New Poster: Mechanica vs SmartQuant?

Hi Guys,

This is my first post on the forum so would first like to say hi to all forum members.

First a little background: I am a proprietary trader working as part of an in-house CTA team managing a chunk of oil money for the powers that be out of the Middle East.

At the moment our group is looking at several options for a universal back testing software package. At the present time we use individually written custom packages, some of the usual suspect commercial packages etc.

My question to the forum is pretty specific. I would like to know the forum member’s opinions on:

Mechanica vs SmartQuant ???????

The good, the bad and the ugly and any other insights and experiences both good and bad would be appreciated.

And to clarify price is not an issue; the only factor is which one is better or maybe we should just get both?

Our crew out here each run their own systems each of which as expected are pretty varied in design on all the world future markets from Oz to Europe to Stateside to the Far East.

As I said above think in house CTA so that is the profile of the client (moi) for which ever commercial software product you guys end up recommending.

Thanks a lot for your help and have a profitable day and if that doesn’t happen have a profitable week, month, year, decade etc.

Cheers, Smoker

PS And yes (before someone asks) paying no tax is groovy!

 

Hi Guys,

Forgot to mention if I am on the wrong forum and there are better sources of information out there on the software platforms I am looking interested in if you could point me in the right direction it would be most appreciated and I will get right out of your hair.

Cheers, Smoker

 

SmartQuant is the premier product (even TT was willing to partner with them). I have not found anything that is better for a small group or a large individual system based trader.

 

What is the price for SmartQuant? There's nothing on the website.

Richard

 

It's been quantstudio for awhile and it's in the $5K range with source code if memory serves.

I can't find a link to a Mechanica web site. Does anyone have one?

 

Here is it :

http://www.mechanicasoftware.com/

But you wont find anything interresting there : Seems to still be under developpement...

Olivier.

 

Hi 5Pillars & ssternlight,

Thanks for the opinions, it’s appreciated.

I personally know four guys that are big into Mechanica of which two are independent traders and two are at CTAs. Two of them were big Trading Recipes guys so found the move to Mechanica fairly smooth. All are successful so the price tag was not the issue in their decision but only quality of the software. They all think Mechanica is the business which of course helps calm the nerves when it comes to making the call on which pony on which to put the cash.

However when I asked them about Mechanica vs. SmartQuant they couldn’t put forward an opinion having never used it. All they could confirm is they are happy with Mechanica.

I don’t know personally anyone that is actually using SmartQuant in production by which I mean day in and day out as their primary research tool. If you two are an example of guys that were using some of the other commercial products or personal testing systems then moved to SmartQuant it’s nice to hear from the “hands on” guys that SmartQuant does the job.

However that said I would like to confirm that both of you are SmartQuant owners and users and your “it’s the standard” opinion is from personal experience and not from discussions in the trading community, internet boards or other such second hand information?

I am not trying to be a doubting Thomas but of course I want as much quality information as possible before making a decision that could turn the whole crew down the wrong path and drop us six months behind before getting it turned around.

I have talked to a few guys that use SmartQuant in France but they are more casual than power users so I have to take their opinions with a grain of salt. Most say its ok but having to program in C++ is a hassle and order management for multiple accounts, leverage etc is kind of weak.

Funny enough I don’t know anyone that uses SmartQuant as power users so it was nice to find an internet board to dig up some hands on experience.

I am lucky with Mechanica to know some power users personally since there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information on Mechanica on the internet boards because the price kind of squeezes out the casual or part time traders. You just can’t find the same number of Mechanica users there are for the other commercial products.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Cheers, Smoker

 

Smoker,

I'm not a "power" user by any means. I fooled with the old SmartQuant and played with the newer Quantstudio for awhile before deciding the time required to port stuff over and rebuild what I already have in production just wasn't worth it. That's less a comment on the product and more on my lack of a need to scale up to something that powerful right now.

If you want to email me I can connect you with a couple of guys that purchased/used the product and can give you the low down on it.

 

Hi ssternlight,

That would be great if you could forward the email addresses/contact numbers of some SmartQuant power users. Of course please confirm with them that they don't mind getting a call from me before doing so for I more than anyone hate unsolicited phone calls.

It does appear that the elusive animal that has used both SmartQuant and Mechanica is as mythical as the unicorn. So I doubt if I am going to get an informed head to head review from a power user of both products.

That said it is not a bad position to be in where both products are strong and preference depends on which package is most familiar to the researcher/trader.

Maybe both are the answer even if that defeats the goal of trying to standardize so the crew could easily swap around research, ideas, code etc.

Anyway thanks for your help and please forward to my private message box the contact information for any guys that would be willing to pick up the phone some morning (after they get their orders in) and give a ten minute run down review to a guy calling from the sandbox.

Cheers Smoker

 

Smoker - I will send you a pm tomorrow with some information that may be of help to you.


Remember....smoke em if you got em!