Quote from TSGannGalt:
Interesting how people expect to become a system trader without the ability to program...
How do you run "appropriate tests" to start off with?
SIMPLY Amazing.
If you are addressing me with your magic little wave of the hand dismissal service.........then .....whatever.
Actually, I have found that once you understand a market you don't need a backtest. You can scroll through the charts and find all the trades and write them down. I am suggesting here that you will spend less time and develop better systems doing that because while you are at it the chart will tell you things. While you are backtesting the chart won't tell you a thing, likely as not you will be building up negative energy because your computer is too slow, or you will find bugs in your own code after the fact.
I've been an amateur programmer since 1974 when I discovered that I had to write my own diagnostics in order to repair a mini computer. I really, really, think I have a handle on the computer thing pretty much, just my guess but hey......... when you work from the chip and machine language level up to the EZLanguage/dll/Visual Basic level over 33 years, you get a handle on things and you understand what a computer really is and you compare it to what a human brain really is... the most complex structure in the universe.
If you want to put your backtested thing up against the human brain, go for it.
They fixed it up to work with the dual core technology and I had a dual core waiting for install to the box so I'm sort of excited. I'll get the new mobo running and get to testing with MC.