TradersPost vs. Coding Your Own Strategy: Which Is Right for You?

For traders with coding skills, choosing between TradersPost’s automation platform and directly coding strategies with tools like EasyLanguage on TradeStation can be a challenging decision. Here’s a rundown of the unique benefits and limitations of each approach to help you decide which might best suit your needs.

Advantages of Using TradersPost

1. Multi-Broker Compatibility: TradersPost allows users to deploy strategies across multiple brokers, whereas coding on platforms like TradeStation limits users to that specific broker. TradersPost’s flexibility allows signals from one broker to trigger trades on another, which is particularly useful for traders looking to diversify.

2. Widespread Language Support (Pine Script): Many TradersPost users leverage TradingView’s Pine Script, which has a large user community. This makes finding pre-written scripts, troubleshooting issues, and collaborating with others easier compared to niche languages like EasyLanguage.

3. Collaboration Features: TradersPost’s account system supports multiple users, enabling clients and developers to work together seamlessly. Unlike TradeStation, where only one user can log in at a time, TradersPost supports collaborative access to logs and webhooks, making it ideal for teams.

4. Alerts and Fail-Safe Features: If a trade fails, TradersPost notifies users, providing transparency on trade execution. Additionally, TradersPost retries any communication needed before execution, ensuring it verifies open positions, orders, and account balances before proceeding with a trade.

5. Frequent Updates and Feature Expansion: TradersPost regularly introduces new features and improvements, keeping pace with market changes and user needs. In contrast, platforms like TradeStation, with proprietary languages, often roll out fewer updates, which can limit flexibility for traders who want the latest features.

6. Real-Time Forward Testing: TradersPost’s live forward testing offers insights into real trading performance, which many traders find more valuable than backtesting alone. While TradeStation provides robust backtesting, the forward-testing environment of TradersPost gives a clearer picture of real-world strategy effectiveness.

Limitations of Coding Directly on TradeStation

1. Single-Broker Restriction: EasyLanguage strategies are restricted to TradeStation, limiting flexibility if you decide to explore other brokers or asset classes. Switching from TradeStation to another platform typically requires rewriting the strategy from scratch, as EasyLanguage isn’t transferable.

2. Limited Community and Support: EasyLanguage, while powerful, has a smaller community and fewer resources than widely-used languages like Pine Script. This can make it challenging to find code snippets, solve issues, or onboard new team members who are proficient with the language.

3. Potentially Higher Development Costs: Coding directly in EasyLanguage can lead to unexpected complexity, which may increase development time and costs. Traders who have switched from EasyLanguage to TradersPost report smoother workflows and cost savings from the larger availability of pre-built scripts and Pine Script developers.

Quality of Life and Development Pace

• Rapid Development on TradersPost and TradingView: Both TradersPost and TradingView have high development rates with frequent updates. This continuous improvement allows for new features like TradingView’s bar replay mode, which supports live trades during backtesting.

• Googleability and Documentation: Pine Script, being more widely used, has extensive documentation and online resources. This allows users to quickly find solutions, reducing troubleshooting time and expediting development.

Conclusion

For traders focused on long-term growth, multi-broker compatibility, and collaboration, TradersPost offers unmatched flexibility and ease of use. However, if you are dedicated to a single broker and have experience with EasyLanguage, developing directly on TradeStation might serve your immediate needs. Ultimately, TradersPost is designed to streamline trading automation for a broad range of brokers and strategies, making it an attractive choice for traders interested in scalability, community support, and continuous feature enhancements.