Hello, my name is Nik and I am new to the forum. I'm not sure if this is the right place for my question so I apologize in advance if it's not. I recently ran into the concept of developing trading strategies through software like Build Alpha or GSB. I'm about to choose which one I will buy and since most people in here seem to have good experience with both of them I would like to ask your opinion. I'm mostly swing trading and I try to improve my existing systems, plus check their robustness more accurately. I would appreciate your insights, thank you in advance for your time.
Hi, welcome! Sorry, can't help as I don't know the 2 programs/services you mentioned, but I too would be interested to know as I too am coding&testing such trading strategies (in C++ programming language).
I know both programs. Build Alpha is much more versatile and you have much more options to test different kind of strategies. I would go with Build Alpha. GSB is very limited in comparison. It is enough if you buy one or two ready made strategies from GSB because you cannot do it better. I tried it many times, the examples to buy from their website trademaid.info is already the top you can create with the software. No need to buy the software itself for own backtesting.
Quanto I am referring to a strategy builder software named Build Alpha. You can find it with a simple Google search. May I ask which markets are you focused on mostly?
To give you more value with my experience on GSB. I can say that the ready made systems, what you cannot do better with own backtesting on GSB software, that they perform much worse out-of-sample than backtested. With OOS I mean going forward realtime tracking. In the end the performance was always worse than the underlying stock index and also the performance to drawdown ratio of any system was worse than in comparison to stock index itself. So in the end just buying a long dated Call on stock index, a leap, would do the trick to get leverage on SP500 or Nasdaq performance, with better returns then all the trading with any GSB software. That is why I say, do not buy GSB, it does not make sense. I also would stay away from any ready made system to buy from him, because you will get disappointed over time when you follow actual performance (in comparison to the stock index). I have been watching this site for some years here, so I know from what I am speaking here. I know them from the very beginning around 7 or 8 years ago I think. My two cents to GSB.
Yeah did already find it. It's a pricey software, $1500 or so was mentioned on the web. Is it really good? How do you use it? US stocks and their options in multi-leg strategies (ie. Spreads, CoveredCall, Collar, Straddle, Strangle etc., mostly option selling, but sometimes also buying).
I reviewed Genetic System Builder a little here. The generated strategies look simple as do those from Build Alpha. The strategies I saw looked like they would have been good on a single symbol for the time period tested. One would need to forward test them to check if they would continue to work well.
I have not used it yet but I might buy it. Obviously, it is not the holy grail but I like some of its features. I want mostly to use it in combination with my existing strategies, and check their robustness if possible. Maybe create some alternative versions of them as well. Not sure what to expect though.
Phil thanks for the insight. From my understanding Build Alpha has a feature for out-of-sample data, so you can test the generated strategy. Is that what you mean by ''forward test them''? What is the optimal way to use a software like this in your opinion? Did it help your overall trading experience?