Deciding on a Backtesting and Trading Platform

Quote from TraderSystem:

Nice review, Gyles, but there is a question relating to the language used by TradersStudio. Have found out that it uses a “Easylanguage” language; which is not exactly VB.

What is it? Is this a new language? Why TradersStudio not use any other languages like C, C++, VB, .NET etc? Also, you had mentioned that you know VB and you could learn the language easily. Please explain.
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TradersStudio latest version uses “TradersStudio Basic” which is a cross between “Visual Basic 6.0” and “Easy Language” languages. It is the language of TradersStudio. However, they provide add-in support for VB 6.0, even VB.NET and C#.

Considering the fact, that there are so many languages existing, why did they need to create a new one? I had asked a similar question to Mr. Murray, who gave the following reasons as follows:

a) Firstly, only TradersStudio and TradeStation process “process bars” one at a time and indicators are added to the charts (not written into a system).

b) Secondly, only TradersStudio and TradeStation have the concept of a “bar array”, which holds past bars values.

c) Thirdly, the “Easy Language” has many trading functions, which can be easily incorporated, which are missing in Visual Basic 6.0. Thus, you will need to have or write the code for all the indicators etc. in Visual Basic 6.0.

d) Lastly, some software use C# or VB.NET as the programming platform, however, this requires you to be a .NET programmer. Hence, a language like Basic, a popular programming language, taught in most high schools, has the plus point of having all the features for trading integrated in its language structure and not just an external library. Thus, it combines the best of both worlds (easy to learn with the trading functions included). Hence, if you know Visual basic 6.0, learning Easy language and TradersStudio basic is easy.

Moreover, another point to note is that TradersStudio has an in-built “source level debugger”, which is available for free with the software.
 
First Part of the Set of “Review of TradersStudio”

TradersStudio Concepts Part 2

1) TradersStudio has the capability of handling data from various sources, by which we can assign groups and sectors to data added to the program. As an example, we can add the stocks of S&P 500 and assign the same an industry group for each stock.

Hence, you can use industry groups to create portfolios and sessions, which systems and trading plans can access. This is a powerful feature as you can do portfolio-testing, money management within a portfolio and sector analysis.

2) Another feature to note is the stock analysis including dividend support. TradersStudio has many special features for equity traders. You can test your system using split-adjusted data just like the other platforms or use the in-built stock support, which allow you to combine data to get an accurate back test.

It provides special functions for developing trading plans for stocks including features for money management as well as screening and concepts like Core Equity etc.

Moreover, as noticed that due to the portfolio level optimization you can develop a system and optimize it on all the stocks (for example the S&P500). Moreover, it comes with a NASDAQ stock trading system.

3) Optimization at the money management level is possible wherein one can optimize the results across multiple systems using the same account. One can do the optimization of the systems a) on the portfolio and view the results on a single market or portfolio level (system level) and b) at the "Trade Plan" money management level.

A trade plan allows you to trade multiple systems wherein each of them can trade on a single market or a portfolio using the same account. You get a complete set of reports, like a session, along with other measures that apply to money management.

4) TradersStudio can do multi-market back testing as well as multiple systems back testing, which may or may not trade multiple markets. One can combine these systems with money management.

5) Multi-data handling is also possible. Data from various sources like CSI data including any vendor that can export CSV or other text format data and the classic metastock format.

6) The Forex feature is something worthwhile. Although, many systems can trade Forex by treating it as a futures contract, but TradersStudio has included the “automatic currency rate”, wherein one can trade Forex in any currency besides dollars. Moreover, the real Forex support includes the interest rate spread to adjust daily equity.

7) The walk forward analyzer is an interesting feature wherein you can optimize using various built in criteria was well as any user defined one you want to perform your walk forward analysis.

Walk-forward testing is a specific application of a technique known as cross-validation. It means that you can take part of your data to optimize a system, and a part of the data to validate.

In other words, it is the optimization of a segment of data to get the most suitable/stable parameters of the system and perform the system with these parameters in another segment of data such that these two segments of data do not overlap.

8) One of the most powerful features of TradersStudio is the global macro language which let's you automate anything which can be done from a menu and dialog boxes as well as access any statistical information generated.

Using the global macros, you could put in your reports to Ms-Excel directly using TradersStudio Ms-Excel link and get exactly what you wanted.

In the next upcoming post, we shall cover the concepts of charting as well as some other features in TradersStudio.


To be continued…
 
I was discussing TradersStudio with a friend, he said that TradersStudio looks good and many users seem satisfied. But, he made a mention that the TradersStudio community looks small.

