Deciding on a Backtesting and Trading Platform

[Gyles]

Greetings everyone, please accept my sincere apologies for the absence. Although, I have fallen behind, I have been working on the review of TradersStudio. I have discussed some questions with Mr. Murray regarding the product and have planned to have a online demo with him tomorrow or so.

Moreover, I have a few questions, which I need to submit to the vendors regarding the review of all products. I shall post the questions along with the answers as I receive them.

 

[igrimsley]

Roger and Gyles,

give Seer www.seertrading.com
a go. They have a 30-day trial period with no limitations on functionality. This product is a work-in-progress (real-time version for autotrading in the works) but what it has is rock solid. I've been using it since January and love it. Coding is in perl, which i think is much better than easylanguage.

Give it a go. Jeremy, the developer, is very good about answering questions quickly.

 

[Gyles]

Sincere thanks to the various users and their inputs regarding the various software like BackTrader module, OpenQuant, OV5's BackTrader, Seer Trading, Trading Receipes, Investor RT, Trading Blox, OpenQuant, RightEdge, NinjaTrader etc.

However, I would like to apologize if I have not been able to make a review for any of the above, as my review has been restricted to the software as mentioned in the earlier thread:

Getting Started Developing and Trading System

However, you all are free and welcome to post your views, comments reviews or feedback on any of the above software for the benefit of the other users.

 

[Gyles]

Greetings, as mentioned earlier that I shall be posting some questions regarding the software, so here are the first few questions (regarding TradersStudio), for which I really do not seem to have a satisfactory answer:

Question 1
I am intrigued on this point, I mean it is real surprising that if TradersStudio is any software to consider, then why is it priced so less compared to most of the software of this review? Is the price the actual price, or are there any more hidden costs, like registration etc.? Please comment.

Question 2
In the review have noticed that most software offered either a Demo or a free trial while TradersStudio does not offer. Why so? Please comment.

Moreover, just to inform you all that I am able to review the TradersStudio as I have purchased a license for it with no on-going fees.

 

[Roger Rines]

Hello Gyles,

Quote from Gyles:
Question 1

I am intrigued on this point, I mean it is real surprising that if TradersStudio is any software to consider, then why is it priced so less compared to most of the software of this review? Is the price the actual price, or are there any more hidden costs, like registration etc.? Please comment.

TradersStudio has no hidden fees, at least none that I’ve paid or see coming.

As for pricing, that is for the developer to answer, but let me state that when a product is breaking into a market one of the first things it needs to do is get acceptance and grow its customer base. Price is a great mechanism for motivating acceptance, and its current release seems stable so customers probably won’t be disappointed. All this adds up to the belief that you should have a lot of luck with it, if you spend the time to learn the language and the important issues in system construction.

One of its advantages for acceptance is its use of the Visual Basic language for building strategies. This is a good language to use because there are a ton of books out there on the language and with the exception of understanding how the language interact with the trading platform, you’ll find the syntax easy to implement.

At a minimum, even if you don’t find a “Golden Goose,” it should show you what doesn’t work and why you should not use an approach to risk money. Which should more than pay for the software many times over.

As for this question,…

Quote from Gyles:
Question 2

In the review have noticed that most software offered either a Demo or a free trial while TradersStudio does not offer. Why so? Please comment.

Only the developer can answer this question. However when it came time for me to buy this platform, its cost was so small that it didn’t seem helpful to deal with a demo version and risk the issues associated with a time limited trial or worse, a cripple package. Time is money so spend it wisely.

Enjoy the software, and go slowly until you understand what you are looking at with results. Trading system construction can be a tricky business, and what is good for one trader can be disaster for another because the trading system that works best for each of us is the one that fits our emotional comfort zone and expectations. For many of us this only comes from us knitting our own logic, at least for people like myself who need to understand the logic behind what is happening so that when things are not working, we aren’t one of the ones wondering what happened.

Good luck with your purchase, I know it will teach you a lot about system trading, and it should help you avoid some bad trading ideas.

As a side note, this just arrived in my email Inbox:

Happy Holiday Sale
Receive a 10% discount off any products on the TradersStudio website, from December 6, 2007 to January 2, 2008. This includes the TradersStudio software, Systems, Addins, Data, and Books.

