A study has revealed the impact of a defective Metastock backtester on trading system development and how such defects could have impacted traders who relied on it to develop trading systems, especially those with a high trade frequency. Read this paper for details. Although the author is very careful not to disclose the company and product name, the complete study, which he does not reveal, has these details. I think there are plenty of grounds for recovering at least the cost of the software if the company was aware of the defects but did not fix them. There may be grounds for other claims in addition. Whoever has used Metastock version 7.0 in the past to develop trading systems and is interested in forming a group to investigate legal options please send me a pm.
Other claims? Like what? Like claims against your trading losses? How in the hell do you prove that the systems would actually have made any money had the coding been accurate? You have to show that the defect cost you actual money, not hypothetical money. Filing for defect in software, maybe. Filing for 'other claims', which means for trading losses (even though some part of you realizes this is pretty far fetched because you couldn't bring yourself to come out and say it)? Stick that in with 'McDonald's sued by fat people for causing their obesity'.
If you are just now figuring out that MetaStock has backtesting problems I don't know what to say to you. This has been well known for _years_. There are also backtesting problems up through version 10.X by the way. This report is underwhelming and a several years late imho. Legal options? You have none.
I had no idea until recently. Did you know? If you knew, can you show a post of yours in a trading forum where you alerted Metastock users about the defects? Based on legal advice I have received, traders can take this company to the courts, recover the cost of the software and depending on State Law file for indirect, consequential or incidental damages. In most cases the liability of the company does not exceed the amount paid for the software.