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Why do you use AmiBroker?


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Why do you use AmiBroker?

  #1 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
Site Administrator
Developer
Swing Trader
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Broker: IBKR
Trading: Stocks & Futures
Frequency: Every few days
Duration: Weeks
Posts: 50,396 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 33,172
Thanks Received: 101,536

Hi guys,

As part of my research for the upcoming " Where to start as a trader (Part II: Trading Platforms)" webinar, I want to solicit input from members about the platforms they use.

If you could give me some information I would appreciate it.

1) How long have you been using AmiBroker?
2) What are your favorite features of AmiBroker?
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in AmiBroker that you could not do without?
4) Do you use AmiBroker in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does AmiBroker help you with this?
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use AmiBroker?
7) How do you rate AmiBroker's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
8) Do you believe AmiBroker is competitively priced?
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for AmiBroker?

Even if someone before you has said something similar to how you feel, please reply anyway. I am gauging response by popularity so need to hear from multiple people even with similar feelings.

If you have any other thoughts to add please do so. Let's try to keep the thread on-topic, focusing on why you use the platform and leave all other discussion to other more appropriate threads.

Thank you,
Mike

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  #2 (permalink)
 TheTrend 
Paris, France
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Amibroker
Trading: Futures, Stocks
Posts: 95 since Jun 2011
Thanks Given: 118
Thanks Received: 105

1) How long have you been using AmiBroker?
2 years

2) What are your favorite features of AmiBroker?
Portfolio backtesting, ease of prototyping strategies and indicators in a few lines of code, R plugin for advanced stats and charts, very quick and flexibile, great support (I'm sure I'm forgetting some ..)

3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in AmiBroker that you could not do without?
Portfolio backtesting, speed of testing and charting.

4) Do you use AmiBroker in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
Live.

5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does AmiBroker help you with this?
Both. Algoritmic trading might seem a bit difficult at first but once you understand how it works you appreciate the fact that your imagination is the only limit to systems building.

6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use AmiBroker?
Not hard, but so many things to do that you need a few months to fully use it.

7) How do you rate AmiBroker's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
Awesome, always a reply witin the day.

8) Do you believe AmiBroker is competitively priced?
They don't even have 1 competitor at that price !

9) How do you rate the community support that exists for AmiBroker?
The community is good with lots of experienced traders but you need to use Oulook, the yahoo board is not user friendly at all.

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  #3 (permalink)
 
xiaosi's Avatar
 xiaosi 
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: JIGSAW/SIERRA CHART
Broker: MacQuarie Futures/AMP Clearing/CQG
Trading: HHI, HSI, FDAX
Posts: 502 since Feb 2012
Thanks Given: 448
Thanks Received: 535


1) How long have you been using AmiBroker?
7 or 8 years

2) What are your favorite features of AmiBroker?
The fast scanning/portfolio backtesting ability and great chart features, ability to handle good quality EOD data

3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in AmiBroker that you could not do without?
The speed is the deal breaker for me

4) Do you use AmiBroker in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
Only use for EOD scanning and EOD equity systems

5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does AmiBroker help you with this?
Both, EOD Swing trader for US and ASX Stocks, i also trade an EOD System known as the 20% Flipper

6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use AmiBroker?
Moderately challenging, not as difficult as the Interactive Brokers TWS was at first.

7) How do you rate AmiBroker's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
I can't recall the last time i needed it exactly....

8) Do you believe AmiBroker is competitively priced?
Absolutely the best value for money T/A software i've ever come across

9) How do you rate the community support that exists for AmiBroker?
I use another international forum, they have an Amibroker thread and i have several friends that help out, if i need something...usually to do with coding though.

Amibroker is a great application. It was a little clunky using it real time with IB's data, i have not tried it since either and now i have a dual broker lifetime license for NinjaTrader. Which i find easier for intra-day trading, especially the ATM.

Cheers,


XS

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  #4 (permalink)
 FB2012 
Munich Germany
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: MultiCharts .NET,MultiCharts,Amibroker
Broker: Interactive Brokers IQFeed
Trading: Stocks,Index CFDs
Posts: 149 since Aug 2012
Thanks Given: 81
Thanks Received: 84

