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I prefer Multicharts and Ninja for charting and trading. However, I have found real challenges with their scanning (or lack thereof) of equities.
Ninja's market scanner is the best but it gets bogged down with too many securities.
Multicharts radar screen is good too but has its own quirks.
Neither allows you to have a full universe of equities and apply both fundamental as well as other screens to have a dynamic list.
For example - lets say i want to look at the charts every day for each equity >250k of volume that formed a hammer. To do that I have to load too many (3-4k) securities and both programs bog down. Further my subscription (IQ Feed) only allows 1000 of equities at a time. My workaround was to really narrow my list to like 500.... not really that smart.
So for fun (and because it is so inexpensive) and because i was going to be non trading for a while due to work travel, I bought a license to Amibroker to see how i liked it.....
Intro complete....more thoughts in next posting to avoid posting too long
My trading is like my avatar: Big, Hairy, and Full of S$&T.
Amibroker is far less intuitive than either Ninja or MC (which are pretty similar, except for their languages). It took me a lot longer than i expected to find my way around the program. Be prepared for a steep learning curve coming from MC, Ninja and even Sierra.
As far as time it takes to get up and running id rank them: Ninja, MC, Sierra, a bunch of others then...Amibroker.
Even after I have gotten my sea legs with the platform I still find its charting to not be as good as the others (this is of course personal preference and quite subjective).....that is where the BAD ends....and the GOOD far outweighs the BAD.....
The GOODs to follow in subsequent posts.
My trading is like my avatar: Big, Hairy, and Full of S$&T.
As far as backtesting, I dont think there is even a comparison between it and Ninja/MC. The speed is a revelation. Not only is the speed impressive on backtesting but also in scanning for stocks and flipping charts. I loaded the entire database of current equities (6,000+) from Finviz into the software. I then downloaded all the available Yahoo Finance historical data and fundamental data for all 6,000 + equities going back many years. (note this took some time....maybe an hour or so).
To run a scan on that universe takes about 30 seconds (maybe less). A portfolio backtest on that same universe takes maybe less than that (none of this is possible in either Ninja or MC near as i can tell - maybe it is using Tradestation). Once you get a scan result there is NO LAG flipping chart to chart. It is quite impressive.
Now i dont like the charts much so i export the list into Market Analyzer and use Ninja from there on.
My trading is like my avatar: Big, Hairy, and Full of S$&T.
I've been an amibroker user for nearly 7 years. I'm not a coder at all, but I've had a few scans and systems coded for me, as well as using what is available openly....
NT and MC was a breeze to learn after amibroker, so I see where you're coming from learning to use this after NT and MC.
Amibroker is very useful for finding pullbacks and other patterns for EOD trading. I honestly can't imagine using NT or MC For EOD trading.
I like to scan for pullbacks and then watch list developing chart patterns for swing trading.
Great application, great price. Lots of free support such as Howard Bandy's book, An Introduction to Amibroker.
i agree - sooo much better for swing trading equities. the learning curve is STEEP but worth climbing if one is swing trading equities.
Also i find the Yahoo board a bit challenging to use (massive understatement) coming from Bmikes or other resources for the other platforms.
The code i think is actually easier than both Easylanguage and Ninja. It may not be as flexible but simple things in it are so much easier to accomplish its quite confusing (coming from the other languages).
What type of scan do you use for pullbacks?
My trading is like my avatar: Big, Hairy, and Full of S$&T.
The best pull back scan I've found so far is the Dave Landry pullback scan, just on my iPad now, but if you google it there should be heaps of code come up....will post here later or tomorrow though.
All due to respect but you have no idea how much flexible AFL actually is. You have only scratched the surface so far.
Also objects like DOM or Panels etc. on chart ... that stuff has been possible for years in AB and e.g MC only recently came up with it. It's not even possible with EL/PL but needs C# in MC.
And another examples I have seen on the Internet recently is this
Try doing it with EL/PL. I have been using AB for many years and again I can guarantee that you have not even scratched the surface of what is really possible in AB.
Question: How do you embed videos here? Emded codes don't seem to work
would appreciate that greatly. any help getting more proficient with the application would be appreciated. do you have any coders you recommend? I have some stuff i would like to pay someone to do.
My trading is like my avatar: Big, Hairy, and Full of S$&T.
Out of interest I have just looked at the two code versions of Laundry pullback scan in the users' library and have found out that they are not effectively coded. If done a little bit better you can get nearly double-digit percent speed improvement just by better coding. Not sure which one of both you are looking for as I have no idea which one follows the rules by Laundry.
If you wish I can help you out on this. I'm proficient enough in AFL.