OpenQuant or Neoticker

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by nlhaines, Sep 13, 2010.

  1. nlhaines

    nlhaines

    I'm looking to buy a piece of software for testing and developing some trading systems as well as testing some manual trading techniques.

    I have looked at many pieces of software and I think OpenQuant and Neoticker are probably the best 2 for my needs. I really like OpenQuant's event-driven model but they don't seem to offer much for non-automated traders and I'm a little concerned that their support might be a problem even though I have a good amount of programming experience.

    Neoticker looks extremely powerful, and I think it will be able to provide me with everything I am looking for, but the learning curve seems to be pretty steep and I'm not familiar with delphi or all that excited about learning a proprietary language (like Formula)

    At this point I'm considering either using OpenQuant in concert with another piece of software for the non-automated stuff I want to try (perhaps I will spring for the eSignal feed and use that platform) or just going with NeoTicker and taking a few months to get a firm handle on how to use it.

    Any thoughts on this, or suggestions for other pieces of software would be helpful.
     
  2. maxpi

    maxpi

    OpenQuant and SierraCharts complement each other quite nicely.. but really, if a system is so complex that you need Openquant to test it, it's probably just way too complex...
     
  3. nlhaines

    nlhaines

    I'm actually not thinking of coding anything complex at all at this point. I just don't want to be held back by inflexible software if I get there in the future.

    The reason I like OpenQuant is that I find the coding of strategies to be very intuitive and completely in line with what I am used to as a Java programmer.

    Should I just be looking at Ninjatrader as something that is good for both simple automated strategies and discretionary trading?
     
  4. If you can program in OpenQuant, you can do it in Neo too - its certainly not more complex, and you can use C# too, like in OQ, if you want.

    If anything, id say Neo is even easier. In Openquant you can react to alot of different events, where as in Neo your code gets called either on every tick or every bar-close (depending on settings). Thinking about it, its not even that different. In Neoticker, you test for conditions and then react, in OQ you just put the logic in the corresponding event (i.e. OnOrderFilled etc).

    Plus for OQ is that C# is integrated in the platform, wheres in Neo you have to use Visual Studio (the free versions will do) and copy the dll everytime you alter/update your stuff. Can be automated using AutoIT and similar, but its still a bit of a hassle, if you frequently change your code.

    A plus for Neo are certainly the charts. You can do pretty much everything with them, and if you cant, you write your own bar-aggregation plugin.

    For manual order-entry both platforms suck tho. Unsure if you can do it with oq, i dont see how this platform should be useful for manual trading at all. Its made for systematic testing and trading. Neo has some orderentry-forms, but its nothing like a proper price-ladder like i.e. Ninjatrader has. But it has excellent charts, and dynamic tables (spreadsheet-like functionality, with access to marketdata and indictors/models etc.), which should be useful to a discretionary trader.
     
  5. Eight

    Eight

    I think that Openquant won't test on Bid/Ask data, it will test on tick data... the thing about SierraCharts is that it will test on Bid/Ask data. I have not done this but my thinking is that tests in Openquant could be verified on Bid/Ask data in Sierracharts... SC just tests by replaying data, it's a really primitive backtester, but between the two it seems like you have everything. SC's chart trader is nice for order entry to my way of thinking... Openquant can test a horrendously complex system in a reasonable amount of time with optimization of a lot of parameters with it's Simulated Annealing test method, but you would never know about some fills without checking on Bid/Ask data so you could run the result from OQ on SC and know about where exactly you would get filled and how many trades you didn't get filled on the entries...
     
  6. Both Neo and openquant can fill on quote data (bid/ask top of the book) during simulations.
     
  7. nlhaines

    nlhaines

    Pippi - Could you post some screens or something of the NeoTicker order entry features? I'm not planning on doing any scalping or really short term stuff, I would just like to be able to place some condition orders that will trigger stops and do some pretty basic stuff, and being able to enter trades from a chart would be nice. That's all I'm really looking for. Or if you don't have screens if you could just point me to where I can read about the features. Neoticker's website doesn't seem to do a great job of showcasing the product.

    When a strategy is called by NeoTicker what information is it passed? How cumbersome is it to check these variables? I prefer the OO Event driven model OQ has, but NT doesn't sound too bad from what you describe. Another thing I really like about OQ is the ability to organize strategies within a metastrategy. Can any other platform support this type of functionality?

    I know OpenQuant has no manual order entry support, but its $500 cheaper so I wouldn't mind spending that saved cash on a complementary program to do my discretionary stuff.

    I actually have been looking at MultiCharts and that looks like another good option, but I don't know how I feel about coding in Powerlanguage. I have to look into that.

    You have all been really helpful so thank you for your guidance.
     
  8. I have attached a pic. No support for native conditional orders, just basic ordertypes.

    Accessing whatever information is easy, once you get the hang of it. Download the docs from http://www.tickquest.com/?page_id=716 or get a demo, theres a windows help file coming with it. The object model is described in detail therein.
     
  9. nlhaines

    nlhaines

    Can you run multiple strategies concurrently in Neoticker? If so, can you organize them in some "meta-strategy"?

    Does anybody know anything about Multicharts?

    Also, can any of these platforms access fundamentals if its included in the data stream?