1) How long have you been using AmiBroker?
since 2006 with breaks so I estimate 2 years
2) What are your favorite features of AmiBroker?
easy explorations scanning of stocks with certain criteria
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in AmiBroker that you could not do without?
Its great integration with various scripting languages VB, java, I also purchased the C# extension API
which is great for generating a database plugin if the vendor has an C# API. This makes it very easy to export
data to excel using an afl with integrated vb script.
4) Do you use AmiBroker in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
Only for Simulation I have not and maybe will not place live trades with it, even if I could use it with Interactive Brokers.
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does AmiBroker help you with this?
I am a discretionary trader.
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use AmiBroker?
Compared to others not very intuitive but good to learn.
7) How do you rate AmiBroker's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
Not used it very often, but when I asked a question I did not know, say most replied that it is not there job to help me program. One time I wanted them to correct the behaviour of their quote downloader to use a different yahoo adress to get the group indices as it was before an update. They replied that everything should be working correctly. Bottom line, it is just basic support and therefore maybe not as good as the average.
8) Do you believe AmiBroker is competitively priced?
Definitly especially when one managed to wait until easter because there they have their discount time.
2 years free updates when purchased in easter months.
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for AmiBroker?
Great you can get almost every indicator you imagine for free some things like the pattern explorer are priced
very nicly.

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  #5 (permalink)
colion
Asheville, North Carolina
 
Posts: 24 since Sep 2010
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 15

1) How long have you been using AmiBroker? 10+ years
2) What are your favorite features of AmiBroker? Fast execution, fairly easy language, easy to build custom indicators, fast scan of database
3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in AmiBroker that you could not do without? Easy construction of indicators
4) Do you use AmiBroker in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it? Simulation. Use broker and associated tools for live trading
5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does AmiBroker help you with this? Discretionary. Plotting of indicators, equity, etc. Plotting of charts has improved to OK but the built-in charting tools limit the studies that can be performed without spending time to develop them with available low level code. I find it easier to use other programs, including online ones, where AmiBroker's charting is weak.
6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use AmiBroker? Started with "rusty" basic background which was not sufficient to jump in. So took an elementary online course in C++ and was set to go.
7) How do you rate AmiBroker's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it? Good. Response is usually within a day and rarely needs additional clarification on my part to explain the problem/question
8) Do you believe AmiBroker is competitively priced? Yes
9) How do you rate the community support that exists for AmiBroker? Good (Yahoo group, library, Knowledge Base). Also, there are many user forums which are good resources.

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  #6 (permalink)
 Hans B 
Belgium
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: AmiBroker, NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures & Zen-Fire
Trading: ES
Posts: 6 since Jul 2010
Thanks Given: 19
Thanks Received: 7

1) How long have you been using AmiBroker?
Started in 2003, stopped using it in 2009 when I move to NinjaTrader (NT has better 'single tool' trading possibilities)

2) What are your favorite features of AmiBroker?
Dynamic parameters allowing you to directly see impact of your changes on charts (so Very fast backtesting)
Quick adaptation of new features - fast bugfixing
And a stupid one but still: you can run it on a USB stick, so you can take it/use it everywhere you want

3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in AmiBroker that you could not do without?
Speed/Fast optimizer
Charting (mainly 3D ones used in optimizing)
Seamless integrated trading engine (not via other tools, dde, api, ...) - my personal deal breaker

4) Do you use AmiBroker in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
Only sim

5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does AmiBroker help you with this?
Algorithmic
AFL is very powerful (once you get the hang of it)

6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use AmiBroker?
Once you get rid of event-driven thinking it goes quite fast. The help-function is also excellent; not sticking to how the tool works (like NT), but also what you can do with the tool

7) How do you rate AmiBroker's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
Only once needed AB CS, no issues there.

8) Do you believe AmiBroker is competitively priced?
Yep - great value for little money

9) How do you rate the community support that exists for AmiBroker?
Yahoo group and other forums are excellent, and a great way of getting help and ideas. When I was active in AB Tomasz actively participated in one of the groups (he didn't have any support staff yet at that moment), which providing great help and an excellent way to understand the tool in the way he intended it should be used

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  #7 (permalink)
 
medias's Avatar
 medias 
Karlsruhe, Germany
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: MultiCharts, AmiBroker
Broker: IB/IQFeed
Trading: Stocks, Emini ES
Posts: 60 since Jul 2009
Thanks Given: 30
Thanks Received: 49

1) How long have you been using AmiBroker?
Several weeks

2) What are your favorite features of AmiBroker?
  • Portfolio backtesting
  • Classification features (very important for stocks)
  • Backtesting speed
  • Tick data handling (some see a weak point here for Amibroker; I see many strong features).
  • Built-In profiler (great for the heavy liftings)
  • AFL is a programmer's dream (I always wondered about the short code listings in monthly TASC, now I know why: great array concept)

3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in AmiBroker that you could not do without?
Speed, speed and I should mention: speed. Numbercrunching at its best.

