I am a newbie. If I want to backtest a trading idea, which software and datafeed should I buy and how much are they? Or can I pay somebody to write a program and backtest for me? I am not very good with computer, so are the software easy to use? And can I use it to automaticly trade it for me with IB? Your sugestions are greatly appreciated!
Most backtesting programs require you to express your idea in some formal ways (formulas, computer language). If you are not good with computers, having someone to write the trading system for you will save you a lot of headaches. The important thing is to know exactly what you want in your trading system, so you can tell your consultant what to do. This will save you money by having fewer consulting hours.
Hey Bigboy, I'm a relatively green trader myself. So far the best software investment I've made has been Wealth-Lab Developer. Its been a real eye-opener to design systems based on the stuff I've read either in books or on the web, then backtest these methods on stock data. Really demonstrates which indicators are appropriate for different scenarios - and some ideas/indicators that just don't seem to be good for anything. My data comes from Worden's TC2000 program ($30/month End Of Day), but you can just as easily use the free Yahoo EOD data - there's even a plugin to allow you to play with intraday data with Wealth-Lab if you want to via the free Medved Quotetracker intraday charting software. Another benefit of WLD is the active community on their website where people upload systems ( these coded systems are called Chartscripts) for others to try out and collectively improve upon. Having all these examples of the programming language used to design WLD systems is a tremendous help when you want to code your own system. WLD uses the Delphi pascal language as its base, but has many extra functions specific to trading built in. You can code in position sizing info and play with stops too. Not sure I'll use WLD as an absolute trade decision maker, but the educational aspect alone is certainly worth the cost (try for free, $650.00 one time fee to own). Also own Neuroshell Trader Pro, TCNet (realtime version of TC2000), and Amibroker (similar to WLD, cheaper)- but I find myself always coming back to WLD for the most realistic backtesting. Bought Nueroshell because of the geek-factor only (oooooooh-nueralnet-cooool!), not because neural nets are any sort of Holy Grail. It also allows you to code systems but isn't as user friendly as the others - its real selling point is the neural network it uses which is designed by Ward Systems. There are a couple of WLD chartscripts utilizing neural nets on the WLD website if your interested in that sorta stuff. The biggest issue to watch for when using this type of software is "looking ahead" in the code in an unrealistic fashion - you can't allow your system to make decisions based on future data - really have to check the downloaded systems for mistakes like this. Well, enough rambling... The websites for the above mentioned software: Wealth-Lab: http://www.wealth-lab.com/ TC2000/TCNet: http://www.tc2000.com http://www.tcnet.info Medved Quotetracker: http://www.quotetracker.com/ Amibroker: http://www.amibroker.com/ Neuroshell: http://www.neuroshell.com/ Good luck in your quest, Smitty
About TS6, do I have to open an acct. with them to get the program or can I just purchase the software only?
Last time I checked TS6 is a subscription-based product now. You pay by the month. Seems a fair trade-off since now you don't have to mess with data collection. Go to the fee page on their web site. Over to the left there's a "subscription option for non-brokerage clients". I still use TS2000i to test ideas. I've been looking hard at the EOD version for $45 per month. I hear you get intraday data with this service, but only after market hours, which is okay to test with. Please confirm prior to ordering, though.