Favorite Backtesting Platform?

All,

I'm looking for opinions on your favorite back testing platform. Anyone have some recommendations?

Thanks,
-Funk

Just use the 'OnDemand' feature that is part of TOS. It allows real time play back or you can go 3x speed. I just wish it was allow you to move and half day or whole day intervals instead of just minutes and seconds.

funkho,

Depends on what you are trying to accomplish. TOS OnDemand works pretty well. It will play back an entire day as it transpired and you can adjust the speed as RR pointed out. The benefit is that you get to see the entire market as it unfolded during the day. I used StrategyDesk years ago where you could program in your settings, tell it to buy if this happens, exit if that happens, and see the end results over time. A bit antiquated compared to newer tools on the market. TradeStation has some really cool tools if you are a systems trader and can clearly define your conditions (if A & B & C then buy, exit if D, etc.). TS also allows has an optimization feature that help enhance your strategy. I played around early on and watched the demos but didn't go too deep as I am trying to do as instructed, doing the homework, and learning the art as taught by GW without getting caught up in the programming side. The new kid on the block has a really cool feature as well - Alchemcharts. I haven't seen it in action but the most recent version supposedly allows you to sync all charts and allows you to see what the charts looked liked for a particular symbol at a given time (e.g., if you want to see what the W, D, and 233 looked like at 1:23 on Wednesday of last week it will show you). No more looking back in time and seeing a completed Daily or Weekly. You will see the equivalent of five 233 candles on Wednesday of last week at 1:23 across the big charts. This was built in to help those that are running the charts back and predicting future movement. You can see how the bigger charts formed (similar to TOS on Demand but much more manual and you have to focus on one symbol at a time - not the entire market)

NCT

The trade station feature is more of what I had in mind. I believe there are some other backtesting platforms as well. Ninja trader? That's the kind of back testing I was looking for. Basically for system development.

Example... Buy every HRFP on SPY 4 hr chart over the past 5 years... Exit on 30% up or 15% down.

Thanks!

You are correct. Haven't messed with Ninja in years but TradeStation will do what you are asking. You enter the buy and sell criteria, run it against say the entire S&P 500 (or any defined symbol list) over the last 5 years, and it will provide detailed statistics of the results (wins, losses, avg win/loss, max/min win/loss, etc.). You can then run the optimizer to help dial in the strategy for the best fit. Just telling you what I picked up from the demos. I haven't back tested a defined strategy in quite some time.