Best Backtesting Software for a Newbie?

S

sneakoner

Which backtesting software has the shortest learning curve? I've been trying out Investor RT and Ninjatrader. Tradestation was not as easy to learn as I had hoped.

Ninjatrader has a pretty good interface for simple commands but if I wanted to get more in detail with my strategy I realized I would have to figure out how to program their C# language.

Investor RT is okay and I like the support and tutorials they have on their site.

Any other suggestions?
 
Quote from Putin's puppet:

Amibroker is the best one. But every software needs a learning curve! Ninjatrader is unreliable and slow crap.
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Do you need to know c# for them? Or what language specifically? Thanks.

EDIT: OP, for tradestation, was easy language hard to implement. I heard that tradestation is very unreliable with its data? Thoughts?
 
Quote from WS_MJH:

Do you need to know c# for them? Or what language specifically? Thanks.

EDIT: OP, for tradestation, was easy language hard to implement. I heard that tradestation is very unreliable with its data? Thoughts?
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Putin - thanks, I figured every language had a learning curve. At this point I think I'll stick with Investor RT for the time being.

WS_MJH - You don't "need" to know C# but it definitely helps alot so that you can go into the code and tweak it to your liking. But its not too bad, the code is already setup for you and you just need to put in a few lines here and there, depending on how complicated you want it.

I played with Tradestation for a few days and decided not to use it. I don't want to give you the wrong idea that easy language is hard to implement, but some people have found it to be not as "easy" as they thought. Don't know how reliable it is with data, never ran it in real time.
 
Quote from Joman:

Easy Language is much much easier to learn that C# !

You might want to give a try to Multicharts.
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Just so I can get an idea, how long did it take you to learn how to use Multicharts? 2 months? 6 months? 1 yr?
 
Quote from WS_MJH:

Do you need to know c# for them? Or what language specifically? Thanks.
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WS_MJH, the native language of Amibroker is AFL (Amibroker Formula Language). It's an easy language to learn. Of course you need to learn it. I'm not a programming genius but still I have coded a lot of indicators and system and scans and explorations myself. The language is as easy as Easy Language, IMO. But if you are familiar with C or C++ or C# you can use these languages for coding with Amibroker, too. The ADK (Amibroker development kit) is for free. As for C# there is this one available http://www.dotnetforab.com/

Amibroker is very fast (well, it is even considered the industry's fastest one) and most importantly it delivers very reliable results. It's real fun to work this flexible product. And the more knowledge you acquire the more fun it is because there are virtually no limits.

Just my two cents

But to each their own
 
Quote from sneakoner:

Which backtesting software has the shortest learning curve? I've been trying out Investor RT and Ninjatrader. Tradestation was not as easy to learn as I had hoped.

Ninjatrader has a pretty good interface for simple commands but if I wanted to get more in detail with my strategy I realized I would have to figure out how to program their C# language.

Investor RT is okay and I like the support and tutorials they have on their site.

Any other suggestions?
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well, to change the subject a little, what are you trying to backtest?
 
Quote from fixedgrin88:

well, to change the subject a little, what are you trying to backtest?
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a simple strategy on a basket of Nasdaq stocks

looking to buy after a strong selloff

i plan to backtest other strategies later on as well

i just want to know where to focus my time on which software to learn. right now i'm leaning towards Investor RT (although it is $100/month)
 
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