploads.tradestation.com/uploads/SEC-Rule.pdf Since sale of order flow recently has become a hot issue...a couple other links discussing sale of order flow to 3rd parties: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2002/4/v25n1-8.pdf https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nbbo.asp - no commissions for stock trading with a $2K funded account under the TS Select plan (above 10K shares per trade there's a per share fee similar to IBs per share fee that's charged and exchange/FINRA fees still apply) - $0.6 per options contract FUTURES - Around the clock futures trading 24/7 Sunday 3pm to Friday 5pm ET - $1.50 per futures contract, 0.5 per Emini micro contract, futures trading requires a separately funded account, intra day futures margin rates of Eminis and micros are 25% of the full margin. - TS offers access to the entire world of CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX traded futures in real time with market depth Level 2 Market Data: - large selection of market data incl all US and various foreign indices in real time. Also access to important real time NYSE market breadth indices TRIN, TICK and advance/decline volume/issues breakdown numbers - great degree of freedom and flexibility for customization of market data feeds - zero fees for Level 1 Nasdaq and Level 1 & Level 2 for NYSE, AMEX equities and options, CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX futures. - Nasdaq Level 2 market depth requires a $11 or $17 subcription - Enhanced market depth for $25 plus add-on oder books from ARCA, BATS, Nasdaq BX all for $26 (see screenshot w. my current subs as an example) Software - no platform fees (with a funded account) - excellent charting - large selection of studies w extensive flexibility for customization - market replay currently not (yet) available - StreamDeck hotkeys currently not supported Scanner - Powerful built-in RadarScreen s/w scanner. This is a great free feature and the scanners are very customizable. Programming, Backtesting, Strategy Testing - Portfolio-level back-testing and analysis, seamlessly utilizing TradeStation data and strategies - full access to Easy Language (EL) programming language w hundreds of built in tools and a TS app store for purchase from third parties News Free integrated news feeds and fundamentals data - a great feature that's available directly on the platform. Includes: - Free Benzinga news service - Reuters financials and stock data from in one place and various other useful data.... - Yahoo Finance integration: insiders, funds etc is imported from Help, tutorials, video library, education channels - help function within s/w has a large searchable database that quickly helps find documentation The TS youtube channel has many videos featuring tutorials for desktop, web and mobile apps, RadarScreen scanning, charting, order entry, Matrix (level 2 depth of market DOM), strategy/back testing, Easy Language programming tools and library as well as futures and options trading. https://www.youtube.com/user/tradestation Education channel with free and pay-as-you-go content at: http://www.youcantrade.com With the all-in-one integration of excellent charting and trade execution together with scanners, news, and fundamentals TS has potential to replace other trading s/w and feeds for many users (i.e. paid scanners, news services and fundamentals, journaling s/w). I will post an update in a few weeks about my experience using the platform and TS as a broker. You can also DM me here or on Fintwit MarekLiyanage or email [email protected] with questions. Last updated 08/10/2020