Is Amibroker Your Best Trading Decision Making Software?

Do you still get daunted by the feeling of facing losses while trading in stock markets? Are you still confused about the technical terms during trading, like financial pages? Well, it’s not just you. Starting out as a beginner in such a complex market is a really big deal. Or however much of a pro-trader you are, in the stock market there is always a vacant room to learn!

To gain an edge over all other traders in the market, it’s essential to have knowledge about back-testing, charting, and future analysis. However, learning all this from the beginning is not just a walk in the part. Hence, to help traders with the same there are lots of programs available in the market that make trading easier. One such tool is Amibroker, popularly known as the best trading decision-making software in the market.

Read more about Amibroker software to explore whether it’s the right tool for you to invest in. Moreover, we have explained all the advanced features of the tool in detail, don’t miss that out!

Amibroker Overview

Amibroker is a professional, full-fledged, stock analysis charting software that helps traders to decide and analyze stocks before purchasing. The tool, also known as AB, performs technical analysis by its advanced features to help traders stay ahead of the pack. Some of the advanced features include back-testing, real-time charting, scanning, etc. We believe that all these features are best for traders who aspire to become pro-traders!

What Are The Best Features of Amibroker?

This best feature section is nothing but the breakdown of the main components of Amibroker!

Charting and Drawing Tools

One of the advanced features of Amibroker is its technical charts that are highly customizable. Users can set these charts according to the styles they wish to. One can even use sliders to modify all the parameters in real-time. All the charts have built-in indicators, drag and drop indicators, an object-oriented drawing tool, and different time frames. Through these charts, users can switch between different timescales during real-time trading.

Market Screening and Exploration

The analytical window of Amibroker allows users to scan and explore each aspect of the stock market. Users can easily screen stocks from these sections based on Buy, Sell, Short-term, and Cover conditions. The tool even offers generic filter conditions to explore high-return stocks.

AmiBroker Formula Editor (AFL)

AFL by Amibroker makes the software an all-independent platform. Experienced traders can make quick decisions and come up with new formulas instantly. There is even a useful in-line syntax verifier that helps users to confirm their code before analyzing it. The drop-down list helps in speeding up the coding pace. Even a person from a non-programming background can avoid unwanted expenses by learning AFL from the start.

Symbol and Quotes Database

The symbol and quotes database by Amibroker contains numerous symbols and quotes, making the tool more resourceful. Users can even find historical information regarding the trading account in this database itself. Moreover, there’s also an option of filtering the data based on different criteria.

Analysis

The analysis function is probably the best feature of Amibroker. Users can scan and back-test relatively faster as compared to all other competitor software. All the details thus obtained are listed on the excel table from where one can export the data to a spreadsheet. To get the best out of the software, one can even back-test various strategies. Hence, determining portfolio size and finding shares gets a lot easier.

The screener available on the software helps users to identify potential trades, all based on their trading strategy. This feature is best for swing and end-of-day traders because they can quickly identify the shares to buy or sell.

Yet another best feature is the parameter optimization feature whereby one can use their formula code to define as many parameters they want with different values. You just have to build up any strategy and then let the software find the best parameter combination for you!

Lastly, the walk-forward testing feature helps users to predict different possible outcomes. The outcome hence obtained from here is completely based on a wider range of strategies.

Monte Carlo Simulation

Monte Carlo simulation helps the users to analyze the probabilities of different stocks, despite the uncertainties in the market. This can help the user to understand the impact of risk as well as unpredictability in the forecasting models

The simulation defines all the worst-case scenarios to you, which is quite difficult to predict, even in the case of expert traders.

Ranking and Scoring

The ranking and scoring feature by Amibroker ranks and scores each stock on a bar basis. Hence, one can find suitable trade within minutes through this tool.

Built-in Debugger and IB Controller

The built-in debugger scans all the bugs and debugs them beforehand. This feature is best for interactive traders. Through IB controller brokers can connect to all other brokers easily and work together.

Amibroker Customer Support Services Review

Customer Support

Amibroker offers an online support system where users can mention any queries they have related to the platform. The officials usually respond to these queries in 1-3 business days. The customer support team never fails to resolve any issues raised by customers!

Members’ Area

Through the member’s area section of Amibroker, users can directly interact with other traders and share information from just being on the site.

Amibroker Pricing – Is Amibroker worth the price you pay?

Amibroker offers three pricing plans to its users and a free trial period for 30 days. The one-time fee of the standard plan is just INR 19000. Through this package, the user will get access to one-minute charting intervals, plus they can only look at ten stocks in real-time.

The one-time cost of the professional package is INR 23000, and it provides more advanced features as compared to the basic plan. With this plan, the user will get access to advanced features like intraday charging intervals, unlimited real-time data, and much more!

The cost of the Ultimate Pro Pack is just INR 35000 and includes all the features of Amibroker Professional and the basic plan. All three packages by Amibroker come with 24 months of free upgrades and unlimited customer support.

Is the Amibroker a well-suited trading platform for you?

Many users still argue that Amibroker is best suited for experienced traders, but the truth is a lot more different. Beginners can even use Amibroker but they have to invest more time into learning, and testing trading strategies. It’s suggested to have some patience throughout the process, and a little bit of technical knowledge to use this software.

If you are a Day-trader then Amibroker is the best tool for you because of the function-based scans. Even long-term traders can find this software beneficial because of its back-testing and walk-forward testing features. Thus, Amibroker is a flexible software that anyone can use over multiple timescales.

