Hi folks,

  I know a lot of you here are using AmiBroker for trading.  I'm considering buying it and create/program my own trading system.  I want to automate my trading with buy/sell signals and to be able to backtest my ideas to evaluate which ones are best. I'm located in Canada and I am mainly trading on the TSE (toronto) and venture (vancouver).

 Do you think AmiBrkoer can fit the bill?  If so can anybody give me a quick reviews, strengths and weaknesses etc.

Thanks in advance

/Bass

I have been using AMIBroker for over 4 years. The system on MTRIG was built and back-tested in AMIBroker. I have also used over the years MetaStock, SuperCharts, tested out NeuroShell.  None can match AMIBroker in ease of use and price.

The only program that comes close to AMIBroker is Wordens new StockFinder (but the screens are really too flashy).

AMIBroker is very powerful, super fast, and a includes a back-tester that will optimize your systems. You can perform back-tests and forward-tests. I really cannot say enough about it.

One thing I would recommend is, buy a data service. I used AMIQuote for a couple of years and with Yahoo! data is a headache. If you are serious buy the data feed, not AMIQuote.  Get the data from the Premium Data
http://www.premiumdata.net/support/amibroker.php 
 

Hi Bass,

Since you have a programming background (I code in C#) you will really do well in AMIBroker. Regarding your questions...

Scans: AMIBroker has a feature called "Explorations" and this is where you code your scans. I have scans that I look for various ranges in RSI and other indicators. The scan runs in seconds, then I just click through the list looking for trades.

Websites/Books: Here are a few that I have looked at. One of the best is AMIBroker's AFL Library, but they changed it so that you have to be a member to get all the code samples. Also, the Yahoo! group folks are always ready to help including the owner Thomas.

http://systems4trading.com/

This link is to a PDF for the "Add to Composite" function in AMIBroker. This function allows you to do many things including creating you own index of, for example, percentage of RSI oversold stocks, percentage of stocks over 200 day ma.

On the AMIBroker web site there is a book shown that a member wrote, it is about the only manual you will find on the software for coding. It is good if you want to get a jump start. Here is a link to download the code from the book.

Quote Data: AMIBroker has an eSignal link, you should be able to make it work. If you have issues AMIBroker folks will help.

AMIQuote: Take it from me, do not get AMIQuote. That program works great but Yahoo! finance data is a big issue.  I used AMIQuote for two years. I start scanning stocks, find a buy get ready to trade and...wait a minute it already moved up two bucks, what gives?  

You Will find AMIQuote will skip maybe 20-30% (this is a Yahoo! data issue) of all the stocks in your database. You will have gaps in prices all over the place. Plus another issue... Yahoo! finance Volume data is 3 days behind. You will not see the real volume until you download all the stock data again starting back 3 days ago.  My strong suggestion, do not waste your time on AMIQuote, do not waste your time coding a downloaded for Yahoo! finance quote data is not reliable. Maybe code one for Google, it might be better (if you can get to the data like on Yahoo).

Regards,
Patrick

Bass, I wil check out. One other thing that is good about premiumdata.net is that it integrates right into AMIBroker. You may have import data from a down-loader in AMIBroker which will take more time.  Also, premiumdata will automatically delete symbols that no longer exist, rename symbols, and update industry categories.

Here is a link to a full AMIBroker database with categories. You need at least this DB to get started if you do not use PremiumData.net.

Regards,
Patrick