what system testers do you use?

Discussions about the testing and simulation of mechanical trading systems using historical data and other methods. Trading Blox Customers should post Trading Blox specific questions in the Customer Support forum.
Post Reply
dig1
Full Member
Full Member
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2004 4:14 pm

what system testers do you use?

Post by dig1 »

I am using Metastock but have found many flaws! Doesn't use margins correctly, miscalculates annual percentage performance, doesn't execute proper amount of contracts, etc. What is the best system tester to use, or at least something I can work with. Thanks for any info.
Bondtrader
Roundtable Knight
Roundtable Knight
Posts: 101
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:07 am
Location: Zimbabwe

Post by Bondtrader »

One of my friends hired the people at www.futurestruth.com to program and test a system for him. Another hired the people at www.voyagertrading.net to program and test a system. Both were very satisfied with the services they received. It cost several hundred dollars each time: far less than the price of the systems, far less than the purchase price of advanced trading software like Trading Recipes or Veritrader. And certainly far less than the cost of trading a poor system into a deep drawdown.
ksberg
Roundtable Knight
Roundtable Knight
Posts: 208
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:39 am
Location: San Diego

Custom Software

Post by ksberg »

dig1,

I would encourage you to talk directly with people who have hired out to have custom systems built before you decide to embark on custom software. Ask about how they arrived at a shared understanding of what was to be built, and how the final product met their expectations. Ask if they needed to change things during build out, and how those changes were accomodated. Ask how the software was tested, and how they were involved in finalizing the product. Ask if they've needed to implement changes since the product was delivered (bugs, updates, etc), and if they were pleased with how these changes were handled. Also ask if the delivered product is flexible enough to be changed without re-coding. This should start to give an idea of working with that vendor.

Commercial programs like VeriTrader and TradingRecipes offer a rich set of features that will be difficult to duplicate in a custom program for a small amount of money. Afterall, commercial vendors are also software developers, but they can spread out the cost of development among a wider customer base. Commercial programs usually receive higher levels of testing (a double-edge sword, since they are require more testing).

Cheers,

Kevin

ps. Having said all that, I choose to develop my own software. [sigh] at least I know where to go looking to fix bugs ;-)
Post Reply