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My Problems with Multicharts


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My Problems with Multicharts

  #1 (permalink)
 
greenroomhoo's Avatar
 greenroomhoo 
annapolis USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja, MC, Sierra, Amibroker
Broker: PFG (too bad), IB, Fidelity, AMP
Trading: ES, NQ, Equities, Forex, Etc.
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I spent a year on Tradestation and got frustrated and left. Tried multicharts and was drawn to it by the portfolio backtesting and easylanguage. There are many things i like about it that are improvements over tradestation...but I have had lots of problems with portfolio backtesting on large portfolios - +200 symbols on decent sized data.

There is a memory issue with portfolio backtesting (something about 32 bit vs. 64bit) that renders that function unusable beyond a hundred or so symbols on longer times (TO BE FAIR OTHER APPS LIKE NINJA AND SIERRA DONT OFFER PORTFOLIO BACKTESTING). In addition i have had lots of issues with regular backtesting (just had a fresh one) that have caused me to all but abandon the platform. The only functionality i still use is the radarscreen for swing type analysis.

I now use Ninja and Sierra for my intraday work. Until now i was still using MC's backtesting functionality to test my theories, but after losing hours of work i am finished with that too.

Maybe this will all be resolved in the 64 bit version (was due out this year now "early next year") and perhaps i will become happy again then. But all things being equal I regret the purchase of my license and wish i had invested time in easy language in Ninja and Sierra s languages.

Now i am 6 months pregnant in easylanguage and about to start learning C again.

For what its worth - Sierra is a very powerful platform that is cheap and allows you to do lots of things in the chart that you need programming to do in MC and Ninja.

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  #2 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
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Sorry things didn't work out.

But "buyer beware" ??? Seriously? It seems you didn't test this functionality during your free trial period before buying. I don't think it's fair to use a phrase like "buyer beware", because such a phrase is usually associated with scams.

Do you really think MultiCharts is a scam?

MC certainly is not perfect. I still think it is one of the best platforms available. But even when there is a problem with MC or I don't like something, I would never use such a phrase "buyer beware".

A more appropriate title might be "Didn't test everything that was critical to me before buying, now unhappy". Just saying...

Mike

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  #3 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
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greenroomhoo View Post
DO NOT BUY A LICENSE if portfolio backtesting on decent sized data is important..

Would you mind being a bit more specific and detailed?

How many symbols, exactly?

What type of data? Tick data? Minute data?

What length of period?

Mike

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  #4 (permalink)
 
cory's Avatar
 cory 
virginia
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: ninja
Trading: NQ
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Big Mike View Post
Sorry things didn't work out.

But "buyer beware" ??? Seriously? It seems you didn't test this functionality during your free trial period before buying. I don't think it's fair to use a phrase like "buyer beware", because such a phrase is usually associated with scams.

Do you really think MultiCharts is a scam?

MC certainly is not perfect. I still think it is one of the best platforms available. But even when there is a problem with MC or I don't like something, I would never use such a phrase "buyer beware".

A more appropriate title might be "Didn't test everything that was critical to me before buying, now unhappy". Just saying...

Mike

for a
I see MC offers 30 day trial if you take 2 weeks to learn a new software then not much time left for a complex backtesting.

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  #5 (permalink)
 ehlaban 
Netherlands
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Ensign, Multicharts
Trading: SP500
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greenroomhoo View Post
I spent a year on Tradestation and got frustrated and left. Tried multicharts and was drawn to it by the portfolio backtesting and easylanguage. There are many things i like about it that are improvements over tradestation...but DO NOT BUY A LICENSE if portfolio backtesting on decent sized data is important.

There is a memory issue with portfolio backtesting (something about 32 bit vs. 64bit) that renders that function unusable beyond a hundred or so symbols. In addition i have had lots of issues with regular backtesting (just had a fresh one) that have caused me to all but abandon the platform. The only functionality i still use is the radarscreen for swing type analysis.

I now use Ninja and Sierra for my intraday work. Until now i was still using MC's backtesting functionality to test my theories, but after losing hours of work i am finished with that too.

Maybe this will all be resolved in the 64 bit version (was due out this year now "early next year") and perhaps i will become happy again then. But all things being equal I regret the purchase of my license and wish i had invested time in easy language in Ninja and Sierra s languages.
.

