I have finally found myself at the end of my patience with Tradestation after what feels like an eternity. I know this question has been asked several times but I'm gonna throw it out again and see if any new names pop up... what are the best alternatives to Tradestation... I would like to push all my Futures through IB and would use backtesting/optimizing regularly. The most critical part is that I am not much of a programmer so I would be looking for something with some canned strategies that I could manipulate. I really appreciate any direction that anyone could offer.
AC3... http://wealth-lab.net has a GUI-drag and drop system builder, with canned indicators... you just drop the indicators and link them together with AND/OR conditions and modify the parameters with GUI. there are some other GUI drag and drop platforms... if you search elite for wealth-lab you will find them mentioned in the same threads. Since you trade futures on IB, I will also mention http://tradelink.googlecode.com , which is open source and free... it works with Assent and IB out of the box. It comes with some canned strategies, but not as many as wealth lab and there is some programming required. But if you want something free to play with that supports IB, give us a shot. there's a group tradelink-users@groups.google.com you can join if you need help.
I have never used multicharts and I don't personally know anyone who uses it, but I know it's popular and has a lot of features. Plus I see it supports tradestation. The biggest limitation of tradestation (which I used to use) and multicharts (which I haven't) is that they're not very good for backtesting... they have it, but if you want to backtesting across more than one stock it's cumbersome or you have to buy a really expensive version or add-on. since backtesting multiple instruments is like where you spend 100% of your time, it's extremely annoying to use programs like this. it's why I built my own platform that now lots of people use, so we could have better tools that didn't cost an arm and a leg. still though lots of people use those products, easylanguage is very popular and simple so they have their advantages.
Have you looked at AmiBroker. It will use IB data and IMO has the best backtesting/optimizing on the market.
I was just going through Multi Charts website and the back testing does look promising ...... my concern with any new software is the reliability of it.... up till now I had not been plagued by some of the issues that others had complained about with respect to TS and that is reliability. Today they really let me down executing 1/6 orders that were set to go at the open. Its not the end of the world but its certainly a wake up call. I like the idea that Multi Charts has a Genetic Optimizer which will help with what I look at .... as mentioned I am not in any way a programmer and the idea that they have some canned strategies that I can manipulate really helps.
Multicharts is good, but I don't think you ever really "own" it. More like you rent it when you buy (an oxymoron) because it has to find their server to login. Hopefully they will be around for a long time, but if there ever comes a time you can't authenticate to their server, do you really own the software?
I have never used MC... but their website says the portfolio capable versions of MC cost between $1400 and $10k? http://www.tssupport.com/multicharts/compare/
Does Tradelink have the capability of taking existing Tradestation codes and using them? It seems that most trading systems that you see in books and on the net are written with Tradestation. It would be nice to be able to use and share programs with other users of Tradestation without having to subscribe to the program.