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TradeStation Acquires the “Grail”
Walk-Forward
and Strategy Builder Technology
Acquisition Brings TradeStation’s Industry-Leading
Strategy Trading Platform to a New Level,
Further
Raising the Bar against Competitors and Weaker
Imitations
Plantation FL, June 17, 2010 –
TradeStation today announced its acquisition of the
Grail System “walk-forward” and “strategy
builder” software technology and business from its
inventor, Wouter Oosthuizen, and his company,
Technovest (Pty) Limited. The products acquired
include Grail Walk-Forward Optimizer,
Grail Genetic Optimizer and Grail Computer
Assisted Strategy Builder, together with all
other products, enhancements and new features
currently in development. These products will be
seamlessly integrated with TradeStation’s
award-winning, industry-leading trading strategy
design, back-testing and automation platform. Both
walk-forward testing and a broad strategy builder
offering have been a company priority for TradeStation
for some time, as the company has long realized that
the potential value of its strategy design,
back-testing and automation platform could rise
dramatically with the addition of these tools to
create and optimize back-tested trading strategies.
“The Grail Walk-Forward Optimizer should
take TradeStation’s strategy back-testing
functionality to a new threshold,” said John
Bartleman, TradeStation Securities’ Vice President of
Product Management. “Once fully integrated and
rolled-out as part of our TradeStation Version 9.0, a
major-enhancement release that should be out before
year-end, traders will have the ability to test the
robustness of their strategies at a whole new level.
The Grail’s unique model of ‘Walk Forward’
testing allows the trader to see how the strategy he
has tested against a historical time period will
perform against various unseen market data metrics and
time segments within that back-tested time period. The
Grail Walk Forward Optimizer performs this
multi-dimensional analysis of the strategy and then
concludes with a simple ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ based on the
simulated performance results. In other words, if the
strategy is going to have a better chance of success
in real trading, it must first prove its robustness by
passing these rigorous metrics analyses performed by
the Grail.
“The Grail’s Strategy
Builder,” Bartleman added, “will significantly
help traders build new strategies from scratch without
the need for custom EasyLanguageŽ programming. Using
genetic algorithms, the trader will have the ability
to scan through millions of strategy permutations in a
relatively short period, identify those strategies he
believes show potential, and then submit them to the
Grail Walk-Forward Optimizer to test their
robustness.”
“The Grail products all
were developed principally with TradeStation
users in mind,” said Mr. Oosthuizen. “TradeStation
will be releasing some extremely powerful
functionality in its upcoming Version 9.0 release
which, in my opinion, not only will dramatically
increase the Grail’s speed and value, but
will take TradeStation to a rarefied position
where the barrier of entry for a competitor seems
insurmountable. Teaming up with TradeStation, and
having the value of its impressive product development
and user support resources and expertise, should take
the Grail technology to a whole new level as
well.”
Mr. Oosthuizen will be joining the
company full-time at its Florida headquarters on
October 1, under a three-year employment agreement, to
help lead the efforts to enhance the technology and
seamlessly integrate it with the TradeStation
platform. The parties have already started working
together to achieve these goals. The purchase was made
by TradeStation Technologies, Inc., the trading
software development subsidiary of TradeStation Group,
Inc. (NASDAQ GS: TRAD) which develops and owns
TradeStation’s proprietary software, technology and
intellectual property.
About TradeStation Group, Inc.
TradeStation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: TRAD),
through its principal operating subsidiary,
TradeStation Securities, Inc., offers the
TradeStation platform to the active trader and
certain institutional trader markets. TradeStation
is an electronic trading platform that offers
state-of-the-art electronic order execution and
enables clients to design, test, optimize, monitor and
automate their own custom Equities, Options, Futures
and Forex trading strategies.
TradeStation
Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, SIPC, DTCC, OCC
& NFA) is a licensed securities broker-dealer and a
registered futures commission merchant, and also a
member of the Boston Options Exchange, Chicago Board
Options Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange,
International Securities Exchange and NASDAQ OMX. Its
TradeStation Prime Services division, based
in New York, seeks to provide prime brokerage services
to small and mid-sized hedge funds and other firms.
The company’s technology subsidiary, TradeStation
Technologies, Inc., develops and offers strategy
trading software tools and subscription services. Its
London-based subsidiary, TradeStation Europe Limited,
an FSA-authorized brokerage firm, introduces UK and
other European accounts to TradeStation Securities.
Forward-Looking
Statements – Issues, Uncertainties and Risk Factors
This press release
contains statements that are forward-looking and are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When
used in this press release, the words “potential,”
“should,” “could,” “upcoming,” “will,” “going to have
a better chance of success,” and similar expressions,
if and to the extent used, are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. All forward-looking
statements are based largely on current expectations
and beliefs concerning future events that are subject
to substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results
may differ materially from the results herein
suggested. Factors that may cause or contribute to the
potential differences include, but are not limited to,
(i) TradeStation’s success in integrating the Grail
technology with the TradeStation platform in a timely
manner, and in a manner that increases the quality,
value and usability of the Grail technology with
TradeStation, and produces an enhanced set of features
which customers who back-test strategies will find
highly valuable and worth paying for, (ii) the ability
of TradeStation to release TradeStation Version 9.0
and its updates as currently planned and
TradeStation’s customer base and market finding the
improvements in Version 9.0 as valuable as
TradeStation believes they will, and (iii) to what
extent the walk-forward technology will, in real-time
application and trading, have validated trading
strategies that are more likely to succeed.
Contact
John Bartleman
(954)652-7259
jbartleman@TradeStation.com
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