I see Gyles that you are reviewing various platforms including TradersStudio. What advice can you give me? Remember switching to a new platform is not just spending the money on the platform; it is the time learning it and counting on it for trading.

I have checked out posts in the ET forums, though I do see a lot of positive feedback, how do we know that there will be support for TradersStudio in five years from now? Also, does anyone have any comments about technical support? Do they have resources to support the product?
 
Hey

All I can say is that I use Traders studio daily and it works great. The customer support has never let me down. Whenever I have a problem programming I talk directly to the developer or Steve through their message center. I believe that this program will be around for a long time because of their visions for the platform.
 
Quote from TraderSystem:

I was discussing TradersStudio with a friend, he said that TradersStudio looks good and many users seem satisfied. But, he made a mention that the TradersStudio community looks small.
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I would say that the Tradersstudio user base is not insignificant. I say this because I use other products besides Tradersstudio and encounter users on other forums. The rate at which I encounter these people is what gives me that impression.

What probably gives that impression is the relatively low activity on the Tradersstudio forum. That's an issue for tradersstudio to deal with as i suspect that many users, like me, deal with Tradersstudio direct - sometimes that's the only way - and so bypass the forum. Also, many Tradersstudio users are relatively sophisticated (much more so than me) and self sufficient...same result.

I agree with you that the Tradersstudio forum needs to be developed as a more active two way interface with the community. I don't think you can neceessarily infer much more than that though. I will say that on the odd occasion I've posted on the TS forum the responses have been generally prompt and helpful.

Quote from TraderSystem:
I have checked out posts in the ET forums, though I do see a lot of positive feedback, how do we know that there will be support for TradersStudio in five years from now? Also, does anyone have any comments about technical support? Do they have resources to support the product?
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Your question is a valid one, for any product out there in the market place. Generally, a product will stand or fall on it's current merits and future feature development versus the competition. It's my viw that Tradestation (a defacto standard product) is not a viable backtest platform looking forward. The platform(s) that will fill the void will be the most solid, and open architectured, in that role (core backtesting, the backbone of system development, forget some of the bells and whistles products out there).

Tradersstudio is definitely one of those "candidate" products. The fact that the only product I'm aware of, in this market segment, that gets debated against it for any length of time is Trading Blox speaks volumes for it's quality as Trading Blox is a rock solid product (but pricey). I made the choice to get onboard the Tradersstudio ship because:

- It's relatively cheap
- Does the important things well
- Has a flexible (enough) language
- Has an ambitious roadmap
- It probably won't stay cheap forever

Once I decided I rated the product it was a no-brainer purchase. It'll save me shelling out $$$$ in the future when the price goes up. I don't know that'll happen but I expect it will.

So implicitly I expect that the product will be around for some time. I also expect that support will continue to stay responsive and personal. It's the direct contact that I have that keeps me off the forums;) Support really know how to leverage the language to implement your ideas. And that's where the real strength of TS lies. You can testing trading methodologies that the majority of platforms can't support.

When i start talking about this product I can go on for some time. I apologise for that. But I really believe that quality products are few and far between. So when I encounter one I'd rather let people who cross my path know about it rather than falling into any of the bear traps out there...

All the best,
Dave
 
First Part of the Set of “Review of TradersStudio”

TradersStudio Concepts Part 3

Now, we shall continue with the concepts of TradersStudio. In this section, I shall discuss the charting and reporting concepts of TradersStudio.

When we discuss charting in TradersStudio, we need to discuss the three levels of charting.

First, you can chart each symbol in a session. You can also synchronize the Trade-by-Trade report of each market and view them on the chart by just clicking on the Trade-by-Trade report.

Next, TradersStudio supports all of the major higher end features of charting applications like TradeStation; including “Custom indicators”, things like Show me, paintbars and expert commentary in TradeStation. It also has a full collection of drawing tools, text etc. You can plot child series on charts as well as the main data series. TradersStudio also has over 100 built in indicators. Custom indicators in TradersStudio run on the chart. You can see them run and they are a little slow. If we are comparing the charts to TradeStation then TradersStudio falls short. If TradeStation is a 10 then TradersStudio is a 7.5 to 8.0.

On a positive note, at least they have addressed trying to deal with charts at this level. Many other software, we have addressed to, their charts do not even reach a 3.00 compared to TradeStation. Some of them cost much more than TradersStudio.

Based on some e-mails exchanged with people and the above research it seems that TradersStudio's charge has improved over time, for example the new “Quick Chart” Feature allows you to chart any series of market even those that are in different asset classes. This feature has made TradersStudio charts a lot more like TradeStation, in that you can chart market and add indicators and drawing tools on a workspace of unrelated markets.

