Can I use TradeStation or MultiWalk with cloud file-sharing services, such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Sync?

Very simply: NO.  This is true of both TradeStation and MultiWalk.  I have tried both on various cloud services and had issues with both, especially when they are sync’ed to multiple computers.

TradeStation

For example, I wanted to sync TradeStation’s EasyLanguage code files between my desktop, laptop and cloud using sync.com, hoping to easily keep all up-to-date whether I was at my home office or travelling.  It ended up being a bad idea. TradeStation’s EasyLanguage code work area files quickly became corrupted and unusable.  I had to restore my EasyLanguage code from my backups in order to repair TradeStation.

As of TradeStation 10, all of the user data files (cached symbol data, EasyLanguage work files, etc) are stored under the Windows user Documents folder.  Most file sharing services automatically include this folder in their backup services.  This can lead to many TradeStation issues, such as crashes and loss of data.  For an example of Microsoft OneDrive issues, see this TradeStation forum message.

MultiWalk

MultiWalk project folders may also not be a good candidate for online cloud-based file servers.  MultiWalk heavily uses disk storage and any online server backup software would constantly be updating cloud storage all throughout the project run.

For example, if you use the MultiWalk configuration option “Create individual WF equity files”, MultiWalk will write 10’s of thousands of files per project which, I have found, eventually overwhelms Dropbox.  It was not designed to store millions of files.  This eventually makes Dropbox unusable and repairing it is very, very difficult.  I was not able to remove the large folders and DropBox support could not help.  It took hours to delete small groups of files across hundreds of project folders before DropBox was functional again.

If you do not use “Create individual WF equity files” then it is probably possible use MultiWalk projects with cloud sharing folders.  But if you start noticing corrupted files or other issues in TradeStation or MultiWalk, probably best to avoid storing MultiWalk folders in cloud-based folders.

So, to be on the safe side, only use local drives with both TradeStation and MultiWalk.

Therefore, be sure to:

1. Remove/do not include the TradeStation documents user folder from all file-sharing/backup cloud software.  Location: C:\Users\[your user name]\Documents\TradeStation 10.0
2. Remove/do not include any MultiWalk project folders in file-sharing/backup cloud software.  Default location: C:\MultiWalk\Projects (or whatever you designated during installation)