Backtesting markets

[simonb1965]

Which Platform?

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Hi,

Ive posted this in the first steps section and hopefully someone hear can point me in the right direction; Im wishing to trade end of day on UK, US and Asian stocks. I want to be able to backtest strategies on historical data. Can anyone recommend a platform. Im based in the UK. I contacted the Tradestation peole and they told me US stocks only. Esignal look like they only sell you the backtesting part if you buy into the realtime feed package. Is there any platform or package someone can recommend that allows me to back test and trade these markets.

Thanks in advance

Simon

 

[Trader333]

If you an get hold of a second hand copy of Tradestation 2000i then you can use other tools to import data that will allow backtesting. It is one of the best for doing this in my view.


Paul

 

[Rhody Trader]

Take a look at Metastock. It might suit your needs.

 

[MGBRoadster]

Amibroker is very reasonably priced, and imports free data. There's a fully functional demo you can try out - you just can't save the symbols.

Good luck

 

[Tadragh1]

There is WealthLab, too.
But you actually can easily backtest your strategies in Excel - it would not be very complicated in case you are dealing with EOD data. You get to really know your system well in the process, too.

 

[Chorlton]

Take a look at Metastock. It might suit your needs.

IMO Metastock is useless for backtesting purposes as you only test one security at a time and not a complete portfolio, which in reality is what you would trade.

 

[Chorlton]

Amibroker is very reasonably priced, and imports free data. There's a fully functional demo you can try out - you just can't save the symbols.

Good luck

I would highly recommend Amibroker as a charting package. If you are serious about backtesting then you will need to be able to conduct Monte Carlo Analysis. AB can do this to some extent but you need to get the code for exporting the results to excel to perform this. I don't have any actual experience with doing this though.

Personally, I use TradeSim in combination with AB. Takes a bit of time / effort to get the trade file into a format that TradeSim can understand but the results that can be obtained far outweigh the initial effort.

All IMO

 

[simonb1965]

Thanks everyone. I've heard Multicharts uses Easylanguage, allows backtesting and is more user friendly than TS2000. Can anyone comment on this?

 

[Chorlton]

Simon,

I have no knowledge of Multicharts, but I would confirm that the backtesting facility incorporates Portfolio testing. Single Security Backtesting is v.limited IMO