Deciding on a Backtesting and Trading Platform

Could anybody that trades fx give me their view on what they consider the best platform for fx trading. I have tested Smartquant, Rightedge and MultiCharts. I find MultiCharts to be the best one out of these three. Unfortunately none of them don´t offer the ability to account for interest rates.

The ideal platform for me would be one that has:
+Charting, backtesting, optimizing abilities etc.
+Ability to account for interest rate differentials between currency pairs.
+Look into bar ability, i.e. when considering daily bars in backtesting I would like to be able to consider e.g. 5 min. bars for the most optimal order execution during a particular day.

Any comments or wisdom about these platforms or others would be greatly appreciated.
 
Quote from Tim Arnold:

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.
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Yes, Tim one must truly cast a wide net.

Please understand I am not trying to champion one product vs the other. My aim is to highlight the strengths that I've seen in one platform (or correct false impressions) while simultaneously encouraging the platform vendors as ET Sponsors to share deeper insights on their product.

The reason for this is the more I review these products, it appears to me that there just MAY NOT be a perfect platform and for a serious trader - one may actually need t use at least 2 different platforms.

So it's not a case of TBlox vs TStudio Or TStudio vs TradeStation, but trying to determine a relative assessment of each and then choosing the subset of possibly 2-3 platforms that can suit your needs.

In that vein I encourage you and other ET Sponsor vendors to please continue to share here what you believe are the strengths and competitive differences are of TradersBlox or other products.

Thanks again
 
Quote from agrqqq:

Could anybody that trades fx give me their view on what they consider the best platform for fx trading. I have tested Smartquant, Rightedge and MultiCharts. I find MultiCharts to be the best one out of these three. Unfortunately none of them don´t offer the ability to account for interest rates.

The ideal platform for me would be one that has:
+Charting, backtesting, optimizing abilities etc.
+Ability to account for interest rate differentials between currency pairs.
+Look into bar ability, i.e. when considering daily bars in backtesting I would like to be able to consider e.g. 5 min. bars for the most optimal order execution during a particular day.

Any comments or wisdom about these platforms or others would be greatly appreciated.
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RightEdge actually does support accounting for interest rate differentials between currencies. The current release does not support looking into bars as you describe, but this will be part of the next edition. If you would like more information about the interest rate differentials (or anything else) in RightEdge, feel free to post on our forums or use the "Contact Us" form on our website.

Thanks,
Daniel
 
TradersStudio also support the interest rate differential calculations for forex. In addition we report trades in both dollars and pips. We also set margins based on account size and leverage you assign to the account.
 
Quote from MachineGhost:

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
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What is NinjaTrader missing?
 
You sound like you're trolling -- go read the original "review" for a true bias. Anyway, I don't know what your definition of "disgusting" or even "charts" is, but when it comes to clarity and sharpness, TradeStation, AmiBroker and MultiCharts rank right up there at the top. Anyone can view this for themselves. So why do other trading applications continue to have graphics that make them look like they're a MS-DOS or Visual BASIC program?

It goes without saying: use what you like that meets your needs.

MachineGhost

Quote from Galatia:

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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The language of TradersStudio, "TradersStudio basic" is an easy one and any one having the basic knowledge of Excel VBA can pick it up soon.

Moreover, regarding CPTrader comments over the Trading Blox and TradersStudio with respect to the features and price, I do agree with them. This was the main reason as to why I chose TradersStudio over others.
 
Quote from jconrad1:

What is NinjaTrader missing?
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I have used Ninja Trader, CQG, TT, Tradestation, Think or Swim, Onyx 2, and others.

Because of their piece of shit support, I would not wish Ninja Trader on my worst enemy.

They would have to pay me a HHHHUUUUUGGGGGGEEE amount to use it. Never had worse support on any software.

It cost me money on many many trades. I personally would avoid it at all cost.

Some seem to like it. I personally had really really really bad experiences with it.


NUTSNEAL
 
Quote from CPTrader:

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................
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I had read somewhere at the ET forums that Curtis Faith is no longer working with Trading Blox. There seemed to have been some dispute regarding the software or a case of a lawsuit. He seems to have been thrown out of his own company by them.

Please comment.
 
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