TOS alternative or similar for non US residents

[limeandsalt]

Hi There,

I realise this is mainly a forum for TOS. I would love to have access to TOS unfortunately they are not available in my country (only as a trial)
Mainly, I am interested in access to the TOS indicators and charts, for trading I could use any platform available to me.
Is there any solution any one could suggest?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dinodotcom]

Set up an LLC in the US, then get a US mailing address and use a VPN to trade. There you go!

 

[hoojsn]

@limeandsalt You don't have to be in the US to access to TOS, I am in South East Asia and access to TOS too. Look for their nearest representative in your Country or Regional office to open up an account.

 

[codydog]

@hoojsn

@limeandsalt You don't have to be in the US to access to TOS, I am in South East Asia and access to TOS too. Look for their nearest representative in your Country or Regional office to open up an account.

Can you tell me what type of isp you're on and how latency is when you trade?
Thanks!

 

[hoojsn]

@hoojsn


Can you tell me what type of isp you're on and how latency is when you trade?
Thanks!

As long as you can access into the World Wide Web, you can trade. My system is over spec and you shouldn't take as a comparison.
Important is to know what kind of trader you want to be Intraday, Short etc.. What Strategies you have and strict execution The forum here talks more about Indicator and if you think you are lacking knowledge in Trading suggest you take some serious course before you even put in real money.

 

[dinodotcom]

@hoojsn TD limits access depending on which country your located.

 

[VKB]

In Canada, TD Investing will stop providing thinkorSwim platform in early 2024. It has been best platform for me in past 20 years. Does anyone have suggestion for another platform which allows custom script writing and will either import TOS custom scripts or has script language similar to thinkscript? How about Trading View? it will big help. Thanks

 

[Trader Raider]

In Canada, TD Investing will stop providing thinkorSwim platform in early 2024. It has been best platform for me in past 20 years. Does anyone have suggestion for another platform which allows custom script writing and will either import TOS custom scripts or has script language similar to thinkscript? How about Trading View? it will big help. Thanks

How frustrating for you! I'm not aware of any other platforms that allow importation of TOS scripts. This thread may be helpful for you. Good luck!

 

[Max911]

Does anyone have suggestion for another platform which allows custom script writing and will either import TOS custom scripts or has script language similar to thinkscript?

https://www.tradestation.com/ or https://ninjatrader.com/

 

[stellar0645]

How frustrating for you! I'm not aware of any other platforms that allow importation of TOS scripts. This thread may be helpful for you. Good luck!

Frustrating barely describes it!

As far as I know, TD Direct Investing, part of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. owned (invented?) thinkorswim through TD Ameritrade. Then they sold it to Charlie Schwab and now lease it back. A few years ago TD/Charles Schwab suddenly announced they were accepting no more new Canadian customers but later relented. I guess the writing was on the wall.

Now we get a very breezy letter from TD DI saying that our thinkorswim accounts will be migrating to the new TD Active Trader. Further down in the letter it reveals that TD AT will replace thinkorswim. Yesterday my friend confirmed with them by telephone that all the thinkscript capability will be lost. So the account balance migrates but nothing else.

As you all know, many people have invested countless hours and dollars in customizing their package of indicators. Many businesses rest upon selling custom TOS indicators.

The TD AT demo looks pretty pale compared to what we are used to.

This will not affect American customers but it is certainly a devastating blow for those of us in Canada.

I see some tips above regarding accessing thinkorswim through a US connection. Any more information about that would be greatly appreciated. Just accessing the custom charting capabilities would be enormously helpful, having an actual trading account would be a bonus.

Thanks everyone…

 

[VKB]

Frustrating barely describes it!

As far as I know, TD Direct Investing, part of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. owned (invented?) thinkorswim through TD Ameritrade. Then they sold it to Charlie Schwab and now lease it back. A few years ago TD/Charles Schwab suddenly announced they were accepting no more new Canadian customers but later relented. I guess the writing was on the wall.

Now we get a very breezy letter from TD DI saying that our thinkorswim accounts will be migrating to the new TD Active Trader. Further down in the letter it reveals that TD AT will replace thinkorswim. Yesterday my friend confirmed with them by telephone that all the thinkscript capability will be lost. So the account balance migrates but nothing else.

As you all know, many people have invested countless hours and dollars in customizing their package of indicators. Many businesses rest upon selling custom TOS indicators.

The TD AT demo looks pretty pale compared to what we are used to.

This will not affect American customers but it is certainly a devastating blow for those of us in Canada.

I see some tips above regarding accessing thinkorswim through a US connection. Any more information about that would be greatly appreciated. Just accessing the custom charting capabilities would be enormously helpful, having an actual trading account would be a bonus.

Thanks everyone…

Any Tip to login through US connection will be great. while Charles Schwab allows many non-US rsidents to open/use TOS, it specifically excludes Canadians!!

