Amibroker is great and cheap

I’ve absolutely no idea how some people can trade without first backtesting, however that’s just the way I’m wired!   …

Check out his website.  He tracks multiple trading systems that he developed and basically trades on autopilot.  http://users.bigpond.com/morleym/index.htm 

Out of the 3 systems I’ve used for backtesting, I really think that amibroker is the best and it’s the cheapest.  Here are the pros and cons I’ve noticed for each:

Esignal

Pros:  Nice reports and graphs post-backtest; the ability to backtest already written custom indicators with minor modifications

Cons: Expensive; no ability for optimization  

Metastock

Pros:  Full featured suite of already made trading systems
Cons: I found the entire product very confusing and I’m a programmer; Expensive

Amibroker 

Pros: Intuitive user interface; fast; ability to optimize backtesting
Cons: they don’t provide data so you need to download free data or use your currency provider (esignal plugin) 

The most important backtesting functionality is the ability to optimize your trading systems.  For example, what if you wanted to backtest a moving average crossover.  With esignal, you would have to manually change the moving average periods you want to test which would require an individual backtest for each moving average pair.  With amibroker or metastock, you can use variables and have the program go through an entire range of moving averages all in one shot.  It really is a powerful feature.

I’m using amibroker now and I don’t see how I would ever use anything else.  In addition the full version was only about $250. 

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