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Professional alternatives to Excel for statistics/backtesting intraday data?
In summary, I have a custom made application in C# that calculates various statistics and metrics for a given trading day using 1-minute intraday data. This is exported to Excel for sorting and visualization. It also uses a SQL database.
This was made according to my specifications. I now see myself having to make changes to it. I find it a little too slow and I also want to change some of the logic and add new logic/statistics.
The obvious problem is that I'm dependent on programmers to accomplish this. This is a huge disadvantage both with regards to time, money and not being able to make changes directly myself.
All logic is created by me, so that's not a problem. I simply have close to zero programming knowledge.
However, at this crossroad, I'm considering if there might be any out of the box software that might suit my needs. Cost is not a major issue, but up to a certain point of course. I wouldn't have any problems paying $1000-2000 if I found something worth my while.
The other alternative is to actually learn to program myself. This will probably be a long-term plan anyway. I have no doubt I will be able to learn to code, but I'm simply short on time these days, while I have a lot of actionable ideas in the market place that I would want to start testing and using right now.
If I were to learn programming myself, I expect that it might take me 6-12 months before I start getting somewhere and probably a lot longer to get proficient.
Any thoughts or advice?
Thanks in advance.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
LaissezFaire -
I have built a backtesting software in c# and sql server over the last 2-3 years in my spare time. It has quite a few advanced features such as multithreading, multiobjective genetic optimization, extensive reporting etc... Using my software I get results faster than Ninjatrader, Tradestation and many other off the shelf software. Of course I have to do much much more yet ;-) My point is that custom solutions are the best if you are able to go for that approach. They will always be generally faster and more efficient.
If you use c# and especially dot net then NUGET is your best friend. Google nuget and see. I have used this service to download and extensively test various dot net libraries and use the ones that fit my purpose and even mix and mash and extend the libraries I have deemed suitable for me. I am pretty sure there will be multiple statistics & math libraries there and something that would be suitable for you.
Good luck,
iq
Thanks, man. I took a quick peek and it seems interesting. Will look more into this.
Thanks. Will look into this.
Cool! Did you have any programming experience prior to this?
I never heard of NUGET, so will do a search on this.
To clarify, I'm NOT programming myself, I've hired people to do it. But that doesn't mean I can't come with suggestions to them when doing an upgrade. So, I will take a look.
Thanks. I will take a look.
But I doubt if it will do everything I'm interested in doing?
