... unless you have actually programmed something more complex than "hello world!" - no offence. This is characteristic for people who have superficial knowledge of programming and do not understand where the real issues are with building good applications. The issue is actually this simplicity of lego blocks. Once you go beyond certain number of them things get complicated and that is where programming starts. Another issue is the ability to dissect complex logic and translate it to simple coding blocks.
Have you tried bloodhound for ninjatrader? Their license is pretty fair. Free to backtest 2 months data unlimited time. So you can learn how to use it.
I haven't but I might try in the future. For now, I think I am going to work with the group that approached me and find out just how simple and reliable their software is. Who knows, maybe it will end up being a nice product that even a dummy like me can learn..... I am a long time trader who firmly believes that without some sort of edge, you might as well not be trading (not interested in debating this belief ) Anyway, thanks to everyone for the helpful information. I will be sure to check back regardless of outcome...
First off automated trading system development, evaluation, and implementation takes huge amounts of time, patience, and persistence...years... that said... If you don't have the money to spend on a programmer for the next couple years then the next best thing is to use NinjaTraders Wizard, which happens to be very good, and study and edit the source code it creates as a starting point to learn how to program your strategies. This is very easy to do, but if you can't do this with persistence then you have no chance. It is very unlikely you will build a profitable strategy just using the Wizard alone. And even if you do build a strategy that reports profitable, you better run it through Market Replay or Walk Forward test your strategy using a live data feed or you will most likely lose money. You will only learn the potential downfalls of your platforms backtesting by experience.
nah.. took 3 months to build here the first time. Less the second time. An expensive local coder makes all the difference.
Oh boy... another 'visual' programming paradigm... this has never been a good idea in 99% of programming tasks, including this.
http://blog.equametrics.com/ This is there a blog... their most recent entry is.... hum.... well.... hum... I guess it's a good thing they are a financial technologies company rather than a hedge fund.