How to choose the right software for trading

[beginner_av]

Good ol' knowledge sharing just like it happens at the pr0n forums
Hopefully sir, you wont get too specific with the intimate details between us eek, rest is all fine.

Never Sir! Haven't you heard that the pillars of a blooming relationship are trust, faith, fidelity and Non Disclosure Agreement!

 

[CreditViolet]

Never Sir! Haven't you heard that the pillars of a blooming relationship are trust, faith, fidelity and Non Disclosure Agreement!

In that case I missed out on the signature!

 

[beginner_av]

Now once your statement is ready, you have already narrowed down your choices. However after this the market will narrow down your choices even further. And again it is not the cost.

Two things that will direct your decision making are
1. Real time and End of day OR Real Time OR End of Day
2. Whether you can program in any language (or willing to burn the midnight oil). Here there's one more solution, but will discuss that under cost.

Now your broad statement is ready. It may read something like this:
I want a software that I can use to scan for chart patterns at the end of the day and generate signals based on that for the next session.
OR
I want a software that I can use to develop custom indicators to generate trading signals real time. The software should also have GA based optimization and NN based classification/prediction.

OR something completely different like this:
My software should be very easy to use, mostly menu driven, and otherwise I should be able to use English like syntax to program my software.

OR
I shall be able to do robust backtesting with my software and do scenario analysis based on a combination of simulation and sensitivity analysis.

As you can see the choice is endless, and your statement can take any form.

From this it should be clear that you may not depend on one software, but a combination of a few to achieve your objectives.

 

[beginner_av]

now that u have a general idea, the next step is to look at specifics. here again you'll realize that one software cannot provide you with everything. so you have to again go back to your notepad and list down the most important SPECIFIC features that you require. Lets take two examples:

Suppose you require backtesting. now get to as much details as possible.
do you want portfolio level or single stock backtesting?
do you want BT on intraday data or only EOD?
IF you want BT on intraday can the software compress tick data to minutes/n ticks to find accurate entry/exit, or it does on specified time frame like 1 minute below which you cannot go?
Is it only menu driven or can you write your custom backtest?
Can you add custom metrics/stats or are you dependent only on the ones provided by the vendor? how are the results displayed?
can the charts be marked with entry and exit?
Can yu export the data for further analysis?

Take Amibroker, you can do most of the things, but only if you are pretty good in programming. In Tradecision, you wont be able to go below 1 min data, so tick by tick data is useless. so is Traderstudio.

Hence it is very important to identify your requirements and features/limitations of software before taking the final jump.

Thats all for now, more only if there are relevant questions/comments.

 

[sanx]

BAV , how is MS ? pros and cons ? , can it used for tick by tick real time data ?

 

[beginner_av]

In that case I missed out on the signature!

Not required Sir. I am discussing from my own struggle/research on how to choose a software. Nothing specific. If I had to bring you in, it would be "I asked CV, and presto!..."

 

[beginner_av]

BAV , how is MS ? pros and cons ? , can it used for tick by tick real time data ?

This is one software that I avoided from day one (my bias). So my information would be incomplete (though as far as I know, you cannot save tick-by-tick data, I may be wrong). Asishda and Oxy are the ones to ask about Metastock. What I can tell you is their backtesting is poor.

 

[omkarmango]

BAV , how is MS ? pros and cons ? , can it used for tick by tick real time data ?

I try to write, why I switched back to AB after trying MS for few days.

1] MS have 65500 records limit i.e. you can store max 16 days of tick history per symbol. (AB have no limit at all, I have 17 months tick history.)

2] Unlike AB, no real time data exchange between excel & MS. (there is OLE linking.. but too much of limitations in it)

3] You can not manipulate basic arrays like O,H,L,C,OI,V like you can do it in AB. (eg you can tell amibroker to use reliance's volume as nifty's volume or any complex calculations done inside or outside AB in real time.)

4] I was shocked when I came to know basic tool like fibonacci extention was intrdouced in version 10 only.

5] Most importantly, To survive in the market , you always need to have an edge... ability to adapt uncommon techniques...
but MS is is very inflexible..... it puts hard limits to your creativity.

& there is much more to differentiate.


Omkar

 

[sanx]

@omkarmango , thanks for a detailed reply . would like to hear more on MS , AM ,neoticker or any other software for that matter , when I am in state to share info on a software, will post about it .

 

[beginner_av]

1] MS have 65500 records limit i.e. you can store max 16 days of tick history per symbol. (AB have no limit at all, I have 17 months tick history.)

You better be careful. There is a limit of 500000 after which it will be FIFO, so the last days data will keep going away as you add new data. SO keep regular backup.

The best thing about Ami is its fledging board with users posting a lot of things everyday. Now PSO and evolutionary optimization are going to be added along with Monte Carlo etc simulation. Great for that price.