16 replies to this topic

[inamosa]

So, I decided to open an account with TOS with like funding not much higher than the minimum ($3K is minimum I believe) just to use the Prophet charts (including real-time charts for equities, options, futures) and TOS's own charting platform which is actually quite good. No minimum trades and you can even reduce your balance after the account's opened if you want. I now have a superb charting platform (and I've tried many platforms before). I know many of you use TOS for trading (I use IB) so maybe this info won't come as much of a surprise to you. I've yet to see a better charting package on the net for less than $200 - because what you're getting here is Prophet's package which is excellent and would cost you separately (assuming you have no account w/TOS) about $150/month if you wanted to chart futures, equities and options (including exchange fees). Then you're also getting TOS's package which has to be worth at least $50/month, I would say. I like to do my linear charting using TOS and my log charting using Prophet. I've always been a fan of Prophet's charts, though, so they're my favorite. Great to have access to two charting applications within one software suite, though. Anyway, very pleased. A true bargain. Let's see, assuming the bare minimum value of these charts: ($125*12)/($3000) = 50% annual return! Boo ya grandma

[Rich]

I was at the Money Show in Las Vegas earlier this week and met the guy who started the company. He's an impressive person. I also got a demo of the platform. I like the capability it has to trade all kinds of option strategies.

[MoneyFriend]

It's good, I use it all the time for charting and options. I didn't like them for futures but it looks like they may have improved in that dept recently. I can only wish they provided more tick data (capped at 5 day) and more intraday (capped at 20 days), and more daily(capped at 20 years). Their free prophet charts make up somewhat for that on the last 2 points though.

[inamosa]

Keep in mind, though, I'm a swing trader to multi-week (and occasionally even multi-month) trader. I don't daytrade at all. For my purposes, the occasional lag I've heard some people mention in the daytime, especially around Fed announcements or big news events, in tick data and other info being fed inth the platform, doesn't affect me. I work during the daytime as I have a full-time job so I don't watch the market much during the day (see my signature).

[viccarter]

What your opinion of Tradestation? I have only been trading for 9 months or so, and the more I learn, the more I like it. However, I have heard some negative comments regarding it on other sites.

[hedgehawk]

I checked out TOS. Their prophet charts do not chart NYMEX products. Since I trade NYMEX products 99% of my trades it wont work. I think it is completely bogus. I called TOS and got an even worse answer.

[inamosa]

I checked out TOS. Their prophet charts do not chart NYMEX products. Since I trade NYMEX products 99% of my trades it wont work. I think it is completely bogus. I called TOS and got an even worse answer.

Sorry to hear that dude

For you, I tried charting some specifically NYMEX contracts in TOS and TOS's version of Prophet and they didn't work

[inamosa]

I checked out TOS. Their prophet charts do not chart NYMEX products. Since I trade NYMEX products 99% of my trades it wont work. I think it is completely bogus. I called TOS and got an even worse answer.

Sorry to hear that dude

For you, I tried charting some specifically NYMEX contracts in TOS and TOS's version of Prophet and they didn't work

Actually, correction, they do work in TOS charts but not in TOS's version of Prophet

Here is CL in TOS's charts, for example:


In Prophet, I can only get CL continuous contract

[MoneyFriend]

I checked out TOS. Their prophet charts do not chart NYMEX products. Since I trade NYMEX products 99% of my trades it wont work. I think it is completely bogus. I called TOS and got an even worse answer.

TOS support can be really smug sometimes, depends who you get. I had to talk to the owner once (regular customer support was being a pain so I asked to talk to the head) because of a bug in their execution of a futures order (their order system got stuck and my stops were run big time) and the guy was pretty much a big jerk and gave no apology for what was obviously on their side , instead they blamed my system which I know was bs because it was a day where many other tos members reported similar problems + I have worked before in IT and my system is clean as a whistle.... anyways they cost me money on their buggy futures system and the only thing they did was refund my commission after me arguing with them for upwards of 20 minutes.

Besides the sometimes bad support I do really like tos.

If you can get used to the interface of the native TOS charts, you may find them more feature rich and comfortable to use than prophet. I started with TOS only using their prophet charts since that is what I was accustomed to, but once I learned the intricacies of their native charts I never wanted to go back to prophet.

Edited by MoneyFriend, 16 May 2009 - 10:51 AM.

[inamosa]

I've been impressed with TOS charts so far, like you MF

Just wish these things could be improved, as you said earlier:

more intraday (capped at 20 days), and more daily(capped at 20 years).

Charts are really too short in TOS, hence the need for Prophet