TradeStation history

In 1987, Omega Research released System Writer, the first desktop software product that enabled users to develop and back-test their own trading strategies against historical market data and deliver buy and sell alerts when the strategy’s conditions were met in the markets.

Launched in 1991, TradeStation was the first real-time program that graduated from charting tool to an intelligent trading assistant.

In a 1992 review of the product, Futures offered an example of how this worked: "You're tracking a five-minute S&P chart and want to buy whenever the three-period moving average crosses above the nine-period moving average and the Relative Strength Index is under 30.

To make inroads with institutional customers, in 1994 Omega reached a licensing agreement with Dow Jones Telerate, Inc. to make TradeStation available to institutional customers around the world, providing Omega with a steady stream of royalty payments.

The company deemed the time was right to make an initial public offering (IPO) of stock, and so in October 1997 an IPO was conducted, netting $27.4 million for the company and another $12.8 million for selling shareholders.

In January 2000 Omega acquired OnlineTrading.com to gain the electronic order execution technology and a company that catered to high-net-worth individual, professional, and institutional traders.

Licensing fees and subscription fees continued to decline in 2002 but were more than offset by a significant increase in brokerage revenues, which more than doubled from $18.6 million to $38.5 million.

The company also unveiled the latest update of its flagship platform in 2004.

Net revenues totaled $97 million in 2005 and net income topped $21 million.