Hi Angelo --
Thanks for the encouragement for my new book -- Introduction to
AmiBroker. I have started a new thread to get away from the
"difficulty of AFL" thread.
You all know my feelings -- AmiBroker is clearly the best choice for a
trading systems development platform. My book is intended to make it
as easy as possible for as many people as possible to become competent
users of AmiBroker.
There is always a conflict between accessibility and completeness.
Introduction to AmiBroker is intended to be useful to people who have
absolutely no experience with AmiBroker, and perhaps little experience
with any programming language and little experience with trading
systems or even charting.
Should a book present the basics in enough detail so that everyone can
get started and use the most common features of AmiBroker? Or should
it present all of the features of AmiBroker, even though that will
make the book longer, heavier, more expensive, more overwhelming to a
new user, and very likely to slip out-of-date quickly?
I am leaning toward the former -- a book that presents the basics in
enough detail to get everyone started and reasonably proficient. My
thoughts are that AmiBroker is having its set of features expanded
regularly, and that no printed text can stay current and explain
everything, including screen captures and examples. Covering the
basics in detail is more valuable to new users than covering topics
such as Custom BackTester and creation of dlls in an introductory book.
I believe that there is a place for, and there may be a market for, a
book describing the advanced features of AmiBroker. But I am thinking
that is a separate book. Those of you who have read Quantitative
Trading Systems will note that I have focused on the development and
testing of trading systems, but used many of the advanced features of
AmiBroker to illustrate. I believe that advanced features are best
described in the context of specific examples such as these.
Most of the people reading these posts are already well into
AmiBroker, so your comments are from a group that has already had a
mostly successful experience. But I would appreciate constructive
suggestions from anyone who has thoughts and opinions about this.
The writing of Introduction to AmiBroker is well under way. I expect
to have copies available early 2008.
Thanks,
Howard
www.quantitativetradingsystems.com
www.blueowlpress.com