OptionVue Closing

R

Rickbw123

Member
Gold Member
"
May 5, 2023

I regret to inform you that Capital Allocation has no choice but to close down. Recent events, including the rise in interest rates, looming recession and banking crisis have caused the company to experience a large decline in customers (most customers have indicated to us, they are shutting down divisions or closing their trading accounts due to a lack of funds). This shift in market conditions occurred very quickly, and at this point in time we have completely exhausted all our funds, along with any additional sources of outside funding. Despite multiple efforts we were unable to secure any new funding sources or find a buyer for the company, therefore completely removing our ability to continue operating.

OptionVue should be working until the end of next week. We realize this is short notice, however there are some dependencies in the software that will not allow it to function once certain services are terminated.

This decision was reached only after all possible solutions to save the company were exhausted. I would like to thank you for being a loyal customer and want you to know that this decision was not taken lightly as I have dedicated all my resources both emotionally and financially into this company. I truly wish things could have ended on a higher note.

Thank you,

Brian Vogelman
CEO
Capital Allocation
 
Wow! Hoping that most of the users via Aeromir have long since moved on and are not crippled by this event! (I could never get my OV to work, so they only got one year of my money years ago!)
 
wow....that is huge news. Brian had big plans and had built a really nice infrastructure but was too slow to get the updated software out the door. It's really a shame.
 
I have been using OptionVue 20+ years, this unexpected news puts me in a quandary. I would be interested to know what other users are going to do for analytic software.
 
WilliamB said:
I have been using OptionVue 20+ years, this unexpected news puts me in a quandary. I would be interested to know what other users are going to do for analytic software.
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There are really only a couple of other alternatives that I know of. Over the last few years, many option traders have shifted over to OptionNet Explorer (ONE) which has been around for a while, and some are trying out a newer program called Option Traders Assistant (OTA). Each has some drawbacks and limitations.

There is also ThinkOrSwim (ToS) for option anaytics, but it's not terribly useful for any backtesting.

Finally, if someone is so inclined there is the trusty and adaptable Excel approach, or a Python implementation. Both of which are very customizable but require some technical knowledge or support to connect data feeds and send orders. I have been moving this way over time.

I'd love to hear about alternatives I might have missed from any others on this thread.
 
DaveN said:
There are really only a couple of other alternatives that I know of. Over the last few years, many option traders have shifted over to OptionNet Explorer (ONE) which has been around for a while, and some are trying out a newer program called Option Traders Assistant (OTA). Each has some drawbacks and limitations.

There is also ThinkOrSwim (ToS) for option anaytics, but it's not terribly useful for any backtesting.

Finally, if someone is so inclined there is the trusty and adaptable Excel approach, or a Python implementation. Both of which are very customizable but require some technical knowledge or support to connect data feeds and send orders. I have been moving this way over time.

I'd love to hear about alternatives I might have missed from any others on this thread.
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I've also attempted to use excel versus OptionVue & OptionNetExplorer. The issue is being able to get historical option data to do any backtesting. There is a data provider (integrates into excel) called "MarketXLS" However the historical data is limited. Here is a search from Youtube for excel:


and an example for MarketXLS:

 
tom said:
wow....that is huge news. Brian had big plans and had built a really nice infrastructure but was too slow to get the updated software out the door. It's really a shame.
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Slightly surprising that nobody would want to buy this out and complete (at least) the long awaited and promised update.
 
Wonder what you, gents, mostly appreciate in OV.

There is a possibility to build platform like OV (or better) or to spin off smaller apps that do single tasks that are in most demand.

I see that backtesting was mentioned but not sure if it refers to strictly backtesting of various options structures that pop to ones mind or simply ability to go over closed trades and analyze trading decisions that were executed - for learning purposes.
In any case the problem, when building new app, is source of market data. Writing BT code isn't hard and, imo, can be done better than in OV or ONE ( I thinks such applications already exist - although I don't know any first hand I suppse they are better...). But prices for historical data for pubic use are quite high, so, unless someone has access to cheap sources, price for data will drive price of app which will cut back users base which... etc.

I think that good alternative might be writing BT engine for use with data purchased individually by users. This is doable... if there is demand for that.

But beside BT, are there any other features you are looking for? Maybe the question was answered somewhere else on the forum, if so word it again or post a link. Note that I didn't deal with OV first hand so be descriptive. Like DaveN (and others) I try to write trading codes for myself. Maybe, if we get together we can create smth simple and useful and, maybe again, improve it with time.

This is just a thought, not a promise, ofc.
 
Rickbw123 said:
Recent events, including the rise in interest rates, looming recession and banking crisis have caused the company to experience a large decline in customers (most customers have indicated to us, they are shutting down divisions or closing their trading accounts due to a lack of funds).
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That is a shocker although I never used OV I have seen a lot of others using it and seems very expensive so I was wondering how they spent all that money
Is most of the money spent on the data feed ?
So just a raise in interest rate is making them go bankrupt ? Just wondering out loud Was this like a run on a bank with a lot of user cancelling OV because it's too expensive ?
With OV out could ONE be not far behind although it's less expensive so maybe the interest rate has to go much higher
 
OptionVue had a lot of expensive overhead that I suspect ONE does not have. I doubt ONE will have same fate.

I heard from Bruno Voisin yesterday. He's re-energized his software product and plans to release something "later this year." I'll keep you updated as I hear more.
 
Wow!!! I'm just finding out about this. I used OV for years...

For those considering backtesting, why are none of you mentioning the automated backtesters now on the market?
 
Brian was a friendly enough guy, but I was concerned for the ever increasing time to "complete upgrade". OV had many limitations and quite a few bugs. I used it for years, but was (post Len) frustrated by the lack of support for IB traders. As a very active options trader, I need an IB-friendly platform that can consolidate trades cumulatively in order to see, in real time, whether my adjustments are maintaining positive expectancy. Using TOS or tracking with Excel is incredibly time-consuming and duplicative, but maybe I'm doing it wrong... Would love to hear from anyone with similar frustrations.
 
RJM said:
<cut>.... As a very active options trader, I need an IB-friendly platform that can consolidate trades cumulatively in order to see, in real time, whether my adjustments are maintaining positive expectancy. Using TOS or tracking with Excel is incredibly time-consuming and duplicative, but maybe I'm doing it wrong... Would love to hear from anyone with similar frustrations.
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@RJM, I'm right there with you. I like that I can fire my orders directly to IBKR from ONE - it's so much easier than the multiple clicks and pasting in my TDA accounts using ONE. While other software is integrated with IBKR like this, none that I've seen have the capabilities of ONE.

The best solution that I've found is to leverage Excel and the IBKR API. I can send orders from Excel directly for execution in my IBKR platform, letting Excel add a group/tag so that I can review and manage the adjusted results for efficiency. Excel maintains the accumulated profits or losses in each adjusted trade. I'm still working on the visualizations piece.

This "homegrown" solution is the best I've found outside of ONE so far. I like the Excel solution for the customization that I can add. And of course, this is only for real-time trade/campaign management. There's nothing for backtesting in this solution.
 
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