Newb to Trading Platforms Needs Some Help Choosing a Platform

[fmj 10]

I'm trying to get more organized with my trading. I trade equities and ETFs and tend to have holding periods measured in weeks or even months. I've been using free online charting software (e.g., Bigcharts) and creating my indicators and backtesting in Matlab. I'd like to consolidate all this to one platform.

 

Are there any products out there I can use for free or low cost while I get familiar with the platform and do some backtesting? For this purpose, I'd need EOD historical data on a handful of tickers - I can import this if the platform won't provide it without a fee/subscription.

 

Also, from what I gather, some platforms use EL while others use C#. I'm not familiar with either, but as I mentioned, I use Matlab (not proficient, but I learned what I needed to learn) - for someone with this as a programming background, am I better off going to an EL platform or a C# platform?

 

Suggestions?

Edited April 9, 2013 by fmj

[Kenny1924 10]

I have gone through a lot of blogs and forums to select the NinjaTrader platform for testing all of my new trading initiatives.

 

I am building the Trading Plan, the Trading System/Methodology, and testing it all on NT7 platform.

 

For my needs, this platform works out well, since I will be trading Stocks, ETFs and putting option positions on them.

 

It seems to be a popular platform for ES, GL and other futures trading also, since most seminars gear the discussion to day and swing trading using these instruments.

 

Just my 2 cents as a new trader but an old investor! :haha:

 

Kenny

[jwdodge01 10]

EL is Tradestation, tradestation.com

Great platform and easy access to stocks, ETF futures and FX

Customer service average

$100/month if you have an account and < 10trades/month.

No programming degree required for EL. very straightforward

 

or

 

Ninjatrader.com

Good Platform with great access to futures and good access to stocks

Customer service is on-line only, but timely, articulate responses

They have a free version of NT with EOD data from Kinetick

programming in ninja scipt is C#

 

I use both, have nothing to sell, nor do I receive compensation for sending you to their sites

[a4360884 10]

Try AmiBroker. It's better than NT and TS and more powerful.

Also you can do much more with AFL than you can do with EL.

Besides that you can program in C/C++ as they offer a free SDK.

But it's also possible to program in C# as there is a SDK called .NET for AmiBroker.

Not affiliated with them but can honestly say that IMO AB is most flexible one around and pretty robust and reliable.

[a4360884 10]

Just one example drawback of at least NT is that it doesn't even support true portfolio backtest. Just backtest of baskets which means individual backtests one after another. I'm not sure but with TS it's the same but again not sure. Nevertheless AB can do both ... true portfolio backtesting and portfolio trading.