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At 10:26 AM -0400 5/27/98, Gene Batten wrote:
>I am looking for some good trading-system testing software other than
>Tradestation. I understand that Tradestation costs about $2400 US which
>is more than I think system testing software should cost. Maybe I am
>just "cheap". Is Tradestation really worth that much?
>
>All I want to do is test trading systems. Charts and technical analysis
>info are available from other sources. I would appreciate comments and
>advise from members of this list.
>
If your trading system is more than a few lines in length, (and it better
be), there is really no other choice. There are other products but they
tend to be limited in what kind of systems you can create.
In addition, there are a large number of programs for TradeStation that are
available from many sources. This makes it easy to build upon the work of
others and helps you learn the many quirks of programming the product.
But don't plan on making money with the canned systems and indicators that
come with the product. To create a profitable system, you will need to
write your own system in their EasyLanguage. It is pretty simple if you
have any computer programming experience but can be pretty difficult if you
don't. Most of the power is in the library of functions which take a lot of
time to learn to use effectively.
There are also several newsletters, such as TSExpress, that explain many of
the idiosyncrasies of using the product. I suggest you buy several of these
and get all the back issues. It will save you a lot of effort.
The other option is to purchase a trading system from someone. In my
experience, this rarely works because there are so many variables in every
style of trading. It is very unlikely that you will find a good system that
actually works and that fits your style of trading. Besides, most of the
ones that you can buy for any reasonable price are worthless. Why would
anyone sell you, for a few thousand dollars, a printing press to print
money?
To put the cost in perspective, the cost of the software will be
insignificant when you consider the cost of the time you spend learning to
use it and the cost of all the money you will lose learning to trade.
It certainly is not perfect but as of now, it is about the only game in
town. There is new competition on the horizon but still some time away.
Windows-on-Wall-Street Pro should start to give them some competition as
should a new product called TradeLab. Both are reported to be able to run
translated TradeStation programs but this remains to be seen.
Bob Fulks
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