4) Do you use AmiBroker in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
"Preparation mode". Live trading is still done with MultiCharts.

5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does AmiBroker help you with this?
Discretionary.
My plan is to use Amibroker as a quant trading tool. I hope I can get rid of my (mostly still stressful) discretionary trading style. Amibroker lets me do things no other retail platform offers.

6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use AmiBroker?
Amibroker is different, first and foremost you have to understand the database concept. Other platform offer more convenience, but only at first sight.
When you understand some key features, you will see: Amibroker is programmed by a genius for the geek in you.

7) How do you rate AmiBroker's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
Good. Had one question, answered within one day.

8) Do you believe AmiBroker is competitively priced?
Do the math

9) How do you rate the community support that exists for AmiBroker?
Excellent. Yahoo forum is your friend. Officially supported.

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  #8 (permalink)
 loslo 
austin, USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader, AmiBroker
Trading: es, cl, nq
Posts: 3 since Aug 2011
Thanks Given: 25
Thanks Received: 1

1) How long have you been using AmiBroker?
I have had AB some 15 years, got serious in 2004.
Went to some workshops. The User Manual from AB is not the easiest to understand.
If one is serious, download Howard Bandy's "Introduction to AmiBroker", it's free at:
Introduction to AmiBroker — Home Page

2) What are your favorite features of AmiBroker?
As an old engineer, I never coded. After getting my arms around AFL, it's my
go-to program if I have a thought to code. I've used EasyLanguage, and now Ninja Trader.

3) What are some must-have deal breaker features in AmiBroker that you could not do without?
For me, ease of use and ability to code once for all features, charting, backtesting, etc.

4) Do you use AmiBroker in simulation mode only, or do you place live trades with it?
The only add-on I've found is for Interactive Brokers, which is not of my choice.

5) Are you a discretionary trader or an algorithmic trader? How does AmiBroker help you with this?
Both, but have moved back toward discretionary. Unable to program all the criteria going into S/R
thoughts and calculations.

6) How easy/hard was it for you to learn to use AmiBroker?
Once I went to a couple of workshops and read Howard Bandy's "Quantitative Trading Systems",
I have been able to get what I want done.

7) How do you rate AmiBroker's customer service/support, assuming you have needed to use it?
No complaints here, they get back the next day usually, since support is from Europe.

8) Do you believe AmiBroker is competitively priced?
Very competitive, IMHO.

9) How do you rate the community support that exists for AmiBroker?
Very high.

FWIW, I have downloaded AB 5.70 rc1, 64bit, and able download 500,000 ticks in a second or so.
The max allowed shows 500,000 ticks. I don't know how or if there is a workaround to that.

The main reason I'm posting, is that I want to give you a Big Thank You, Mike.
You got Tomasz thinking and off dead center to kick AmiBroker up a notch.

To All, A Merry Christmas, and A Prosperous New Year,
Cordially,
loslo

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  #9 (permalink)
 FB2012 
Munich Germany
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: MultiCharts .NET,MultiCharts,Amibroker
Broker: Interactive Brokers IQFeed
Trading: Stocks,Index CFDs
Posts: 149 since Aug 2012
Thanks Given: 81
Thanks Received: 84


loslo View Post
FWIW, I have downloaded AB 5.70 rc1, 64bit, and able download 500,000 ticks in a second or so.
The max allowed shows 500,000 ticks. I don't know how or if there is a workaround to that.

The main reason I'm posting, is that I want to give you a Big Thank You, Mike.
You got Tomasz thinking and off dead center to kick AmiBroker up a notch.

To All, A Merry Christmas, and A Prosperous New Year,
Cordially,
loslo

I would like to join the thanks to Big Mike, I followed his discussion about data precision and
think that it helped to improve Amibroker in the above mentioned way.
Therefore, thank you very much @BigMike, and Merry Chrismas to all.

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  #10 (permalink)
 TheTrend 
Paris, France
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Amibroker
Trading: Futures, Stocks
Posts: 95 since Jun 2011
Thanks Given: 118
Thanks Received: 105



loslo View Post

FWIW, I have downloaded AB 5.70 rc1, 64bit, and able download 500,000 ticks in a second or so.
The max allowed shows 500,000 ticks. I don't know how or if there is a workaround to that.

loslo

Use the REGEDIT and go to HKEY\CURRENT\USER/Software/Settings/TJP/Broker/Settings. Then, create the DWORD "MaximumNumberOfBars" with the value you wish to set up.

Hope that helps.

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