 

[VKB]

Any Tip to login through US connection will be great. while Charles Schwab allows many non-US residents to open/use TOS, it specifically excludes Canadians!!

If I can not get access to ToS, in Canada I will have to go for TradingView . Unfortunately it uses Pine Script not thinkscript

 

[stellar0645]

Any Tip to login through US connection will be great. while Charles Schwab allows many non-US rsidents to open/use TOS, it specifically excludes Canadians!!

Yes, Charles Schwab International looked hopeful, but not for Canadians. Is this because we technically can access TOS through TD Direct Investing (for now)?
I couldn't find another trading platform that could import TOS script although several offer scripting.
This is a real kick in the what-nots to those who have invested significant time and $s in TOS scripting. TD DI needs to re-assess their notion of customer service.

 

[stellar0645]

If I can not get access to ToS, in Canada I will have to go for TradingView . Unfortunately it uses Pine Script not thinkscript

Does Pine Script resemble TOS at all?

 

[MerryDay]

Does Pine Script resemble TOS at all?

All math calculations and all logic is similar in scripting languages.
But the syntax is different.

The forum conversion expert @samer800 has hundreds of examples of pinescript converted to thinkscript.
Take a look:
https://usethinkscript.com/search/1...&c[title_only]=1&c[users]=samer800&o=date&g=1

As a thinkscript forum, you will find conversions FROM pinescript to thinkscript.
But as this forum is for the support of ThinkScripters only, it does not provide assistance in porting ThinkScript to Pinescript.

 

[Glefdar]

Does Pine Script resemble TOS at all?

As far as I can determine, it looks like Tradingview does not offer any options data feeds, so indicators or scripts that use options data (such as volumes or open interest at certain strikes) would not be possible to port to pinescript. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

I am noticing this morning that the options data feed for SPX does not appear to be working during today's premarket hours. (I.e., the script works for past days including their premarket hours, but then stops plotting volume at strikes since after the end of yesterday's RTH session. Hasn't happened before to my recollection and I also confirmed that the volume and OI is returning N/A on those bars with debug labels, so it seems the problem is not with the code but rather is on ThinkOrSwim's end.)

Between such occasional reliability issues and the lack of multi-threaded processing making some scripts run slowly, I am considering whether I should look into an alternative to TOS. I don't want to learn C# however (which I understand is the basis for Ninjatrader's language). Furthermore, Tradestation's EasyLanguage manual states (p.11): "These values [optionable stock and index symbol options data values for IV, call/put volume, and call/put open interest] are only available on daily charts for symbols with options."

So unless I'm missing other possibilities not dependent on these functions in EasyLanguage, it appears that studies like the ones we have for TOS in this thread would be impossible to make in either Pinescript or EasyLanguage.

Can anyone confirm whether that is correct, and that, therefore, if not using ThinkOrSwim then the only charting platform that can create intraday indicators with options data would be Ninjatrader (which would require coding in what is basically C#)?

EDIT: Also checked the Sierra Chart documentation and it seems that open interest data won't be readable on intraday charts in that platform (at least not using the native function, maybe there is a workaround), and it uses C++ as the coding language.

 

[VKB]

I agree, converting think scripts to Pine Script in Tradingview will be difficult. It looks to me number of script lines in Think script for an indicator are generally much more in Pine Script.

 

[Joshua]

@lmk99 those are just simple reserved words. Any serious options work in Easy is going to go through the Option Chain Provider class, and then a Price Series Provider class for each option.

 

[Glefdar]

@lmk99 those are just simple reserved words. Any serious options work in Easy is going to go through the Option Chain Provider class, and then a Price Series Provider class for each option.

I understand your reply to mean that EasyLanguage could in fact replicate the options volume and OI heatmap types of thinkscript studies we have on the forum here. Thank you for clarifying this! The main drawback then of Tradestation seems to be a paucity of style options for plots: "line, histogram, point, cross, or bar point" only, it seems (p.68 of https://uploads.tradestation.com/uploads/EasyLanguage-Essentials.pdf if following the written pagination on the upper left margin).

 

[Trader Raider]

The main drawback then of Tradestation seems to be a paucity of style options for plots

It's true that TradeStation doesn't render graphics as snazzy as TOS. The only thing that I haven't been able to do with TradeStation is clouds (but there is a workaround).

Also, you can code indicators for Radar Screens, not just for charts. Radar displays changes in data as fast as your eye blinks. It updates MUCH faster than a TOS scan result plotted in the sidebar as a watchlist.

Finally, if there is a Trading View indicator that you like, but you just can't figure out how to code it in easyLanguage ... no problem. You can trade on TV with your TS account, if you want. Hopefully that's not restricted too!


Best wishes as you weigh your options.