Mr_You

R and RStudio. Here is a very basic quick start guide.

If you have a PC with a decent amount of RAM (2GB or more) you might download and install VirtualBox (free open source virtualization software). This will enable you to run virtual machines on your PC. Install Linux or Windows in a VirtualBox virtual machine. Otherwise sign up with Amazon Web Services and use their EC2 service to boot up a VPS. It costs a few cents an hour. Try a Google search to find answers to any questions you might have.

Right now I'm only developing automated trading strategies. I'm just about to start forward testing my first strategy on small tick value instrument(s) using real money. It meets the requirements below. Its taken me along time to get here, but my confidence is growing. I've learned from an experienced retail/institutional trader that a usable (consistent) strategy must be profitable across multiple timeframes and multiple instruments and have an equity curve with no major drawdowns (no major cliffs). Meaning it can't be profitable on the 60M timeframe and blowup on a 59M timeframe and it needs to be profitable for ES, 6E, CL, etc. Like BlueHorseshoe says, if there is a perfect diagonal curve then something is wrong. PM me if you want to be pointed to a webinar from the automated trader mentioned above.

Maybe try importing your data into an SQL database. Some options to consider are: SQL Server Express (free with restrictions) or SQL Server (pay) by Microsoft MySQL by Oracle (free with restrictions) PostgreSQL by an Open Source Community (free with no restrictions) SQL Server Express may be the easiest for you. Make sure you backup your source data!

I'm not trading yet, but I'm leaning toward considering MB Trading and Interactive Brokers.

The best phone/platform for trading is the one best supported by your broker (most features, developer support, etc.). For example with Interactive Brokers, they seem to support the iPhone the best.

Just download/install NinjaTrader and get a Zen-Fire demo account. You can "reup" the demo account every other 30 days or so (for now).

The easiest for me, using NinjaTrader, was to get a demo account with Zen-Fire. It seems you can reup the demo about every other 30 days.

Steps to get you started: Step 1: Download and install NinjaTrader. Step 2: Play with the Market Analyzer and Strategy/Indicator Wizards. Step 3: Read the code generated by the wizards and understand it til you can modify. Keep playing and playing until your new software and methods give you enough confidence to use them to trade.

From what I've read Microsoft Security Essentials is the best AV program today for most users. Benchmarking has shown it uses lighter resources but protects well enough for most users. For most users there is no reason to pay for AV software.

The current version of NinjaTrader can only do Cumulative Delta with the "GOMI" indicator(s). The next major version is expected to have some builtin capabilities. Data feed wise, DTN/IQFeed (or Kinetick for NinjaTrader) is your best bet.

Download and install NinjaTrader (its free) and use its Market Replay feature and free (downloadable) data. Check out their site and view the tutorial videos to see how its done. You'll be able to replay Futures market data and test out your trading skills in "real-time" by replaying data for a given day versus only looking for potential opportunities from old charts.

I also think you will not learn how to trade from these signaling services because you do not learn the internals of how their signals are generated. You're better off learning a tried and true price action trading method. A quote from someone on another forum: "Zulutrade is not trading. It is gambling in my opinion."

FYI... Automated trading platforms use programming languages to execute trading algorithms ("if then trade"). Examples include NinjaTrader, TradeStation, MultiCharts, NeoTicker, etc. Trading signal services such as Zulutrade or Collective2 etc. are NOT automated trading platforms.

NinjaTrader. Its free for paper/sim trading. There is no monthly trial. You only pay when you want to trade live.