1. To conduct backtesting in NeoTicker you do not need a datafeed. NT can read from local data on your hard disk. 2. Historical data can be download from data vendor, although not likely to be more than a few years of intraday data. You can also use text files, or any other common formats. Thus purchasing historical data depends on what you need to do. 3. Yes. 4. Your system can be as complex as you wanted it to be In general I do not recommend jumping into the mood of buying NeoTicker immediately without trying it out first. The strong points of NeoTicker being able to automate trading with various brokerage interfaces and its ability to conduct real-time, and off-line tick by tick simulation on the trading systems are not important at this point for you, comparing to commercial users who need those features for everyday operation. Different people will have different need. You may find some software easier to use, while another one more flexible. That's why it is a personal preference when it comes to conducting basic backtesting. Lawrence
You guys are all very helpful thanks. I'll give Yahoo a shot. When it's time to get more serious I can look into some of the top end programs. Thanks again, I'll be back soon.
BigIrishSlim - If you are going to use Yahoo data please check out HQuotes Downloader. www.hquotes.com It allows you to download thousands of Yahoo stocks at once and can adjust for splits and dividends. I have no affiliation with them. Just a happy customer.
Ok, so I went to yahoo and found the "download historical data" section. It looks like I can only get down to dail data, is there a way to get intraday info? Thanks
BigSlim, I believe you can use tradestation without opening an account. It is just twice as expensive (about 200/month). I decided to try out tradestation and opened an account to get the discount (but am not trading in it... restrictions It is a different question alltogether whether Tradestation's backtests (especially the intraday ones) are reliable. I suppose that is true for any off the shelf software. I am working on trying to verify that (because if it is reliable, the software has some great features that could be very helpful in developing strategies). Along those lines, can any one vouch for the accuracy of Tradestation's backtests? Thanks in advance.
i love TS8 but hate their data SO i use own data 2 and i can use TS8 real time with any data vendor i want. just love it.
"i love TS8 but hate their data SO i use own data 2 and i can use TS8 real time with any data vendor i want. just love it." Not a bad idea. I suppose I can try that. Still, the question remains whether TS handles tick data correctly. Small assumptions (like what a realistic price is, how the rolls are handled, etc) can make material differences in evaluating a high frequency intraday strategy. Though, I can probably try and control most of these with scripting, I have no visibility in their compiled modules that produce the performance reports (assumptions go into those as well). it is a major hurdle with off the shelf back-testing software. It seems like a popular commercially available software should have these things worked out, unfortunately, my experience (with various other software) has not been supportive of that idea (to say the least). Coding everything from scratch is a b*tch, but seems like the only way (if one is to put serious money on the results). Perhaps a compromise exists where the nuts and bolts can be handled by proprietary software and bells and whistles can be appropriated from canned software. Any ideas?