Well, go get it :-)

Remember it's "beta" (the flakiness with exiting at market with Gain Capital is still there), and remember to copy or backup your TS database before upgrading, following the steps in this video tutorial.

Normally I'd write out everything that changed, but actually nearly everything changed, so....

Now, the purpose of a "beta" release is so any remaining bugs can be found more quickly.  So this is only going to work if you actually tell me about bugs you come across.  Everyone assumes that someone else has already told me, meaning nobody actually does.  So please, if you find a bug, please please please send me a quick email (with a screenshot if you think it will help me to track down where the bug happened).  Please.

All other admin stuff like the changelog, known bugs, etc, will be up later.

Anyway, feedback, criticism, suggestions, (donations :-) welcome.

Thanks to some freeware called Wink, there is now the first of probably many video tutorials on how to use TS.  Except that this first one has nothing to do with how to use TS :-)  It guides you through making a backup, then restoring, your TS database.

The reason I made this one first is precisely because I made sooooo many changes to TS that there's a high chance I broke something.  And that's why I'm calling v2.0 "beta" to start off with.  And that's why you should make a copy of your TS database, and test v2.0 on that copy.  When you're happy that TS is working just fine for your purposes, then you upgrade your original database (or just keeping using the copy.  But in either case, making the copy is important).

The backup file is a plain text file, which you can copy somewhere safe in case the computer running TS dies, is stolen, catches on fire, etc.

This procedure is useful for:

• Taking a simple backup for safe-keeping.
• Copying your live database so you can test a new version of TS.
• Copying a TS database from your local computer to a different computer (e.g. a dedicated server you just started renting).
• Moving your TS database to a new version of PostgreSQL, when you upgrade that.  (Necessary when moving between major revision numbers, e.g. 8.1 to 8.2, but not when upgrading from 8.1.3 to 8.1.4).

So take a look.  At the moment I've just uploaded the direct output from Wink, which is a very plain webpage with an embedded flash video.  Click your browser's "back" button to return to the TS website proper.

Backup, Restore, Copy, Move Your TS Database

Suggestions welcomed.

v2.0 is almost there.  Almost!  I found some flakiness in exiting at market with Gain Capital, so I have to delve a little deeper into that.  But if it takes too long I'll just list it as a known bug, because it's a very small subset of what you can do with TS.

Unfortunately... the weekend came.  So I can't do any more testing until Monday.

I'll still release this as a beta, but it will be a very solid beta indeed.

The help file has been updated, a little, and the new version is available from the download page.

While the help file still mostly reflects TS as it was in v1.0.2, here's what I've udpated:

• Opening a Clickatell account (they changed their website)
• Opening a Gain Capital account (they actually answer emails now)
• Installing PostgreSQL (they changed their website)
• The Installation Instructions and Getting Started sections have been simplified (a little)
• Added the page for the new Import/Export window.  So you can have a sneak peak!  Joy!

Don't say I never give you anything... :-)

The last version of TS was released about 9 months ago. Boy is that way too long.  So this post will outline where I'm at now, why it took so long, and what I'll do differently in the future.


Where I'm At Now

Testing auto-trading.

Two opposing forces play on my mind while testing.  The first is that I want to get v2.0 out there as soon as possible.  The second is that I want it to have as few bugs as possible.  (Oh, and the third is that I want to have a life :-)

Full coverage is actually impossible with software testing.  You can't click every button in every possible sequence.  It would take years.  Hopefully everyone has had enough experience by now with using computers, that they understand no software is without error.  It's the regularity that you encounter errors, and their severity, which sets "stable" software apart from "buggy", or unusable software.

The option is there, though, to release software that you haven't fully tested and mark it as a so-called "beta release".  Here's one definition of what beta software is, from The Computer Triangle:

A version of a software product released to the public for use and testing with no guarantee from the originators that the program is free of bugs.

And here's another definition, from WordNet:

Software that has not yet been released but has received an alpha test and still has more bugs than a regular release.

I prefer the second definition, as it more accurately reflects the fact that all software has bugs, whether it's beta or not.

So that's what I'm going to do.  v2.0 will actually be a beta release, with v2.0.1 or v2.0.2 being the proper release.

If you've used beta releases of software before, you'll probably think of them as almost unusable.  But the beta release of TS will be much better than that.  I just want everyone to be kind of extra cautious before letting it run with their real money.

