Software for backtesting and strategy development

Hi folks.

Can anyone recommend free or inexpensive software and data sources that can be used for backtesting and strategy development?

Being of a technical persuasion, scripting and/or APIs are attractive, but it's not clear to me whether those features are available on free/inexpensive products. Since I'm not going to be in a position to trade futures (or indeed make proper money) for some time, I don't want to fork out for expensive subscriptions and data feeds.

Alternatively, if what I'm looking for doesn't exist, how else would you recommend I go about backtesting?

Background context: I'm a noobie. Been spending some time reading here and on other sites, building knowledge. FYI, my plan goes something like this:

open SB account, play on the markets, lose 9% of my £1000 account in two days (done, though the loss wasn't strictly planned)
STOP! (done)
learn strategy basics (in progress)
get means for backtesting (subject of this post)
test and tinker with strategy with backtesting
test and tinker with strategy on a demo account
when demo account is substantially up, start with SB with tiny tiny stakes
struggle through teething pains of trading with real money
eventually, start compounding
when account and experience is adequate, switch to futures and start making proper money

cheers,
m!chael.

Depends what sort of strategy you want to backtest.

do you want to develop a charting setup which you know worked in the past? I believe there are programs that will let you step through historical data applying your strategy manually.

Or do you want to invent a mechanical system that requires no discretion to trade? There are lots of programs that do that.

There's an old thread somewhere on historical data suppliers you should check out. Some of them also supply charting /backtesting software gratis.

There are also free sources of historical data that you could plug into free packages like ninjatrader which is free and quite powerful.

Ninja Trader does pretty much what you're asking.

Thanks, Adamus!

Not yet entirely sure whether I'll go for something mechanical, or something a little more discretionary: I can see pros and cons of both. What I do know is I've an aptitude for analytical and programming problems, so I might as well employ that in my trading, whether it's executing trades or just helping me stay rational.

Found what might be the thread you referred to on historical data:

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/end-day-data/12433-historical-intraday-sources-2.html

Lots of sources there for me to investigate

Thanks again for the tips. Anyone else got suggestions or ideas?

cheers,
m!chael.

check this post

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/first-steps/83340-complete-newbie-looking-start-5.html#post1087950

m!chael said:

Thanks, Adamus!

Not yet entirely sure whether I'll go for something mechanical, or something a little more discretionary: I can see pros and cons of both. What I do know is I've an aptitude for analytical and programming problems, so I might as well employ that in my trading, whether it's executing trades or just helping me stay rational.

Found what might be the thread you referred to on historical data:

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/end-day-data/12433-historical-intraday-sources-2.html

Lots of sources there for me to investigate

Thanks again for the tips. Anyone else got suggestions or ideas?

cheers,
m!chael.

Click to expand...

Amibroker is about £200, has excellent support and you can get EOD feed for free from various sources. If you can write formula's in excel you'll get to grips with the programming in a short space of time. You'll also get plently of help on their yahoo group.

UTB

thinkorswim has this new thing called thinkondemand. its a program where you can actually set the charts and data and quotes etc back in time to whatever date you want. u basically hit play and it starts replaying all of the market activity before your eyes so u can trade with real life market data as if you had just traveled back in time. pretty bad ass if u ask me. u have to have a funded account with them tho.

pmccandless said:

thinkorswim has this new thing called thinkondemand. its a program where you can actually set the charts and data and quotes etc back in time to whatever date you want. u basically hit play and it starts replaying all of the market activity before your eyes so u can trade with real life market data as if you had just traveled back in time. pretty bad ass if u ask me. u have to have a funded account with them tho.

Click to expand...

You can do that with Amibroker without any funded account.

UTB

the blades said:

You can do that with Amibroker without any funded account.

UTB

Click to expand...

Don't you have to buy it for $199 for the standard version?

pmccandless said:

Don't you have to buy it for $199 for the standard version?

Click to expand...

Yes, it appears so.

Many thanks for all the useful replies. Ninjatrader would be my first choice, but their website seems to be down. Never mind: I now have the last 2000 hours of the USD/EUR hourly in front of me in MT4, and there seems to be plenty of analytical toys in there to keep me occupied

cheers,
m!chael