Hi guys,

Hope your doing well. I am trying to pick a software for doing basic backtesting and doing some research. I have tried amibroker for a month trial. It seems to be really good. But the learning curve and codeing is a bit hard (I donot have any prior experience of codeing). Plus lack of resources and discussion forums where I can seek help is missing (their main forum seems to not that great).
I am currently confused with multicharts and ninjatrader.
Would like to know your views on these 2.

P. S I don't have much of codeing experience. Though I can learn the basics fast but I guess while codeing a startergy, I would get stuck and would need some help from the community on how to proceed.

ALSO I AM NOT FROM USA, I TRADE THE INDIAN STOCK MARKETS

Ninja trader 8 has a back test tool that also optimizes your parameters. It's very easy to learn to use. So easy i can do it.
There are lots of videos you can watch that are very helpful. there is also a strategy builder that takes out the need to write code . I learned to use it also . I also subscribe to The Indicator Store. Pablo Maglio is the owner He puts out a video every week with a new strategy and posts the templates to download on NT 8 . Very educational. I have learned a lot form him . He also teaches you how to use the strategy builder on NT.

Good Luck
Chris

To be blunt, I traded for years, actually decades, to arrive at my trading strategies for stocks, options, and futures. Because my top priority is liquidity, I limit my algo trades to stocks and futures. I never found a software package that met my requirements. You ask 100 traders the best way to trade and you will get at least 100 answers. What canned package can accommodate that? Answer: NONE. So you either trade using someone else's rules, pay someone else to code it, or you code it yourself. I wanted to be able to tweak it myself as necessary so I learned Python. There are tons of tutorials, snippets, and code examples all over the internet, as well as full-blown Python classes. So I learned Python. Let me say that so much of the math I need to calculate indicators is done inside huge canned packages written for just that purpose. So you are learning interfacing with the API's, feeding the right numbers to calculate indicators, issuing instructions via the API's, etc. I don't worry about charts, limit orders, etc. I backtested until it gave me good results and let 'er rip. This style is probably not for everyone but it does serve me well.

From what I've heard, the two 'serious' choices are MultiCharts and TradeStation, if you want to use EasyLanguage. If you're into Python and C+ etc, you get into others.

I haven't used NinjaTrader but keep reading that it is slightly less complete.

That said, many folks use NinjaTrader successfully so it's definitely worth a look. There are lots of videos on it here on the forum.

I use Multicharts and am shortly going to get TradeStation too. They all have backtesting, but be careful doing that; walk forward is essential, with blind periods. What TC says above also applies; it's as much about mastering your complete setup, than it is about mastering one thing.

TradeStation comes with a TradeStation brokerage account.

MultiCharts is standalone, so you connect it to your broker and separate data feeds.

Both TS and MC are a bit buggy when you use them at a 'power user' level... but they also are exceptionally good systems. Why use them if they're buggy? They're the best there is, so it's a case of 'better the devil you know' - you just have to be ready for it, work with other more experienced traders who can help you when you come across little issues.

For example I was up past midnight fixing a Multicharts bug on the CL ticker last night that can sometimes give you a broker position mismatch.

It didn't take long to fix; what took a while was working out how to fix it.... but thankfully I have a pal who has vast experience of this sort of thing.

All sorted now and pleased to see my position not only green from a position perspective (eg. chart matches broker) but also green in the money.

Long may that continue!

J