What is the best software for stock options trading? Something that has backtesting, charts, scanner, etc..? I'M trying OptionVue 7 right now, but I can't trust the market prices. Every time I pull up an option the bid/ask is way off from the prices on my brokerage account and yahoo finance. Anyone have any suggestions?
your best bet is get Excel and buy an addin from Hoadley options and make your own simulator, backtesting,even rudimentary scanning. You won't be dependent on anyone and much cheaper too. Steep learning curve but worth it since your system can grow as u grow. Main problem with any software system is data quality.
You want to build your own tools - this will help you acquire an edge by detecting opportunities better. Excel is good, though pretty limited. A statistical programming language plus an SQL database is better for more complex stuff. I, personally, use a combination of R and Excel on top of MySQL. If you go the excel route, there is no reason to pay for Hoadley - there are plenty of free VBA tools of the same or better quality. What is worth paying for is good quality historical data.
I use IB as my broker and was wondering ways in which to incorporate Excel using their API. I've used the sample sheet that comes with it but I'm really not sure where to go from there. I'm pretty good with MATLAB but using Ib with MATLAB is a nightmare. Not many tools out there. And Quant2IB at $500 a year is kinda expensive I think. As for Hoadley, I'm tempted to try it but I can't seem to find good alternatives for it. Could you point me to some alternatives? I googled around but couldn't find anything. I'm not sophisticated enough yet to have a database for any purposes. My main issue right now is finding the right underlyings and picking the right strategy.
I've found Hoadley to be useful, but definitely something one can piece together on their own. Solid historical options data is crucial, and worth paying for. I know ivolatility.com offers different packages. Has anyone had experience with Livevol pro?
It does not really have some stuff that you would want to have as an options trader, e.g. good vol models, especially if you are trading from vol perspective, not form fundamental views. If you any good with DB work yourself and only care about the US, http://www.historicaloptiondata.com/?gclid=CKbx-OzPhbACFYeo4Aod3xUFlw is hard to beat, it's like 1.5k for the historical data for the past 12 or so years and $30 a month for the daily updates. I think now they are having an anniversary sale, so it might be even cheaper for the historical data.
LiveVol pro has a ton of technical expertise programmed into it... pretty intense stuff. A year or two ago when they launched they were allowing free versions and I tried it... pretty sexy stuff... But too expensive at $250 a month.. Hmm you sure thats the right url sle? the domain is up for renewal...
The real advantage is that they have a very good security master data. Otherwise, it's run of the mill stuff - expertise or no expertise, you will end up building your own queries and indices. I updated the link