Deciding on a Backtesting and Trading Platform

For the most part I will confine my discussion to the current 2.2 version of the product. Here are a couple of items that are available in the current release:

1) Provisions for trading Global Stocks with multiple different currencies and converting back to any system wide base currency.

2) Intraday testing and trading portfolios of markets with differing time frames, as small as 1 minute bars. Available in the Pro and Builder Editions.

3) Support for all Windows versions of XP, Vista, 64-Bit Native, and Apple Computers using the Parallels software.

4) Proper separate accounting for stock splits and dividends in historical testing.

5) Automated batch scheduling of order generation and testing.

6) Send emails with orders or results from within the Blox Basic Scripting environment.
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Item number 5 addresses your question about intraday: we have customers that use automated scheduled batch jobs to run the order generation process and either email the orders to a broker or create a text file suitable for uploading into an order processing system. The orders can be exported into a custom text file of any layout or format. This is suitable for perhaps 60 minute bars or more, but is not recommended for trading 1 minute bars.
 
Thanks Tim.

Who do you recommend as an intra-day data source? I use CSI for EOD data. I don't believe they provide intra-day data?

Thank you.
 
Another important but overlooked feature of Trading Blox is the ability to create your own custom GUI.

All parameters can be entered easily on the fly, or stepped when doing large parameter optimization tests.

I just ran a test today with over one million parameter combinations stepping nine different parameters across four different systems.

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Thanks again Tim for discussing TB pro here.

I was initially attracted/still am attracted to TB pro because of the very positive reviews, the role of the famed Turtle – Curtis Faith and the quality of users as seen on the TB forum.

However, I ultimately chose TradersStudio for three reasons:

1. COST: TradersStudio is 20% of the cost of TB pr - $600 vs $3000

2. PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE: For a non-programmer like myself I found the TradersStudio language to be incredibly easy to learn , use and very flexible –similar to Excel VB which I was already familiar with.

3. A FULL MONTH to use it with a de facto money back guarantee (less a restocking fee)


I continue to consider various platforms – as the aim here is to find the most powerful and cost-effective platform, so while I see that TB Pro has these good features as you outline, it’s hard to be convinced that the difference in features justifies the high cost; indeed on the surface it seems as if both platforms – TradersStudio and TB pro are similarly matched in features but not in price ($600 vs $3000).

Also the support for TradersStudio has been excellent. So in sum, it's hard to be convinced that the price differential is valid/justified.

Your thoughts on this.

Thanks again
 
Thank you for sharing. It is good that you have found a product that meets your needs. Traders have many choices when it comes to trading software, and it is important to cast a wide net and look closely at all the options.
 
I've been using and/or trialing all of the various trading softwares way back since 1990, so I'd thought I'd give my input to what seems to be a relatively negative-biased "review" on AmiBroker:

1. It is not that difficult to plot indicators or do other things than "just back-testing" in AmiBroker Formula Language (AFL). How hard is to type: Plot(MA(C,250),"250 MA", colorwhite, styleline) ???

Nor is that difficult to convert EasyLanguage to AFL once you understand both syntaxes. AFL at core is essentially the same syntax as MetaStock and is, in fact, 99% code compatible, but still supports functions, DLL's, etc. as EasyLanguage does.

2. The custom backtester is for extremely advanced applications, it is optional to the default portfolio backtesting, but it is there if you need it. Why slight what is not for the n00b? If you don't want to learn to program extremely complex money management, position sizing and portfolio analytics, then use Trader's Studio or Mechanica which is their strongest strengths.

3. It is absurd to claim the charts are "not as good as TradeStation or MetaStock". MetaStock chart's graphics are pure !@#$ -- always have been and likely always will be. Compare like-to-like: a black background with the same plotted colors in AmiChart vs TradeStation and perceive any difference in sharpness and clarity despite font differences -- they are all but virtually equivalent. And it goes without saying that AmiBroker redraws and executes waaay faster than TradeStation.

7. What exactly does TradeStation offer in the way of charting that AmiBroker does not that you "you need to own more than just AmiBroker to do your analysis."? What is the basis for this claim?

8. The historical data download by AmiQuote from Yahoo is provided by CSI, the exact same data vender recommended that you pay for by TradersStudio, except it is F-R-E-E.

An "actual real trader" desires lack of bugs, stability, speed, a flexible programming environment and autoexecution support, which AmiBroker does provide. And a professional "actual real trader" desires real-time support. The only comparable competitor at the moment is OpenQuant. The rest are all missing something or the other or cost several hundred dollars a month in greedy leasing fees, which is a rather pathetic state of affairs in 2008.

11. What exactly is "serious trading" beyond what AmiBroker provides? If you really want to make a claim like that, then apply it to MetaStock. That software has been and is still such a crippled and buggy joke, an "actual real trader" truly wouldn't use it for any "serious trading". That is why TradeStation was king for so long, despite the Cruz brothers continual and ongoing negligence.

Conclusion: AmiBroker only "restricts the progress" if you have no programming skill ability at all, so the low price ($199 for EOD not $249) is NOT a negative. Its major strenth is in being an all-around product, not over-specialized.

MachineGhost
 
Quote from MachineGhost:


3. It is absurd to claim the charts are "not as good as TradeStation or MetaStock". MetaStock chart's graphics are pure !@#$ -- always have been and likely always will be. Compare like-to-like: a black background with the same plotted colors in AmiChart vs TradeStation and perceive any difference in sharpness and clarity despite font differences -- they are all but virtually equivalent. And it goes without saying that AmiBroker redraws and executes waaay faster than TradeStation.
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That's bias!

Amibroker's other features may be quite good, however, it's really true that it's charts are disgusting and it sucks. Amibroker is good for it's AFL, nothing more...
 
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