Beginners guide to system creation??

[hammer]

Hi,

As the title suggests is there any sort of beginners guide around? I've done a bit of reading which has led me to the tradestation website but i'm not a programmer so wouldn't really know where to start. CMC who I use for spreadbetting have a tool within their platform to allow for backtesting also however again it seems I need to know some code to use it. Is there a specific programming language I should look to learn to successfully program a system? I know some basic VBA and SQL.

Can anyone tell me where a good place to start is? Maybe a platform and even some example systems so I can see the code, what it is doing and analyse the results.

Thanks

 

[TrailingStop]

Hi hammer,

You can use my app to create you system. It uses a kind of C/C++ and it comes with a sample MA-crossover-strategy. This can show you how things work. You will also find a short video to show you how to access the IB-datafeed and how to start the strategy. It uses IB-Datafeed, backtesting will be available in one of the next releases. If you want to give it a try (it’s free ), here is the link:
Start: TradeProject

If you run into problems I will try to help you.
Daniel

 

[hammer]

Cheers Daniel,

Just downloaded the software and looking at the code

Guess I need an IB account to do anything with it? I'll look into opening a demo account with them tomorrow.

So is C++ definately the way to go if I want to design my own strategies? If so recommend any good sources/books to learn?

 

[samuelhogg]

Have a look at www.ninjatrader.com
Can be used in demo mode too.
Also they have daily webinars which are good.

 

[TrailingStop]

Cheers Daniel,

Just downloaded the software and looking at the code

Guess I need an IB account to do anything with it? I'll look into opening a demo account with them tomorrow.

So is C++ definately the way to go if I want to design my own strategies? If so recommend any good sources/books to learn?

Hi hammer,

C is the language I use in TradeProject for strategy-development. I did this because the compiler (express-version) from MS is free. I do not know EasyLanguage – which is afaik the standard for strategies, but I read somewhere, that it is also C-based. So please do not take my private opinion as final advice for you decision. To develop a first easy strategy I do not think that you need a book. You will only need some basics to do some arithmetic s, conditional branch and loops. So have a look at: Cprogramming.com - Programming Tutorials: C++ Made Easy and C Made Easy
TradeProject works with IB for quotes and for order management. You do not need to open any account to test it. Simply load the TWS from their site and start it. You have access to the ‘demo’ account if you use ‘edemo’ for user and ‘demouser’ for the password. That’s it.

Hope this makes it somewhat clearer?
Daniel

 

[alexander]

Hi,

I've done a bit of reading which has led me to the tradestation website but i'm not a programmer so wouldn't really know where to start.

The problem with all those fancy platforms is that you need to have a good grasp of computer programming and languages to develop anything of value other than trivial systems. I think this approach is outdated.

The current state of the art is to let computers do the work for you, find the systems and generate the language code:

Trading System Lab

Discover trading systems automatically with APS Automatic Pattern Search trading software

Alex

 

[hammer]

Trailing stop - I had a look at the videos on your site, ill hopefully get it started up this evening.

I've heard of Ninjatrader before and they have a GUI for developing strategies which might be worth trying a few simple things on.

Alex - Thanks for the links, ill give them a look too.

 

[hammer]

I got it started and ran the strategy for a couple of days to get used to how the orders, p&l etc. would be displayed. I tried looking at the code behind the strategy but it's all a little bit jibberish, I can pick up the bit's of the strategy but have got no chance of creating anything myself until i've learnt some C++.
In the meantime im using the Ninjatrader GUI to try a few simple strategies and viewing the code afterwords. I've also got to start thinking about trading in a different way, with very specific rules which i'm not used to having discretionary traded since I started! Oh well I'll get there one day!

Thanks for all your help guys, ill let you know how I get along!