I'd like to say it will be available in a week or two, but my predictions have never come true :-)


Why It Took So Long

Previously I mentioned that we were under contract to make some changes to TS, but unfortunately that contract fell through.  So we decided just to finish what we'd started, which will become v2.0.  Because of that contract, I'd decided not to extend my programming contract at my day job.  So I could focus on my software.  But when the contract died, I had to go back to work.  That delayed the release.  My friend Rhett, who was helping me out essentially full-time, stopped helping me out at all.  Something about his baby daughter, pregnant wife, and moving to a new house which somehow took priority :-)  Anyway, that delayed the release.  Then I'd been working so hard on this thing for so long that I just needed a break.  That delayed the release.  And finally, that company was supposed to do the testing, but now I have to do it all.  And I don't think there's a programmer out there who enjoys testing.  Plus we'd changed so many things that I have to re-test just about all parts of the program.  And there's a surprising amount of functionality in this little puppy now.  So yeah, that delayed the release as well.

Which probably means nothing for the customer, which is you guys.  All you see is that v2.0 isn't there yet.  Which is why things need to change.


What I'll Do Differently From Now

I'm going to stop saying "I", because TS is really a team now.  Me and Rhett.  Sure, Rhett's doing the family thing now, but he'll be back :-)

Anyway, we need to do more frequent, smaller releases.  Like monthly.

Rhett has introduced me to the style of development called "Scrum".  You can read about it on Wikipedia. But in short, we:

1. prioritise the To Do list
2. decide what we're going to get done in about 1 month
3. do it
4. release it
5. repeat.

So once I have v2.0 out, that's the way we'll be doing things.

A few months ago I switched the help file from PDF format to CHM. These CHM files are the standard "help" format for Microsoft windows, having replaced the HLP format.

Anyway, a couple of people reported having problems opening the CHM file. Or they could open it, and see the index on the left, but the pages would not display.

This seems to be because of Microsoft's new security measures. You know - the ones that ask you to confirm before it does absolutely anything.

So on the Download page, there is now a new section which will help you out if you're in that situation.

In short, I've finished the coding and am testing it now. I've tested that everything adds/edits/deletes, and that doing so through the new wizards produces the same results as the corresponding windows. That kind of thing is looking solid.

Next is ensuring that backtesting still spits out the correct results. And trying out the new backtesting functionality which lets you click a button and it puts all the indicators you used, and entry and exit points on the chart.

After that is testing auto-trading, which is fairly important :-)

Sorry for the delay. I was working on this really solidly for a while there and needed a bit of a break. But it's again become a habit to sit down and work on this. I was in the habit of sitting down and letting the Internet take me on learning (procrastinating?) adventures. E.g. how to make a sponge cake --> how to make various other cakes --> cooking in general --> edible balcony garden --> Autopot --> permaculture. That chain took quite a few days to finish. There were many others. So many websites. So many Youtube videos :-)

Hi. It's been a while. In fact I was actually trying to make this website look dead. I'll explain why...

TS is being held back by the brokers it currently connects with. Not the number (two), but by the brokers themselves. Gain Capital and Oanda.

I allow auto trading only in Gain Capital demo accounts, because there was no way I could test trading in live accounts without risking real money. Testing is normally what demo accounts are for, but talk in their forums made it out that there are differences between the demo and live accounts. Not good.

One of the chiefs at Gain Capital has told me this is untrue, and asked that I reconsider. And I might in the future.

Oanda has the obvious stumbling block of needing to pay $600 per month for their API. Which is fine if you already have the trading system and the volume. But not good for starting out. Or if you want to take a holiday or something.

So I was looking at Interactive Brokers (IB), EFX Group, and/or MB Trading. Their APIs are free, and apparently good. (BTW, if you didn't know, recently EFX Group and MB Trading became one and the same).

As a side note, in the not-too-distant future I'd like TS to work with shares as well.

As it happens, Medved Quotetracker allows connections to IB, MB, and a bunch of share-trading places. Yay. All I have to do is hook into Quotetracker and a lot of problems are solved at once.

And I was all ready to do that. But then...

I've been approached many times by people who want to go into partnerships. Generally people who want to market my software. Nothing ever got past a couple of emails back and forth.

Until... a bigwig at a forex brokerage stumbled across my site. This time things got serious. A lot of effort was put into the wording of a contract. I signed the contract. I was given a contract-signing fee. Instead of doing the Quotetracker stuff, I was spending all my free time putting in the features that this forex brokerage requested. (Did I say all of my free time? I meant ALL of my free time! :-). And then... it all fell apart.

