Struggling to wade through all the software and data options... Help!

Hi all,

I have recently begun developing a trading plan and am slowly but surely getting there. One area that has been difficult is deciding which software and data providers are the best value for money for me. I am working with a small capital base ($50,000) and at the moment I am trading asx stocks only and am mainly looking at basic technical indicators such as EMA's, RSI, momentum, volume etc.

I have looked at amibroker, metastock, tradeguider, e.signal, norgate premium services etc etc etc and my head is swimming. I was hoping someone who has used a number of the different options available would be able to give some advice based on their experiences with the different platforms/providers.

I realise there is a cost involved for clean data and the ability to backtest and scan and am willing to pay for quality software and clean data.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Jetson said:

Hi all,

I have recently begun developing a trading plan and am slowly but surely getting there. One area that has been difficult is deciding which software and data providers are the best value for money for me. I am working with a small capital base ($50,000) and at the moment I am trading asx stocks only and am mainly looking at basic technical indicators such as EMA's, RSI, momentum, volume etc.

I have looked at amibroker, metastock, tradeguider, e.signal, norgate premium services etc etc etc and my head is swimming. I was hoping someone who has used a number of the different options available would be able to give some advice based on their experiences with the different platforms/providers.

I realise there is a cost involved for clean data and the ability to backtest and scan and am willing to pay for quality software and clean data.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

ProRealTime.com. It's free for end-of-day data, though you can subscribe to receive live data. Furthermore, it's web-based, meaning that no installation is required, you just run it off Javascript.

Incredible Charts is also very good, though it requires installation like any other application. Like ProRealTime, end-of-day data is free while live data requires a subscription.

Amibroker
Premium Data

Mr Editor said:

Incredible Charts is also very good, though it requires installation like any other application. Like ProRealTime, end-of-day data is free while live data requires a subscription.

Click to expand...

Considering your rather small capital base, and your intention to "find your feet", I'd also recommend IncredibleCharts. Being free is a bonus; the main advantage IMHO is their extensive education material.

Thanks guys for your quick responses. Much appreciated.

Mr Editor said:

ProRealTime.com. It's free for end-of-day data, though you can subscribe to receive live data. Furthermore, it's web-based, meaning that no installation is required, you just run it off Javascript.

Incredible Charts is also very good, though it requires installation like any other application. Like ProRealTime, end-of-day data is free while live data requires a subscription.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the links. I have been using Incredible charts in the trial format but now the trial is over and some of the premium technical indicator options are ones I am interested in using. I will check out prorealtime.

tech/a said:

Amibroker
Premium Data

Click to expand...

Thanks for that tech/a. One question, I am planning on EOD trading so from what I have seen on the AmiBroker website, if i go with this as an option I see no reason to get the professional over the standard edition. Am i missing something or do you agree with this?

pixel said:

Considering your rather small capital base, and your intention to "find your feet", I'd also recommend IncredibleCharts. Being free is a bonus; the main advantage IMHO is their extensive education material.

Click to expand...

Thanks pixel,

I understand that with my small capital base it is important to not spend excessively on software and data but I have always gone by the philosophy "you get what you pay for". I am torn between protecting my small capital base and giving myself the advantage of useful tools which hopefully will add to my educational journey.

Any advice from any of you on free vs cost based software/data for someone with my small capital base would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Hi again Jetson;
IMHO it is rarely the "secret ingredients" and proprietary indicators that help you trade profitably, but a good understanding of the essence and meaning of an analysis. Nobody will sell you the Holy Grail, although many will try to convince you they've got it and all you have to do is pay them a 5-digit sum and you'll rake in the money with 40 minutes of daily work. Don't believe it!

A Black Box trading system will leave you in the Dark because what people sell as Black Box is lacking precisely the ingredient that I find most important: Your knowing what it measures and why it suggests you buy or sell at this specific time.

If you pick a low-cost or no-cost system, such as IC, you'll be able to study every one of the basic indicators; you'll be able to analyse and understand how they react to changes of price, volume, and momentum. And you'll be able to "see" past, present, and likely future support and resistance trends. Those are the only chart elements you need to understand. The rest is embellishment, maybe to some extent labour-saving inasmuch as you can use a computer algorithm to speed up your decision process and make more trades in a shorter time. But how many different trades will you be making?

Others may correct me and know of an automatic position-sizer and risk calculator. I haven't found one and doubt that one really exists. So that part of your entry (and exit) decision is always up to you.

Once you've tripled or quadrupled your account base, you may feel comfortable to try and speed things up - at which time you can always "pay more to get more".

just my

I started of with:

* AmiBroker standard
* DataHQ - Next Day ASX data $15.40

AmiBroker is an excellent piece of software. I can't comment on it's charting capabilities as I don't really use them. I use it primarily for mechanical trading systems development and have found it to be great (bear in my mind I do have a development background). I have recently upgraded to the professional version V5.50 RC3 as it has multi-threaded support > 2 threads - which is very handy when I am doing extensive backtesting as any reduction in time is welcome.

I have also started out with DataHQ Next Day Data. These guys are resellers of Premium Data. It is identical. I am still developing my first system, so having data that is 1 day old is not really an issue. Once the system is complete I will move to the EOD package. But while developing, the cost is 1/2 price. Furthermore - DataHQ allows you to pay monthly, which is handy.

pixel said:

......
Others may correct me and know of an automatic position-sizer and risk calculator. I haven't found one and doubt that one really exists.

Click to expand...

Everything exists pixel. MTPredictor does all of that, scans EOD data and finds the setups (TS4 in case below) and when you right click on the setup it plots the entry, stop, target and R/R.

You cannot blindly just follow it without understanding how the underlying principle works so it is not for beginners.

Chart of AZH below, finished in the min target area on Friday. (click to expand)

Jetson said:

Hi all,

I have recently begun developing a trading plan and am slowly but surely getting there. One area that has been difficult is deciding which software and data providers are the best value for money for me. I am working with a small capital base ($50,000) and at the moment I am trading asx stocks only and am mainly looking at basic technical indicators such as EMA's, RSI, momentum, volume etc.

I have looked at amibroker, metastock, tradeguider, e.signal, norgate premium services etc etc etc and my head is swimming. I was hoping someone who has used a number of the different options available would be able to give some advice based on their experiences with the different platforms/providers.

I realise there is a cost involved for clean data and the ability to backtest and scan and am willing to pay for quality software and clean data.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

If you are talking about charting etc, try Just Data > http//www.justdata.com.au