 "Great tool with some very interesting features" - goodgoing | May 07, 2010 5:17 PM |
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The concept sounded intriguing and I purchased a license although I was quite skeptical about it cause of my experience with other programs and I was afraid I was throwing money away. As it turned out, this program is very interesting, it is definitively a great tool, it is easy to use but interpreting its results requires some serious work. Here is an example of some work I have done and posted here in ET: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2828318#post2828318 This program has a lot of power but you must use it properly otherwise you are risking getting useless results. It is important to do a number of out_of_sample tests of the results. This operation is easily done right from the results table. I have not used the scan function but it is my next project. I have been tracking the p-Indicator numbers for a variety of markets and the results are interesting but the settings I use need some tweaking. By far, the most interesting feature of this program is the code generation. I use Amibroker and the program generates the code of the patterns it finds to use for my Buy and Sell signals. The program does not come cheap but the price is OK for what it does. Not having a feature of downloading data from the web is a major drawback of this program. Also, the program can only read text files and some data conversion is always required before you can use it. |
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| "I like the recent upgrade 8.0" - alexandermerwe | November 27, 2009 11:23 AM |
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I upgraded this past summer to the new version 8.0. Unfortunately, the p-indicator option was not available when I upgraded but there are still several useful features, including the generation of code for NinjaTrader and Metatrader (and also for Amibroker). I do not like that fact that APS does not make use of multiple cores but this is still one of the best programs for automating pattern discovery that one can find around, if not the best and maybe the only one that does the job so fast and with such precision. I think that the option for discovering patterns with a delayed entry is a very interesting one along with the capability of scanning a group of securities using multiple stop/target levels. This program is lacking some useful functions, like the ability to download data from the web, but it has some other very helpful ones like "multiple pattern forward testing" and a system tracking function.
I am primarily a position/swing trader with limited experience in the intraday domain. I think this program is best suited for this type of daily short term trading. |
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| "Very different kind of software but not for everyone" - ronblack | April 10, 2009 5:11 AM |
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APS is not of everyone. I think it is only for people who know how to use various patterns to develop strategies with a higher success rate than each of the individual patterns involved. Those that do not understand what I just said will not find this program useful.
Support is really excellent but they avoid answering questions related to specific issues about trading systems. Understandable but it is kind of disappointing. Also, this is not a neural net program or some other cheap trial-and-error or combinatorial search based pattern finder. It is very fast for what it does and requires minimal input from the user.
Boils down to this: if you do not have the knowledge and experience that is required to use patterns in high probability short term trading systems you won’t find this program very useful. |
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| "Unique product, a white-box, can be useful provided you know the proper way to use it" - trader3cnd | March 29, 2009 2:12 PM |
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This software finds OHLC patterns in historical data based on criteria you specify for the success rate, the number of historical trades, the profit factor and the maximum number of consecutive losers. You also need to specify the exit type but options are limited to percentages or points. The entry is limited to close or open. I would like to have a few more choices like exits based on ATR and number of bars after entry. The scan option can find patterns based on exiting at the close of the following bar and I would like to have that feature in the main search option too. The main search option can find patterns with an optimal filter applied after the formation based on a number of bars.
A unique feature of this program is that it can generate the code of the patterns it finds in native language for Tradestation, Metastock and Wealth-Lab, but also for TeleChart and in pseudo code. In a sense then this is a white-box program.
Finding patterns is a difficult task that this program automates successfully although it does not take advantage of multiple threads and that is a limitation as far as execution speed. The company offers custom solutions to overcome this but they are based on running multiple instances of the program.
The program does not tell which patterns to use and how to develop strategies with them. This is a challenging task for those who use patterns. You can test out_of_sample all the patterns in the results and the program will calculate the new performance parameters. This is a useful feature that can assist users in filtering patterns. I don’t think it is enough though. |
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| "Good stand alone pattern search software. You must have a historical data source to use it." - intradaybill | February 16, 2009 4:47 PM |
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The program works as it is advertized by the company and finds price patterns based on higher level performance criteria. The new version of the program is much improved over previous versions. The most interesting feature is the automatic code generation for Tradestation, Metastock, Wealth-Lab and TeleChart. The program comes with only a few sample data files and the user must find a historical data source. In order to use the program for intraday pattern search data files nust be converted to a special format but there is a tool supplied with the program for doing that. There is also system tracking capability and a few other interesting functions, including a position sizing calculator for fixed fractional risk. |
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Not Recommended