Lastly, TradersStudio deals with analysis type charts. Some examples are Equity Curves, Adverse Excursion, Distribution of Drawdown and many more. These types of features are only available in the higher priced 3000.00+ packages besides TradersStudio.

They have a variety of reports, which cover many topics like Intra-day reports, Walk forward analysis report, Trade-by-Trade Plan report, Split and Dividend report. Moreover, they have at present “Color Reports” that depict the indicators in color along with text, making it easier to read and analyze. TradersStudio reports are very complete and on par with the higher end packages.

Another issue with TradersStudio is the Translator. I had discussed this point with Mr. Murray, who then conveyed the following to me. It is their desire to see that the translator work to the best of its capabilities and to the users satisfaction. They shall fix bugs they come across and as long as they can get code to duplicate the problem. You all may have noticed several other posts relating to this thread and the important part here is it makes all the Easy Language code available, which the other products except of course TradeStation can not.

We shall cover in the next section some of TradersStudio's key features in more detail. Although, we will not be able to cover the product completely, as I could see a 2-3 day course would only scratch the surface of what TradersStudio can do. However, it is not to say that TradersStudio is tough or hard to use.

Please note that if you know how to use a spreadsheet (Ms-Excel) and follow the step by step tutorial and manuals given at the TradersStudio site, you should be up and running within a hour.

Moreover, I would like to have Mr. Murray post some reports from TradersStudio so we can discuss them in this thread.
 
Quote from fundjunkie:


What probably gives that impression is the relatively low activity on the Tradersstudio forum. That's an issue for tradersstudio to deal with as i suspect that many users, like me, deal with Tradersstudio direct - sometimes that's the only way - and so bypass the forum. Also, many Tradersstudio users are relatively sophisticated (much more so than me) and self sufficient...same result.
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What do you mean by this: "That's an issue for tradersstudio to deal with as i suspect that many users, like me, deal with Tradersstudio direct ", please explain?

So, you and and bradypreston say that support is good, is that why forums is not much used? Is product that easy to learn, that you do not require much help?
 
Quote from TraderSystem:

What do you mean by this: "That's an issue for tradersstudio to deal with as i suspect that many users, like me, deal with Tradersstudio direct ", please explain?

So, you and and bradypreston say that support is good, is that why forums is not much used? Is product that easy to learn, that you do not require much help?
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No, I don't thnk so. Well, maybe partly. Right now the forum seems to be an extension of support. It should really be more than that which is why it is an issue for tradersstudio. A forum should be a constructive two way interface with the community.

Regarding ease of learning, I'd say yes the product is easy to learn in so far as conceptually it is quite simple with a fairly intuitive interface. However, a product of any power can't be "learned" quickly or easily. There is a trade off which I think you understand. BTW, I wouldn't class myself as an expert in leveraging what Tradersstudio can offer, for example. What i do appreciate is the headroom to utilize that power as my needs and coding skills grow.

You have to look at a product like Tradersstudio for what it is, a development platform. As such, you can't have your hand held every step of the way. To do so would undermine what it, and others like it, offer. By that I mean that, yes, Tradersstudio support can tell you how to use and, to a degree, program the application. How you best exploit it is an exercise in creativity and discipline that only you can address.

So, Tradersstudio is not utopia - it doesn't exist. But it is a solid and valuable tool. Noone could credibly knock you for investing in it. The vast majority of open minded and knowledge people I come across respect Tradersstudio, in it's marketplace. The low body count of hecklers with serious criicism of the product should tell you something. It does me.

That said, weighing product quality against support can be tricky. However, be aware that there are lots of crap products out there masking that with apparent head over heels support - unless you ask awkward questions, that is;-)
 
Thanks a lot for all your valuable inputs.

Another question, please:

Trading Blox includes the Turtle System for $ 3000.00 price. It is not included in TradersStudio. So, at price $ 599.00 it is not apples and apples.

Does TradersStudio have a Turtle system available and how much does it add to the price?
 
Quote from TraderSystem:

Thanks a lot for all your valuable inputs.

Another question, please:

Trading Blox includes the Turtle System for $ 3000.00 price. It is not included in TradersStudio. So, at price $ 599.00 it is not apples and apples.

Does TradersStudio have a Turtle system available and how much does it add to the price?
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Tradersstudio does have a Turtle System available. It is called "Super Turtle" but I don't know much about it. If you search the forum for it you'll find some info I think. Or go the their website and take a look.

As I understand it, this system is a significant improvement over the original Turtle System, though predominantly the same.
 
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