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It is in alpha stage, but the principal is C# code base with ability to backtest HUGE amounts of data, millions of ticks in just minutes. The video is very impressive.
Thanks for the link Mike, TickZoom does sound interesting.. definitely worth looking into although I wish they would not refer to it as 'open source' when they want you to pay $1500+ per year for access to it =)
Still, if their framework lives up to the hype and the API is well structured it might be worth it.
Elliot Wave mentioned wealth lab a few posts back. The latest version of wealth lab was completely recoded in c# from c++ I believe, I have not actually used it but I have translated some of their indicators and it looks to have some interesting features.
Unfortunately the developers of Wealth lab were bought out by Fidelity prior to the release of the c# version so now it only works with that brokerage.
I never knew MetaStock and MetaTrader weren't the same. Wow interesting. So do you have opinions on MetaTrader having used it personally or just from what others are saying?
I switched to TradeStation and haven't looked back. I can make an indicator and/or strategy in TS with just a few lines of code. In NT it's so tedious. Yes C# is really more powerful I agree, and I'm a programmer by profession. But in my experience the best strategies are the really simple ones. I don't need all that power.
TS still crashes but i'm probably pushing it to its limits. It crashes much less often than NT. I can abort a backtest or data download. I can have multiple symbols on one chart. Historical uptick/downtick information is a must. The workspaces are easy to use and fast, I can switch between my workspaces in milliseconds. All windows are inside one TS window. No more filling up the taskbar with tons of windows. No more modal dialogs (ok there is one, the performance viewer but I don't use it often). I could go on and on but one wouldn't appreciate it until they try TS.
I can see that TS stopped evolving and it's only a matter of time before it's way outdated. But as it is now it's still way better than NT. It's so easy to use I love it. I'm tired of Ninjatrader hanging while downloading data from IQFeed. I can cancel IQFeed but unfortunately I bought a multi-broker lifetime license for Ninja so that I'm out.
Having used Ninja with IB, IQfeed, eSignal, and Zen Fire, I can say without a doubt that there is absolutely NO COMPARISON -- Zen Fire wins hands down for speed and reliability. And I'm not even referring to the speed of the real time data feed (which is the best) but really I am referring to the speed of downloading chart data, backtesting data, the whole API as it relates to Ninja is far superior with Zen. Afterall, Ninja was written for Zen to begin with, the rest are after thoughts.
Mind you, NT still has tons of problems, but not nearly as many as it did when I used IQfeed or IB. Just FYI, you should get a demo Zen account and see how many issues go away.
Some good things about MetaTrader is its free to use, with many brokers there is easily over a decade of historical data, and there are probably more indicators than the rest of the platforms combined. Another plus is that compared to NT its lighting quick. I can have 10 charts with 10 indicators each and the program feels more responsive than NT with one chart (hopefully NT7 changes this equation).
For me some drawbacks are that most of the MetaTrader brokers suck (though thats changing) and that the backtesting is rather weak. The Expert Advisors (strategies) in MetaTrader also don't seem as robust as NT.
If you interested in it, I would suggest downloading a non-expiring demo from a broker then checking out Forexfactory.com and Forex-TSD.com to get a feel for the community and vast number of indicators freely available.
I agree about Zen-Fire, but how far back does their historical data go? I was under the impression that it was limited. I tried last night to get ES ##-## and I got nothing from zen-fire, I had to use IQ. I could get ES U09 though so it may be aproblem with continuous contracts?
I also trade stocks so that keeps me on IQFeed for historical and IB for realtime..