There was more to the email that arrived, but this should get the message across to those sitting on the fence with this package.

 

[fundjunkie]

Quote from igrimsley:

Roger and Gyles,

give Seer www.seertrading.com
a go. They have a 30-day trial period with no limitations on functionality. This product is a work-in-progress (real-time version for autotrading in the works) but what it has is rock solid. I've been using it since January and love it. Coding is in perl, which i think is much better than easylanguage.

Give it a go. Jeremy, the developer, is very good about answering questions quickly.

Personally, I can't stomach renting a product (like Seer). If they won't sell it to me they can bugger off. I'll be noone's cash cow!

 

[Gyles]

With reference to the earlier post, wherein I had mentioned my doubts regarding TradersStudio. I had emailed the same to Mr. Murray and recieved the following answers.

Please note that I am quoting the answers with his permission and in exactly the same words as he wrote in the email.

Question 1

I am intrigued on this point, I mean it is real surprising that if TradersStudio is any software to consider, then why is it priced so less compared to most of the software of this review? Is the price the actual price, or are there any more hidden costs, like registration etc.? Please comment.

Murray’s Answer 1

Considering the price of TradersStudio, yes we have priced it at a lower end (the $500 end). However, it does not mean that it does not have quality, in fact, it does offers the features of most of the software mentioned at a much lower price. The reasons are:

1) Our aim is to have a product having a large user base. This is possible due to the pricing as both kinds of people a) those who wish to try trading with a small amount of money and b) those professional ones who can use TradersStudio.

Thus, considering Trading Blox for example, at $3000.00 only people with large accounts (100,000 or more) could afford to buy the software.

2) In addition, we wanted to help and offer something easy and affordable to a “beginner trader” (a person starting to trade). Thus, the complete solution need to have education, add-ins, data and more. To help them start trading.

This allowed us to offer a great price/functionality as if the product is good they will buy these extra services as they progress. Therefore, the price offers them a low entry point, but with extendibility with which they could grow into.

3) Moreover, I, Mr. Murray, had originally developed TradersStudio for my own research. I wanted to defray the cost of development which was in the seven figures when we started. Hence, I developed TradersStudio to be my research platform as well as one for some of my friends and colleges who are CTA and Hedge Fund Managers.

Therefore, our aim was to maximize the power of the platform, and not the profit from selling it.

Question 2

In the review have noticed that most software offered either a Demo or a free trial while TradersStudio does not offer. Why so? Please comment.

Murray’s Answer 2

Regarding the demo/free trial, yes we do not offer either for a very valid reason as follows:

Since, if you have a free demo, then most of the people (say thousands) might use the product as a demo. This is a great idea, however, if proper Technical support is missing, then the free demo is not worth it. Hence, they might have a poor opinion of the product.

Technical support is important here, as TradersStudio is complex and complete and the users/customers need support to see it's complete power.

Please note that the above are Mr. Murray’s viewpoints and I have quoted the same for all of yours’ (Elite Forum members) benefit.

 

[TraderSystem]

Quote from kevin107:

Gyles,

Do any of the programs you have evaluated have the ability to backtest using OHLC of constant volume bars?

Will someone clarify this point please? It looks interesting.

Gyles says that he can not do the review of the other softwares. So, can no one else do them? At least, someone can give some points or understanding over them?

 

[Gyles]

A special request to the users and developers of the software to actively participate, in the following sections, so that we can have a fair comparison of the software under review. Thanks to you all.

As seen in the above, we have addressed the questions regarding the Price and Demo for the TradersStudio. I would like to have similar views regarding the other products.

a) Should these points affect the suitability of the software like Mechanica, TradingBlox, TradeStation (the higher priced ones)? Moreover, any comments on why these products are priced the way they are?

One issue is why is TradeStation main interest brokerage? It does not seem like the software is that important any more. The other products mentioned above have made many advances in back testing which are lacking in TradeStation.

b) Moreover, what about shipping printed manuals, it is noticed that not all software offer printed manuals, why so?

Please comment.

 

[TraderSystem]

Interesting comments indeed! Although, the price, demo and manual may affect the choice, but are they really important?

What about the language and programming issues? What about the speed and security issues?