Backtesting software with easy programming language?

[AMR]

Hi all, does anyone know of any backtesting software which is easy to programme?

Spent the last few days busting my head reading that MT4 documentation, are there some easier programmes? I have done an introductory MATLAB course but it was extremely basic.

[AMR]

I believe if you have vast knowledge of the various techniques that are available in technical analysis, and get enough chart time and view enough charts over a extended period of time ...learn to read Price and volume like a book in its simplest form, than you will understand what works and what doesn't without backtesting! Back testing is a approach which is totally unnecessary if you have done your education & chart time, I see back testing as a lack of experience or confidence, It is often used by new traders who burn out when trying their back tested methods in real trades. Often backtesting is done by more passive longer term trend followers who need a confidence supplementation.

True for short term traders. You have close to 3k trades now? But I am a position trader and my trades play out over weeks, not within the week. Brent Steenbarger supports your reasoning in a daytrading context, but I'm a long term trader predominantly and thus need to rely on more studied methods as opposed to "instinct".[/quote]

[AMR]

Amibroker - V hard to programme.
MT4 - Same.

I'm looking at CTL right now (GFT's charting and backtesting) and it seems easier than the rest. More similar to MATLAB, no funny variables or conventions. I found the MT4 documentation very lacking.

What I would really like is something with guided backtesting similar to CMC's old marketmaker platform (Prorealtime) with very little programming required, but with more functionality to backtest things like gaps and candlestick formations. Prorealtime is too expensive though at 70euro a month for ASX equities.

Of course if someone has a way to set up a live data feed into Excel that would be great too.

[AMR]

Yes i will definitely take a look at that omnitrader site then, maybe disassemble some of the code to play with.

[AMR]

Found a good backtester on Ninjatrader. It allows you to play with indicator interactions i.e buy when bollinger channels break above keltner channels. It has an easy to use "wizard" like some of those installer programmes to put your backtest or indicator together. It's free but requires registration and is not the most stable programme.

[Phaedrus]

AMR, Have you looked at MetaStock? I find backtesting to be a very useful tool and use it (along with optimisation) a lot. - MetaStock does most of what I want and is quite easy to set up. No programming skills are needed. I'm not suggesting for a moment that it is the ultimate in back-testing software because it is not. The gold-standard is probably TradeStation, but it is quite expensive and a lot more complex to use. I have got OmniTrader too and don't use it, preferring MetaStock. In essence OT is little more than an automated equivalent of MS. It's biggest advantage is that it automatically splits your data into 2 sets, backtesting and optimising your chosen indicators on the first set, then "forward testing" the optimised parameters on the second set, presenting detailed performance data on both. This avoids "curve-fitting" - something you need to guard against. It's all too easy to "develop" a "system" that gives superb backtested results, but which proves to be quite useless going forward.

Unless you specifically need something that MetaStock cannot do, I would recommend it. It has such a huge number of users that the net has countless examples of indicators, screens, systems, etc should you need more help than the program itself supplies.