[QUESTION] - Backtesting Advice For a Beginner With No Coding Experience

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by Tall Mike, Jun 26, 2020.

  1. fan27

    fan27

    Maybe checkout BuildAlpha.
     
    #11     Jun 26, 2020
    Tall Mike likes this.
  2. And what I'm saying is that the conspiranoiac assumption of "stealing your code" doesn't stand up to the slightest bit of rational thinking.

    Assuming your broker (or whoever) wanted to steal this "code" - how would he know which "code" to steal? There are thousands to millions of backtests being run at any given moment (tons of automated software testing); even if some of it returns a positive outcome, deciding whether that's a result of backfitting/overfitting, a one-time accident, or a result of cheating (looking forward in the data set) would take a full-time crew of thousands or possibly millions of analysts - who, by the way, don't work for free. So now you have a business model in which you're betting millions of dollars on code developed by amateurs (who are mostly guessing)... yeah, that should bring in the dough!

    Or maybe - just maybe - brokers have a more reliable business model? One that is actually guaranteed to bring in money? Like... let's see, maybe collecting fees from people trading on their platform and trying to attract new business - all of which would go out the door if they were caught stealing from those traders?

    In my experience, those who worry about having their "secret sauce" stolen are incompetent - and have nothing worth stealing. Truly successful people know that what they have can't be stolen - because the key ingredient is their own ability.
     
    #12     Jun 27, 2020
    ffs1001 and themickey like this.
  3. Both but primarily intraday.
     
    #13     Jun 27, 2020
  4. 931

    931

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism
     
    #14     Jun 27, 2020
  5. I was in your shoes two months ago and i'm still learning. If your strategy is simple, and uses indicator and build-in studies to build a stratgy and just about most apllications can do it.

    Also you can add single of combine mutilple strategy which available in plateforms like tradestation and you can modify their inputs and time intervals manually or through optmizition to get an idea what best parameters would be and then last and most import step is walk forward Opt.

    The most difficult part which is pure art, is implementing money managment into your strategy which is extreemly hard for trader with several years experiance who has been trading discretionary
     
    #15     Jun 27, 2020
  6. userque

    userque

    EOD data is free (yahoo, google, ninjatrader). Consider kibot.com for intraday.

    Ninjatrader is free for backtesting. Import the kibot (or other) intraday data, or use Ninja's free EOD data.

    Also consider tradingview.com. They offer free backtesting for your strategies. I believe the intraday is also free for backtesting. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

    Tradingview (and most others) use a simple scripting language. A few platforms use graphical 'building blocks.' You'll have to search for them as I don't recall them off the cuff.

    I found one very quickly, that doesn't (I believe) rely on code/scripting-language. I know that there are others:
    https://www.quantreex.com/

    But the scripting languages are simple, and usually come with community/paid support, available for free. Even a non-programmer can learn enough to 'code' usual strategies.

    Using NinjaTrader, you can eventually, when you're ready, progress from their simple 'English' script into ninjascript. Ninjascript is a subset of C#. IOW, learning ninjascript goes hand in hand with learning C#, so you'll effectively be learning a real and powerful and free programming language.

    Those other scripting languages are worthless outside of their platforms.

    Ninja can handle extremely complex strategies via C# coding.

    (Of course, not everyone that wants to become an expert coder, can become an expert coder.)
     
    #16     Jun 27, 2020
    Tradex likes this.
  7. You can have a peace of mind without having to worry about people stealing your code when you don't use commercial platforms. In other words, build your own. Or use something like Backtrader.

    Also, run it on your local machine, not on VPS.
     
    #17     Jun 27, 2020
  8. You can become a best programmer or coder, but still doesn't matter if you have no idea what to code for your strategy ...It's worthless even you know C++, C# , whatever ...

    I believe Tradestation easylauguge Scriptng language is most complete Trading language out there for non-progrmmers, as they say EL was written by traders with trading in mind and most other Platforms strategy scripts was written by bunch of programmers, which is available to retail trader. If they were any good, they would be bought by big Institution o_O
     
    #18     Jun 27, 2020
  9. 931

    931

    Also for forex tick level data histdata.com.
    You can get ~300gb of tick data from there for free.
     
    #19     Jun 27, 2020
    Tradex and userque like this.
  10. userque

    userque

    "You can become a best programmer or coder, but still doesn't matter if you have no idea what to code for your strategy ...It's worthless even you know C++, C# , whatever ..."

    Yeah, this is always true. But we are assuming, for the sake of discussion, that someone knows how to, at least, start coding their strategy. Otherwise, there's nothing to talk about if someone is totally clueless.

    The easier a script language is, the less complete it is. Think about it.

    C# is a complete, general purpose language; and is therefore, more difficult (less easy) than easy language.

    Ninjascript is a great subset of C#. It is therefore easier than C#, but less "complete" than C#.

    You can't have it both ways. If a language is easy, it is necessarily, less powerful.

    Ninjatrader allows the newbie to transition from;
    knowing nothing: English like script;
    to knowing more: NinjaScript;
    to knowing the most: C#;

    all in one platform.

    In fact, once/if someone knows/learns C#, they no longer "need" platforms like Ninja. They can code their algo from scratch.

    Can a machine learning trading system be implemented with easy language? It can with Ninjascript/C#.

    Why learn a language that becomes worthless once you outgrow it? Instead, learn a script that is a subset of a real language, imo.

    Note: I have no affiliation with Ninjatrader. I do use them though.
     
    #20     Jun 27, 2020