The deal was that the company would pay me, and then provide the software for free to all of their customers. But exclusively, meaning I could no longer make it available for other forex companies (which at that time and still now is Gain Capital and Oanda). Existing customers could continue to use the old version, but were not going to be given upgrades. So they'd still be able to use what they'd paid for, but that would be that. At least that's how I remember the deal.

So... my integrity told me that I should not try to get new customers. Because it would not be good, in my way of thinking at least, to espouse a product, get people to sign up (which for some entails buying the $600 Oanda API), and then a month later say "oh yeah, you're on your own". BTW, back then I was under strict instruction not to make any of this public, so the option of just telling people what was going on was not available.

And that is why I have not posted for a long time, and tried to make this site look dead, and removed the 12 month plans from the purchase page. Yeah, it was a crazy situation to be in.

But you still came and signed up! Didn't you! DIDN'T YOU! :-) Every couple of weeks or so, someone would write a forum entry which would bring a bunch of new members and new sign-ups.

Anyway, now that TS is no longer under contract, please keep writing forum entries and signing up :-)


Where to from here?

Well, the coding for v2.0.0 is almost finished. Then comes testing. And then comes release. And v2.0.0 contains most of the things that the forex brokerage requested. There's a whole bucket load of stuff, but the major points are:

• Wizards. A lot of people had trouble getting set up initially, and it's hoped these Wizards will now make everything much easier.
• Backtesting results no longer print out to Excel files. In fact there is no reliance on Excel nor CSV files at all. The results are instead saved to the database, and you get a pretty equity curve chart.
• After backtesting, you can click a button and TS will fill in a chart with all the indicators that you used in the trading system, and show you where all the entries and exits were.
• You can have more than one chart window open.
• You can import/export trading systems and alerts. For backup and sharing. And if you want to sell your system but don't want others to know how it works, you can encrypt it if you want. Encrypted systems will still backtest/auto-trade on other peoples' machines, but they won't be able to see or change any of the rules. Not even if they peek in the database.
• Auto-trading is now kicked off by new prices coming in, not from a timer.
• Removed the Help sections from individual windows, and the separate PDF document, and now use a standard Windows help file.
• It looks a cooler than before :-)

Pretty much all I have left to code is repeat everything for the Indicator-based Alerts that I've already done for Trading Systems.

Then once v2.0.0 is out, v2.0.1 is going to be a bug-fix and documentation release (because with all the changes now the documentation is a lot different in some places to how the program works). And then I go back to Medved Quotetracker.

So yeah, I'm still around, TS is still being worked on (feverishly), and that's why stuff happened like it did.

The problem with TS at the moment is that it works with just two forex brokers, and neither are perfect.

It works with Gain Capital, but only Gain Capital demo accounts. Gain Capital allows API use for free, you see, so it's a good starting point. You can experiment for as long as you like until you find a system or systems which prove themselves to be profitable.

But for the reasons listed on the Gain Capital Quirks page, I have not made TS available for use in their live accounts. (One of their VPs got in contact with me a while ago and asked that I reconsider. No guarantees, but I might take another look sometime next year).

So once you've found your profitable trading systems, the only choice TS gives you at the moment is to use Oanda. And Oanda's API fee is really big. Really, very big. $600 to get your hands on it, and then $600 per month after that (discounted for usage though).

It's fairly prohibitive for people just starting out.

So TS connects to one free broker good for starting out, and one expensive broker which is fine if you have some money behind you. What TS really needs, is to connect to a broker or brokers who offer free API usage, and I would consider trustworthy and stable enough to let TS trade in their live accounts.

And I've said for a while now I am going to use Medved Quotetracker to connect to EFX Group, MB Trading, and Interactive Brokers. It's been in the Installation, Upgrading, Removal Guide for quite a few months.

What I'd like to tell you now is that I will have finished the connection to at least one of these brokers in very early 2008.

So, if you can hang back for a couple of months, perhaps test your system with Gain Capital until then, there should be no need to buy the Oanda API. Unless you really want to. That's your choice of course. For everyone else though, get excited about early next year.

Unfortunately I rarely hear from customers once they are up and running. So I have no idea if they are using TS in live accounts, and if so if they are profitable or not. So I took the opportunity to ask a customer the other day how he was going. Here's the reply:

It is all going well. I am trading live and it's running on the server with no intervention at all. Spent some time in Turkey and didn't have to check anything.

I do the maintenance manually once a month or so and give it all a restart.

The combined systems are profitable. The live results mirror the backtest so far - so I am happy.

It's possible folks.