I’m using version 1.14.99 now, released in early May, which runs well enough on my Vista machine, but somewhat slow on my reasonably powerful Windows 7 based computer.
Steetsmart Edge is available for download for qualified users on the Schwab website. Before I get to my complaints there are some nice changes and additions:
- You can see if an update is available by clicking the help command and looking at the “update available…” line, if not grayed out there is an update available. Alternately you can always go to the standard Schwab site to download an updated version if you qualify.
- Accessing / trading options is nicely done. Option chains come up collapsed down to expiration dates, which you can then open up. Copying options to a watch list is conveniently accomplished with copy and paste commands. Current positions are shown in the option chains—a pleasant surprise. It is in this area that I see most of my performance issues.
- I really like the availability of midprice quote, halfway between the ask / bid price—useful for options and lower volume securities.
- The scrolling / time windowing capabilities located at the bottom of charts are excellent
- There is a copy chart functionality and some global color theme controls–hopefully these improvements will address most of my configuration difficulties.
- SSE’s ability to export data, including option Greeks from a watch list to a spreadsheet is useful
- Good coverage of two sided option strategies, including ratio spreads.
Some complaints:
- Email not supported for alerts—really?!
- SSE wants everything in upper case. If you type in symbols in lower case it capitalizes them. OK so far. However if you try to enter in capital letters, matching what is on your displays it very unhelpfully lower cases those letters so that the symbol is not recognized. This is so wrong. Just capitalize everything, OK?
- Option chains show an adjustable number of choices from 1 to 10 or all. It seems like most of the time I need slightly more than 10 and have to live with huge lists of options. Arghhh. Why not offer xelections up to 20 or 30 Fixed in version 1.14.99, now you can go to 20.
- Option strategies offered do not include butterflies
- No way to get quotes on the indicative value of ETFs. These quotes (e.g., ^TVIX-IV on Yahoo Finance for TVIX) are an important tool in getting good price execution on ETFs and avoiding securities far away from their tracking index.
- The computed Greeks on VIX options are wrong. The VIX is used as the underlying instead of the actual VIX Futures. Knowingly putting out incorrect information for this long seem inexcusable to me.
- More chart data. Why is daily frequency limited to 3 years? A detailed look at a market 5 years ago is reduced to weekly level bars. Same for one minute (5 day limit ) and 5 minute (3 month limit) charts.
- When using the bar style on charts a line is green if current price is higher than open, even if the price is down from the previous day’s close. At least need an option to key off previous close instead of today’s open.
- Getting default setups the way I want them is painful. The differences between restoring from files and templates is not at all clear. Charts always start with candlestick, regardless of how you save them.
- The charts have a lot of nice features, but they have a “frequency centric” approach. You must pick the frequency (e.g., 1 minute or daily) and then the chart then picks the duration (e.g., 5 days or 254 days). This is bass ackwards—I want to pick the duration and then have the package provide the maximum frequency it will deign to provide—the higher the better.
- Slow initial startup time. Even with a brand new computer the package takes a long time to startup. Switching layouts, or loading the layout from the central Schwab server extracts additional time. They have added a “quick launch” option on the settings, but it doesn’t seem to make much difference.
- The colored “link” symbol in the upper right of many tools locks all tools to the same ticker if the link symbol is the same (see on right of picture below). Generally if I open multiple tools I”m comparing things so having them all sync’d to the same symbol is counterproductive. So far I haven’t found a good use for this link.
Some tips:
- Typically I’m using multiple computers in the course of a day so I use the save as / load from Schwab server capability located under “file” on the main window. This keeps my layout consistent between computers. This should be a default choice for the user—local or server based layout at startup.
- If you find yourself frequently flipping between different tools (e.g., watch lists and charts), consider putting them on different tabs. This avoids a lot of tool finding and you can flip contexts with a single mouse click. These tabs can be put on different displays if you have them.
- If you are running an older version I recommend you upgrade. You don’t have to remove your current version of Street Smart Edge, you can download the new version from the Schwab site and install the newer version. I haven’t lost any settings Your current settings may be lost, so be sure to save all your layouts, chart settings, watch lists, etc., before you upgrade. Your current version shows up in the upper right hand corner of the application.
Wish List
- Charts for options that have expired
- Option charts using mid price (halfway between bid and ask) at some reasonable frequency, like 15 minutes, instead of relying on trade data which is infrequent for most options that are offered
Performance notes
- I continue to see poor performance on option chains on my Windows 7 based machine. There may be some correlation between lack of performance and number of charts/overlays that are running—even if not visible. Try getting rid of unneeded charts and overlays on those charts, even if the overlays are currently not enabled.
Summary of Defects (in my opinion)
- Greeks on $VIX options are incorrect
- Charts setups don’t remember that mode has been set to bar format. They always go back to candlesticks on new charts
- Uncapitalizing letters that are typed in as capital
- Updating to 1.14.99 does not seem to work from within a running version of SSE. I had to download it independently.
