Hi dusktrader.
An interesting concept for sure. If I’m not mistaken was this not the Linux model or the model used for the VLC media player (and there’s probably a LONG list of open-source software)??? While the ‘propietary lock-in model’ may (or may not i.e. I’ve not quite thought about this at the time writing) be ‘old school’ I don’t really think there’s an alternative. Not if you’re trying to make money that is. ‘In a perfect world’ your concept would work well but as we know: we don’t live in such a world. In my experience (and in my writing software over the years and, of course, more to the point, indicator packages): if people can get something for nothing they will take it no matter how much money it may be instrumental in making them. And in the case of open-source EA’s, as but one example, nobody will remember nore care that IBFX ‘started the ball rolling’.
Case in point: as you may or may not know I now run my own forums (MAINLY because nobody wanted to hear my equities and commodities vs FOREX trading argument anymore over here but also, given that only I can sensor the forums, and that they do not rely on advertising income for their existence, I’m of course at liberty to discuss and promote Deltastock ad infinitum and, ‘without beating about the bush’, of course the overall goal is to solicit clients for Deltastock especially seeing as Deltastock will soon have a branch office and training centre here in South Africa for which I’m going to be responsible). Yes: my forums are also designed to detail how I trade and what I trade and what I’ve proven to FINALLY be profitable ME (mostly Wilder’s stuff again of course).
On my forums I’ve provided download links to .PDF versions of books (material) that I myself have bought (I didn’t scan them myself nor did I upload them to the Internet i.e. all I’ve done is provide a virus-free and anti-spam type environment for traders to download the very same material that can be found anywhere on the Internet nowadays). Obviously: I’ve made it quite clear that some of the material is still subject to copyright and that I feel strongly that whoever downloads the material actually does go out and buy the material so that they can own a legitimate copy of the material not for any other reason than that it’s just ‘the right thing to do’ and in all cases the trading systems detailed are worth FAR more in profits than the actual cost of the material. In addition to this: I’ve spent the better part of two years coding and re-coding and checking and re-checking indicators that I’ve written for the systems detailed in the material.
Sorry but I had to give you some background before explaining that I’m not entirely sure that there IS any other way of doing things other than using the ‘proprietary lock-in model’ (in other words I’m telling you all of this NOT to simply promote my own forums because as we all know this is a FOREX site and although I’m attempting to address FOREX trading on my forums they are, of course, ‘geared’ for the trading of equities and commodities).
And here’s the problem that I’m ALREADY facing with only a FEW members:
Given that (obviously) I can see the stats of the downloads from the forums and the actual site where the downloads are located: I can tell you right now that I’d be surprised if but 1% of the members of my forums actually buy the material or open an account with Deltastock. Yes, and at the moment, with the indicator package (all my indicators) I’ve provided a thirty day demo version of them because I can tell you that if I just made them open-source I’ll bet my bottom dollar that the same thing is going to happen as happens with a LOT of other software and indicator packages i.e. Deltastock will end up with thousands of demo accounts, traders will use those indicators (assuming of course they’re happy with the demo results that they achieve with them), but trade with another broker (for a variety of reaons not least of which is that most FOREX traders would rather trade with MetaTrader than anything else and of course Delta Trading, the platform, is proprietary software and therefore the indicator packge will only work on Delta Trading). So the end result of using an open-source model is not going to generate anywhere near the income that it potentially could and should for both Deltastock and myself. And it ‘costs’ to run demo accounts too i.e. again and no matter ‘which way you slice it’ it’s bandwidth, server time, support having to be provided, when at the end of the day the trader quite possibly already has a live trading account with another broker and THAT broker is the one that’s making the money.
I mean on the topic of this very thread: I suggested a link (above) to some or the other tools for MetaTrader which I’ve since downloaded myself to take a look at. It’s ‘good stuff’ (for MetaTrader) and a lot of work has been done in creating those tools and indicators I’m sure. Their model is that the tools and indicators will be functional for a 30-day trial period after which the trader must either pay a subscription or open an account via them (they are obviously an IB for various brokers but I’ve not bothered to look at which brokers they’re an IB for). I’ll ‘stake my life’ on the fact that if they released those tools and indicators as open-source there would be VERY few people that would actually bother to pay them for their work EVEN IF those tools and indicators generated one million-fold the cost of the tools and indicators. I know this all sounds very cynical but I speak from experience here. And don’t get me wrong here: I’m ALSO guilty of this i.e. I’m no ‘angel’ myself. I have software installed on my PCs that I’ve not paid for (mainly related to video editing and the like). My justification for not buying the software at the time was simply that it was very expensive software and my video editing exploits were nothing more than a hobby for a few years i.e. it was not income generating (and I don’t even think that I’ve used that software since I started trading i.e. I lost interest in my video editing hobby and in most other things since I discovered this business). But no matter which way I justify it to myself: it’s still not ‘the right thing to have done’.
In addition: I don’t know if you’re aware of this but IBFX USED to distribute their indicators and EA’s WITH the source. To the best of my knowledge they’ve changed that now and they wouldn’t have done that unless they had a good reason for it (and my personal opinion is that the reason for this is exactly what I’ve noted above i.e. they’re well and professionally written indicators and EA’s and I’ll just bet that MOST of the time those indicators, once downloaded by a client i.e. you at very least had to have a demo account with them to access the indicators and EA’s, and if that client then sent them to a friend, and so on and so forth, possibly thousands of those very same indicators and EA’s are being used TODAY as I type this message with brokers OTHER than IBFX and, especially if those indicators are profitable, nobody is going to ‘give thanks’ to IBFX for them).
Sorry: I know this is one of my LONG messages again but it’s a situation that I’m currently having my own issues with so maybe my typing this is helping me to get MY OWN thoughts together (as well as, hopefully, being informational to others and, possiby, hopefully, will lead to further debate on the subject).
MARKETING on the other hand: that’s a different issue altogether though. Microsoft will never admit to this but I’ve had this discussion with many people (remember that I used to be in the IT Business for many years) and the general consensus (at least smong the prople that I’ve had this discussion with) is that Microsoft, being big enough, ALLOWED for Windows to be pirated ‘at liberty’ for MANY years (right back from the Windows 3.1 days). Only at some point, when most of the WORLD had become dependant on Windows, did they start cracking down on piracy in a BIG way (it possibly started from the Windows 2000 days and onwards which, relatively speaking, was not that long ago). Personally: I think it was brilliant (although as I say there is no way of proving that this was an ACTUAL management decision or marketing ploy) i.e. by that time the world had spent so much time and money on buying software written for Windows and had built up so much historical data (think accounting systems, fleet management systems, big databases) that they just probably could not afford the time nor the money nor the effort of totally changing their software for other software that would run on Linux (as but one example). At one stage: I was going to rewrite (revamp) my fleet management software suite and programs and GIVE it away BUT with a one, maybe even two, year trial period. The logic??? No client or business in their right mind would not pay for the software and change to another package after accumulating one or two years worth of data and statistics and start all over again with another new fleet management system. OK: I never got the project off of the ground because I started trading instead. In hindsight though: I’d probably be sitting right now collecting thousands on a monthly basis from businesses that had downloaded and had been using the ‘demo’ for one or two years now!!! But: ‘too late for tears’ now of course.
Anyway: it’s not my intention to be argumentative here. As I say: this post has probably been more beneficial to me by facilitating my putting my thoughts down on how to deal with my own current problem on the same issue.
Regards,
Dale.
Edit:
My apologies too ClarkFX i.e. I realise that my post above is WAY off-topic but I was just replying to dusktrader’s post I guess.