Few industry leaders can claim three decades navigating every major shift in retail trading technology, but TradeStation CEO John Bartleman can. From shipping software on diskettes at Omega Research in the late 1990s – when "automation" meant emailing human brokers – to leading TradeStation's push of AI-integrated execution today, he's witnessed the industry’s ongoing transformation.
In our conversation, Bartleman shares how being on the leading edge of change is part of TradeStation’s DNA and why now is the time to be in the market as a self-directed trader. Our conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. The full interview can be found here.
You're President and CEO of TradeStation, but you didn't start there. Walk us through your journey to the executive suite.
I joined TradeStation back when it was called Omega Research. We were a software company back then, publicly traded on the Nasdaq, and at that time we were shifting from shipping diskettes of TradeStation software to CDs. That's how far back we were – all pre-internet.
The company became a broker-dealer a year after I joined, so we had to learn how to build a brokerage. That kind of seat within a company gives you extreme visibility and knowledge about both how an entire company runs and your customers. As that evolved, I became head of product management, then chief growth officer, then president of broker-dealer. In 2016, I took over the group-level president role. So it's been quite a journey.
TradeStation was ahead of its time in a lot of ways, empowering individuals even before electronic trading took off. What made that possible and how has that contributed to your ongoing success?
The founders' story is incredible – two brothers picked a phone call from a futures broker who was calling their father. They opened a futures brokerage account, made a lot of money and then lost it. Their college friend was a software developer and that was the beginning of System Writer, which became Easy Language – TradeStation's foundational DNA. You could explain your ideas to the system and backtest them before risking capital. They were one of the first retail broker-dealers with diskette software for charting stocks and futures, and it was revolutionary at the time.
I think our technology background allows us to pivot and innovate. We were one of the first to get into spot crypto and I think we’re one of the leaders now in AI. We’re the first major broker to launch an MCP server – it’s a protocol that allows a large language model to talk to our API. You can chat with ChatGPT, connect your TradeStation account, and ask questions like "What's my TradeStation balance? What are my positions?" It'll even place a trade for you.
We're witnessing the largest generational wealth transfer in history – around $50 trillion over the next 10-20 years – and many believe this next generation is more open to self-directed investments. How is TradeStation positioning itself for this shift?
We definitely see that wave happening. Coming out of COVID-19, we saw an explosion of this younger generation (who are starting to gain some of this wealth) coming into the markets, and they're much more self-directed. I think they're more technology focused, whether they're getting into robo-advising as opposed to a real advisor, or they're getting into a platform like TradeStation and starting to learn how to trade themselves. It’s absolutely a huge wave, and I think that's going to continue.
Products like ours, as well as products that CME Group has been launching to be able to go after this retail market, are really going to help expand that group and get them more sophisticated faster than they would have in the past. I see the advent of AI as another education angle that's going to help someone adopt these products even faster and with more comfort.
The retail space is evolving at an unprecedented pace. How do CME Group’s “right-sized” products – like Micro E-Mini Equity Index futures launch in 2019 or the upcoming Single Stock futures launch* – help TradeStation customers?
The innovations that CME Group has developed for retail traders have been transformative. The younger generation coming out of COVID-19 really adopted these products – I think they were the right product fit at the right time. They were a huge success for us at TradeStation and we are absolutely looking forward to Single Stock futures, which I think will be a home run for our customers. Moving more into the space to cater to what retail traders need is the right move. It's a win-win for everybody.
What advice would you give to someone trying to get into the retail trading space, and what is the biggest mistake new traders make?
This is the best time ever to be trading in the markets. Between new crypto and futures offerings, unprecedented platform choices, access to research and possibilities with AI, now is the time to be in the market as a self-directed trader.
I think position sizing is consistently the biggest failure for new traders – they take on positions that are too large and too concentrated too early, and it tends to wipe them out. Having a good risk management system is critical, so that’s core to what we educate customers on. With futures, there’s more complexity and risk you could potentially be taking, so understanding the dynamics of how those products work is the key. I think that’s where AI is going to be transformative in helping educate traders.
*Pending regulatory review
OpenMarkets is an online magazine and blog focused on global markets and economic trends. It combines feature articles, news briefs and videos with contributions from leaders in business, finance and economics in an interactive forum designed to foster conversation around the issues and ideas shaping our industry.
All examples are hypothetical interpretations of situations and are used for explanation purposes only. The views expressed in OpenMarkets articles reflect solely those of their respective authors and not necessarily those of CME Group or its affiliated institutions. OpenMarkets and the information herein should not be considered investment advice or the results of actual market experience. Neither futures trading nor swaps trading are suitable for all investors, and each involves the risk of loss. Swaps trading should only be undertaken by investors who are Eligible Contract Participants (ECPs) within the meaning of Section 1a(18) of the Commodity Exchange Act. Futures and swaps each are leveraged investments and, because only a percentage of a contract’s value is required to trade, it is possible to lose more than the amount of money deposited for either a futures or swaps position. Therefore, traders should only use funds that they can afford to lose without affecting their lifestyles and only a portion of those funds should be devoted to any one trade because traders cannot expect to profit on every trade. BrokerTec Americas LLC (“BAL”) is a registered broker-dealer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (www.FINRA.org), and is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (www.SIPC.org). BAL does not provide services to private or retail customers.. In the United Kingdom, BrokerTec Europe Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. CME Amsterdam B.V. is regulated in the Netherlands by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) (www.AFM.nl). CME Investment Firm B.V. is also incorporated in the Netherlands and regulated by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), as well as the Central Bank of the Netherlands (DNB).
