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What is the easiest / best back-testing software?


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What is the easiest / best back-testing software?

  #1 (permalink)
 john5 
Los Angeles, California, United States
 
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Hello,

I use Ninja 8 and Thinkorswim. Is there a consensus on the easiest way to backtest? I'm open to something else than Ninja 8 and Thinkorswim.

Thank you.

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  #3 (permalink)
 
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 shodson 
OC, California, USA
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I use ToS and Ninjatrader, but I only backtest with Ninjatrader, because I can take my backtesting strategy and turn it into a live trading algorithm, unlike thinkorswim.

As far as "easiest", in what way?
  1. Easiest to test?
  2. Easiest to code?
  3. Easiest to analyze?

Just depends on what you're looking for.

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  #4 (permalink)
LaserChicken
Cheltenham, United Kingdom
 
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Really depends what you are looking for..

I use sierra charts and they have excellent replay functionality, I guess thats more useful for a 'manual' sort of backtest. If your talking algo strategies I'm not sure how good Sierra would be as I've never experimented in that area myself...

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  #5 (permalink)
 loantelligence 
Syracuse, NY
 
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I find NT7 the easiest to code and to test and to analyze.....NT8 leaves a lot to be desired...I have a lot of problems in Backtesting NT8

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  #6 (permalink)
 john5 
Los Angeles, California, United States
 
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shodson View Post
I use ToS and Ninjatrader, but I only backtest with Ninjatrader, because I can take my backtesting strategy and turn it into a live trading algorithm, unlike thinkorswim.

As far as "easiest", in what way?
  1. Easiest to test?
  2. Easiest to code?
  3. Easiest to analyze?

Just depends on what you're looking for.

I don't know how to code, so easiest to test without coding.

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  #7 (permalink)
 john5 
Los Angeles, California, United States
 
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loantelligence View Post
I find NT7 the easiest to code and to test and to analyze.....NT8 leaves a lot to be desired...I have a lot of problems in Backtesting NT8

What is the issue with NT8? I thought it supposed to be an upgrade vs NT7, but I have never had NT7 so I don't know.

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  #8 (permalink)
 loantelligence 
Syracuse, NY
 
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NT 8 is an upgrade to NT7 however the backtesting was much better in 7 than in 8....don't know why....the simplest of programs are tougher to program and run in 8....I don't think they spent a lot of time on it...either that or I just haven't figured it out yet....7 was simple.

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 shodson 
OC, California, USA
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The strategy builder wizard in NT8 is much better than NT7.

Regarding comments by @loantelligence about NT8 being inferior to NT7, NinjaTrader changed a lot of the programming objects / APIs when they moved to NT8, so lots of NT7 code won't run in NT8, has to be converted. It was a pain but overall the newer APIs are better. But some of the changes in NT8, regarding backtesting, I do not like either, and the software tends to lockup more frequently, or I have problems getting all of the data I need in the backtest sometimes.

Here's what changed from NT7 to NT8

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/en-us/?code_breaking_changes.htm

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  #10 (permalink)
 loantelligence 
Syracuse, NY
 
Experience: Intermediate
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Sorry I didnt say NT8 was inferior to NT7....the backtesting is much better in 7 than in 8.....Granted Strategy Analyzer is more powerful....but its more difficult to work with....quite often not sure what NT8 is trying to tell me....writing a simple compare current bar(0) to previous(1) bar worked in both 7 and 8 but when i wanted to compare previous(1) to previous(2)...7 no problem 8 tells me Ive got a duplicate instruction....duh.....I dont....but it ignores the bar back portion of the instruction......created a strategy and ran it got results.......then come back later....same strategy....doesnt run.....no results....so i am finding much difficulty in working with 8......and this is just the simple stuff....

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