I this my first post. Hi All. I am MarkT. I deal with stocks. I am looking for a Charting and BackTesting Software. Between Multicharts and Ninja what is better. Any ideas.
I'm in the process of the same decision. NT isn't an option. Charting is fine. Backtesting is sketchy. NT can only backtest entries based on bar close. Meaning if you run strategies that calculate entries during the current forming bar, backtest results won't be accurate, and quite skewed to the negative. I'm looking at multicharts. MC has IOG and bar magnifier which allows backtest entries to be made on current forming bar. NT is behind the times, it seems. I hear good things about Amibroker, but the programming language requires more work and its not used as a reliable auto-trading platform. So if a trader goes with Amibroker and intends to auto-trade, then they've got to buy another platform after Ami, learn another language, recode the strategies and run off a 'live' platform. MC is all in one.
You are somewhat unfair to NT backtesting abilities ... it is always possible to submit your orders to a 1-tick or 1-sec timeframe (I prefer the later, less memory requirements and actually better simulation of transmission delay to the exchange), which makes your backtests results as accurate as it gets - provided you are using CalculateOnBarClose=true (which should always be the case, in my professional programming view). If you need intrabar resolution, without falling into the evil CalculateOnBarClose=false, you can either use a lower timeframe (say, using 1-sec TF instead of 1-min TF), or use a 1-tick timeframe and reconstruct your main timeframe bars from it. In my experience, a 1-sec TF supplementing your main TF is enough for most intrabar trading decisions.
The workaround to enter market on current bar in NT doesn't even solve the problem (enters on next 1 sec bar). Also requires referencing multiple timeframes and plenty of code, which for a newbie, is totally not user friendly. I'm talking about a neophyte programmer, here. You say you're a professional programmer. From the many user posts I read it's a big headache to get NT to enter on current bar, and even then, it's no guarantee the code works right. Forgetaboutit.
Re-read post #4 then you will have the answer. But it seems it is still too long since the attention span seems to cover just three letters so I guess "Yes" is a better fit but still including "but not just that" being invisible because of first mentioned assumption.
No, I'm just answering to your noob posts. If you want to talk to someone who represents Amibroker then go to AmiBroker themselves. Simple task yet seems to be a difficult task for some others.