Wealth Lab Pro: Good of bad?

Discussion in 'Automated Trading' started by Dominic, May 21, 2006.

  1. Dominic

    Dominic

    I have a free 30 day trial and have never done any backtesting; can anyone comment if Wealth Lab pro is a decent backtesting program.

    Thanks

    Dominic
     
  2. I've used WL developer for years and I think it's great, but it's not perfect. I also use Tradestation which has it's strengths (fast optimizations) and weaknesses (it's like pulling teeth to handle multiple positions). WL can easily handle multiple positions and can be automated, but WL Pro can only interact with Fidelity.

    In short, I like it, many many others like it, while quite a few don't like it. It really depends what you want to do with it. For a newbie it can be good though, it has wizards to auto-generate code.
     
  3. Dominic

    Dominic

    Thanks for the info. Does it make you any money? I have traded purely discretionary and was thinking about venturing into the back testing world. Have you traded both styles?
     
  4. I lost quite a bit as a discretionary trader....not all that much but more than I should have (most of what I made I gave back).

    I started system trading and my only problem has been overconfidence and increasing position sizes too fast -- also deciding on the proper allocation to each system is a pain. But I'm much better off with automated trading -- no more worrying if I'm missing something -- I let the system decide for me.

    Note WL also has a great forum where people will answer most questions very quickly (provided you don't post a "please code my system for me question" which people post from time to time).

    SSB
     
  5. Dominic

    Dominic

    "I lost quite a bit as a discretionary trader....not all that much but more than I should have (most of what I made I gave back).

    I started system trading and my only problem has been overconfidence and increasing position sizes too fast -- also deciding on the proper allocation to each system is a pain. But I'm much better off with automated trading -- no more worrying if I'm missing something -- I let the system decide for me."


    Thats very interesting; I still cant see what type of edge you have by not trading discretionary. I feel that you can loads of backtesting and be in a stock and bad earnings or some drug gets pulled and the stock tanks -20% premarket; how did all the back testing help?

    Are you trading equities or futures? How long did it take for you to start to turn profitable back testing? I see so many posting here and they seem to all be testing; the light it going off that I might be missing something.
     
  6. Wealth Lab is class. i haven't used trade station but hear how easylanguage is good.

    still think wealth lab is better. :)
     
  7. Rather depends on style of trading.

    As with any 3rd party software, as long as you don't deal with Tick or Ask/Bid data, or automated trading it's fine.

    Eventually, you have to grow out of it and learn some programming like Java or C++.
     
  8. My assumption was that knowing either EL/WL scripts and VB would be enough

    Does one need to learn C++, if he don't do want scalp, spread,.. type of trading?
     
  9. You wouldn't trade a high frequency trading model on massive equity/options portfolio on EL/WL with VB execution would you?

    Again, it really depends on the needs of the trader. Some traders don't need computers, some need a cluster. But... one thought of mind is the system you develop is limited by the testing platform you use.

    That said, for a newbie developer, Tradestation or Wealth-Lab is a great starting point. As you progress as a developer, it's a great sign to find a reason to consider learning a programming language, it means you've outgrown the retail level of trading. Thought of out-using a testing platform is very beneficial for a trader.
     
  10. Is there a way to get a fully working version of WL without going to Fidelity and opening an account?
     
    #10     May 22, 2006