Hi,

Just come across and find that WLD 5.1 has released. But for the price of around $800 software for backtest ONLY is very expensive.

Compare with other similar tools, the price is more reasonable and the they have the important function (ie Automatic Trading) included. Since the Automatic Trading function is removed, now WLD 5.1 is ONLY for backtesting and strategy testing.

Other than the expensive price, there's ANNUAL MAINTENANCE CHARGE. Now, it becomes a very expensive backtesting ONLY software !!

Also, as USD has been rally a lot recently, the WLD 5.1 pricing is comparatively higher than many other software.

Is there any plan to adjust the price downwards and waive the annual maintenance fee ?

There are no such plans. As important features are added to Version 5, Version 4 is also part of the package for new customers. Current Version 4 customers pay only $150 for a Version 5 license, and those who bought or upgraded to Version 4 this year get a free V5 license.

It's surprising that you mention the recent USD rally though (nothing short of miraculous). Anyway, check out an 8-year forex chart; major currencies vs. USD. For most everyone in the world, Version 5 is less expensive than Version 3 was in 2003.

Well there will be always products which are cheaper and others that are more expensive, however I believe that WL has proofed to be there for many years and gets updated to new market standards. Have you seen the Extension Manager:

I am confident that WL5 will have more features delivered by the community and the development team in a short period of time that will outshine all other competitors.

Volker
BTW, if we could I would have liked to charge in Euros.... ;)

In the moment the extension manager is unusable, because its API description is kept close by Fidelity.
Creating Broker Adapters is made impossible anyway.
Really not many reasons to pay the price!

QUOTE:
In the moment the extension manager is unusable,

The Extension Manager is fully usable but has nothing to do with APIs. It's a user-friendly tool to stay in tune with updates.

QUOTE:
Creating Broker Adapters is made impossible anyway.
Really not many reasons to pay the price!

Opening the Broker API is certainly what we all would like as much as you, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Where is the link to extension manager from within WL?

Nevermind, saw that it is not available under WL pro yet.

Don't forget - $650 used to buy WLD for two machines for lifetime.
Same thing you get for $1600 entrance fee and $300 rent per year.

Who is to blame?
It's all Supply vs Demand.
Market decides the price :-)

I have a feeling that WLD5 will turn out to be like Vista!!!

There aren't many people that need Wealth-Lab on 2 machines, but if you do, $1600 buys you 2 licenses for Version 5 and 2 for Version 4 too. This is a limited offer, but in effect you can use Version 5 for the first year free. (In fact, the V5 license is free to anyone who already bought or upgraded to Version 4 in 2008.)

Furthermore, although the price is in USD, Wealth-Lab is not for sale in the U.S. When Wealth-Lab Developer was priced at $650 in 2003, that equated to about €700. Fast forward today, $800 equates to about €570.

Consequently, in our largest market (Europe), you can get WL Developer for €130 LESS than you could 4 years ago - and that's not even accounting for inflation. It's hard to make a case that Wealth-Lab is a worse deal than it was 4 years ago for anyone paying with currencies that have rallied against the USD for the last 6 years - and that's just about all of them except if you live in Zimbabwe.

I think, you will not sell many WL Developers 5 as long as it doesn't contain a broker api.
Although WLD 5 brings some improvements, automated trading is the most important feature and older versions have got it already. So, there is no need to change to the newer version.

Thanks for your opinion!

It's true that although Version 5 is still adding features that Version 4 already has, it's noteworthy to point out that Version 5 has many features that Version 4 does not. Click here for some of them.

And in the Wiki Knowledge Base, Eugene prepared a nice side-by-side comparison here.

The new features are nice, but the most important feature (broker api) is missing in WLD5.
Without it, WLD5 is only a backtesting tool, whereas older versions allowed for automated trading.

And for a backtesting tool the price is too high.

Yes, we're aware of your opinion. You've been posting for over 3 years here. Did you buy Version 4?

Still a great program though!

Does maintenance fee include future upgrades? Do the customers need to pay again for upgrading from 5.1 to 6.0, or is it part of the maintenance fee?

What bothers me is that if Fidelity dies, then your software also dies. If it was free or it was for some token amount like $5 then it would have been OK, but throwing away $800 just like that wouldn't attract many people. Your software will also die when fidelity will decide to disable all the software. I guess Fidelity wants to have full control on the software distribution so that they can disable the software whenever they want.

I don't think many people will pay so much money for renting. Good luck Fidelity!!!

QUOTE:
The new features are nice, but the most important feature (broker api) is missing in WLD5.

While I'm on your side, Chris, how many broker adapters for WLD4 are there "in the wild" to call it the most important feature? ;)

QUOTE:
Does maintenance fee include future upgrades? Do the customers need to pay again for upgrading from 5.1 to 6.0, or is it part of the maintenance fee?

John, the new pricing structure doesn't look like there's a separate payment for upgrades - contrary to what was before it.