Now what i don't understand is if it's a memory issue isn't that the case with all 32 bit programs at the moment
or is the backtesting in MC so inefficient that in other programs like Ninja or Sierra you don't have that memory issue with equal amount of backtesting load ?!??

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  #6 (permalink)
 
greenroomhoo's Avatar
 greenroomhoo 
annapolis USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja, MC, Sierra, Amibroker
Broker: PFG (too bad), IB, Fidelity, AMP
Trading: ES, NQ, Equities, Forex, Etc.
Posts: 276 since Jun 2011
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Thanks Received: 235

300 or so symbols on maybe 200 days of daily data runs out of memory after maybe 6 or so runs in portfolio backtester.

My computer is a quad processor with 16gigs of ram.

during my trial i spent most of my time getting comfortable with the system and did not really try a decent sized portfolio.

Solution is to run portfolio testing on smaller sample sizes...but really what is the point when doing that.

Another annoyance that i really cannot say enough bad things about - in my experience the settings for just about every future i load from iqfeed needs to be changed. If the settings are not correct you will crash MC.
For example i wanted to look at the dax. I loaded the symbol but the default settings in MC are 1/100, not 1/2. did not realize it was incorrect and crashed MC. Once you max the memory then it is time for a reboot and all the efficiency lost with that.

The delta in MC is also wrong -

Keyboard shortcuts? I knew about this deficiency so am responsible for my frustration here but can still point this out.

If i had to do it all over again i would have bought a ninja license and learned the programming language for backtesting ideas, tweaks, etc.

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  #7 (permalink)
 
greenroomhoo's Avatar
 greenroomhoo 
annapolis USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja, MC, Sierra, Amibroker
Broker: PFG (too bad), IB, Fidelity, AMP
Trading: ES, NQ, Equities, Forex, Etc.
Posts: 276 since Jun 2011
Thanks Given: 107
Thanks Received: 235

Ok - no it is not a scam but MC does not make it clear that memory constraints will impact (IN my opinion - SEVERELY) your ability to backtest. If i had truly understood that issue, i would not have bought it.

My opinion may change with 64bit. Ill change the title of thread to something like: "My negative review of MC" or something like that if you like - but i dont know how.



Big Mike View Post
Sorry things didn't work out.

But "buyer beware" ??? Seriously? It seems you didn't test this functionality during your free trial period before buying. I don't think it's fair to use a phrase like "buyer beware", because such a phrase is usually associated with scams.

Do you really think MultiCharts is a scam?

MC certainly is not perfect. I still think it is one of the best platforms available. But even when there is a problem with MC or I don't like something, I would never use such a phrase "buyer beware".

A more appropriate title might be "Didn't test everything that was critical to me before buying, now unhappy". Just saying...

Mike


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  #8 (permalink)
 
Lornz's Avatar
 Lornz 
Oslo, Norway
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: CQG, Excel
Trading: CL
Posts: 1,193 since Apr 2010

Have you tried AmiBroker for backtesting portfolios? It's arguably the best in its price range.

If you can afford it, and only do EOD, take a look at Mechanica.

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  #9 (permalink)
 
greenroomhoo's Avatar
 greenroomhoo 
annapolis USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja, MC, Sierra, Amibroker
Broker: PFG (too bad), IB, Fidelity, AMP
Trading: ES, NQ, Equities, Forex, Etc.
Posts: 276 since Jun 2011
Thanks Given: 107
Thanks Received: 235

thanks - how easy is it to customize things in Amibroker...like simple bar patterns etc.?




Lornz View Post
Have you tried AmiBroker for backtesting portfolios? It's arguably the best in its price range.

If you can afford it, and only do EOD, take a look at Mechanica.


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  #10 (permalink)
 
greenroomhoo's Avatar
 greenroomhoo 
annapolis USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja, MC, Sierra, Amibroker
Broker: PFG (too bad), IB, Fidelity, AMP
Trading: ES, NQ, Equities, Forex, Etc.
Posts: 276 since Jun 2011
Thanks Given: 107
Thanks Received: 235


i dont know if it is an issue in the others or not or if it is just MC specific.



ehlaban View Post
Now what i don't understand is if it's a memory issue isn't that the case with all 32 bit programs at the moment
or is the backtesting in MC so inefficient that in other programs like Ninja or Sierra you don't have that memory issue with equal amount of backtesting load ?!??


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Last Updated on August 21, 2013


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