Anybody have any feelings on the comparison of these programs ? Money is not always the best indicator of worth .
TheOne, I can't comment on Ensign, but Amibroker is a powerful backtesting program that can do almost anything you want. The programming language takes some getting used to, however, so you'll have your work cut out for you. The system is really more appropriate for people with semi- to advanced-programming backgrounds, IMO. Apparently, there is a plan to make it more user friendly, but that's for future upgrades. From the Amibroker Yahoo forum, I gather it is one of the best systems on the market for running scans on baskets of stocks, but I've never used it for this purpose so I can't comment personally. One good thing: the developer is on Yahoo practically every day answering questions and correcting people's coding attempts. One bad thing: it is not configured at present to do automated order execution. Dynorder is said to be working on this. Oh, and it's free to demo although the demo has limitations. Hope this helps, chaos
I like it alot And although some may think the programming is complicated, I believe it is much easier to get started with and much less complex then TS or WL, I looked at these before I found Amibroker. As stated above, their forum is prolific and the author will bend over backwards to help, constantly updating software and incorporating user suggestions. By the way you only have to pay for major upgrades once a year or so, all minor upgrades free which are many, Most inexpensive and best value in my book. Satisfied User wdbaker
When Amibroker is set up to utilize QuoteTracker , just about any data source is accessable - so it would depend on your needs. If you qualify for data under another broker ( IB , CyberTrader , Datek ) then you can utilize this data with Amibroker .
but just started a subscription to Ensign Internet. If you cannot get intraday data for futures why bother with Amibroker. You can get it for $40 from Ensign. It can do the same as Amibroker if not more. I would use Amibroker if it allowed me to get intraday futures data (delayed for strategy testing). As far as I know you cannot get it from Amibroker unless you subscribe to e-Signal which is not my cup of tea, to say the least. The integration with IB has been delayed too, AFAIK, which is not good either.
Does ensign have it's own data feed for equities and futures for $40/month? Can't you get intraday futures to AB through QT connected to IB?
TheOne and Wally, Thanks for the responses. Wally what do yo like about Ensign versus E-Sig. Best, O.
So wally , except for the data issue , do you believe that Ensign is potentially more powerful from the standpoint of customization or is Amibroker the more flexible program ? As I stated in my last post , When utilizing QuoteTracker Amibroker can read just about any data source - for futures , indices or equities . It can read realtime data from IB if you use that broker for futures .
I don't see how you can get intraday data for $40/month from ensign. $40/month get you an ensign subscription to the software but you need a data feed for additional bucks. Right? http://www.ensignsoftware.com/order.htm