Advantages of Amibroker

• Every trading account get access to personal customer support
• Fastest back-testing tools
• Highly affordable
• Versatile technical charts
• Different strategies optimized according to different parameters
• Customizable features
• No-cost data available every day for free

Cons of Amibroker

• It would be great for beginners to have bare minimum knowledge about programming languages like HTML, C++, and so on
• Limited database available per session

Few Amibroker Alternatives – Which Platform to choose?

Amibroker Vs. MetaTrader

MetaTrader has been a popular alternative to Amibroker used by several technical analysts and algorithmic traders over the years. Both the software have similar features but the approach is a bit different. Many traders still rely on Amibroker because it’s an old tool. Also, Amibroker is a robust, lightweight software as compared to MetaTrader with a minimum learning curve.

Amibroker Vs. Metastock

MetaStock is yet another superior alternative to Amibroker. However, the price of this software is far more than Amibroker, and just offers limited access to features in the trial version. MetaStock formula language is relatively easier than AFL, but Amibroker’s backtest engine is faster and robust. Amibroker even has a more user-friendly interface, on the other hand, Metastock can only analyze Metastock formatted data.

Is Amibroker your best trading decision-making software?

Whether you are a beginner or a professional trader, Amibroker will help you get the safest trading experience to date. If you have a wealthy technical background, it would be an added benefit. However, if you aren’t aware of how trading works there are a lot of self-help guides provided by the tool to its users.

Closing Words

Conclusively, there are several useful features of Amibroker which most competitor software lacks. These features separate Amibroker from other software available in the market. Simply by dissecting the software in the best way, you can grab a plethora of profits.

Those investors who are looking for faster scanning using Amibroker for real-time as well as historic data can check out Truedata’s products. Our tools and plugins are designed to work with multiple technical analysis applications simultaneously.

If you have been using Amibroker for quite a while now, do let us know your experience in the comments below!

Happy Investing!

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Backtesting in AmiBroker

 

Backtesting in AmiBroker

Before getting into any technicalities or know-how, it is important for us to know what do we mean by backtesting in Amibroker.

Backtesting is an easy process used by Traders to evaluate the Trading Ideas and provides information regarding how good is a trading system based on historical datasets. Precisely, it talks about the behavior of the trading system, risks involved in a particular trading system, and more regarding the performance of the trading system.

There is one such program AmiBroker which performs all these functions and does much more for the traders.

Introduction

To keep it simple, AmiBroker is a full-fledged professional Technical Analysis and charting tool which can be used by the traders to Analyse Market, prepare charts, and for backtesting trading strategies.

It is quite important for you to know about AmiBroker is before using it to backtest. Better make an informed decision rather than just going with a feature that you might regret later (which you won’t!)

Features of AmiBroker

Here is a list of features which are offered by the trading platform apart from backtesting–

Analysis Window –

On the analysis window, you will be able to see almost everything, i.e. portfolio, walk-forward tests, optimization, backtests, explorations, Monte Carlo Simulation, and so on.

Exploration/Market Screening –

AmiBroker is a multi-purpose tool for data screening/mining which supplies programmable output with infinite rows and columns.

Charting –

This feature of Charting in AmiBroker comes with several built-in indicators, multiple time frames (which can be used as per your own convenience), drag and drop indicators, customizable parameters, object creating capabilities, etc. Sliders are the good options to modify parameters in real-time and can also customize it in various styles and gradients.

Walk-forward Testing –

It is ideal for confirming the robustness of the trading sample before and after optimization.

Multi-Threading –

AmiBroker assigns different threads for each graphics renderer and each formula chart.

Code Editor –

The code editor pairs up with parameter call-tips, auto indenting, code folding, etc. Whenever you encounter an error, a meaningful message alerts you promptly.

Ranking and Scoring –

It is used to perform bar-by-bar ranking depending upon the user score to find a suitable trade.

Advantages of AmiBroker

• It provides the user with top-notch technical support for trading accounts.
• The main features of this tool are fast array and matrix processing.
• AmiBroker ensures that the traders are provided with safe and full-proof trading support in order to have 100% security and that you don’t lose money.
• The features of AmiBroker are customizable and flexible.
• It is the fastest backtesting tool and provides the user with a custom backtesting facility, custom metrics, rotational trading, etc. Also, it provides the user with advanced ranking, scoring, and positioning.

The most productive thing that can be done in the analysis window is to backtest the trading strategy on historical data. It helps you to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the system before you begin to invest real money.

And thus, AmiBroker is a feature which can help you to save lots of money.

Writing Your Trading Rules

The first thing that needs to be done is that you must have objective or mechanical rules to enter and exit the market. This step is necessary in order to create a base of your strategy and whether or not the system matches with risk tolerance, portfolio size, money management techniques, and several other factors.

Once you have established rules for trading, you must write to them as buy and sell rules in AmiBroker Formula Language.

Backtesting

In order to Backtesting in AmiBroker, you need to click on the Backtest button in the Automatic analysis window. Ensure that you have typed the formulas which contain buy and sell trading rules. Once the correct formula is entered, AmiBroker starts to analyze symbols according to trading rules and generates a list of simulated trades. This process is rapid in terms that you can easily backtest thousands of symbols in a few minutes. There is a progress window that will show the estimated completion time. If you wish to stop the process at any given point of time, click on the Cancel option in the progress window.

Analyzing Results

When the process is completed, you will be presented with a list of simulated trades in the bottom part of the Automatic analysis window aka the Results pane. Here, you can examine when the buy and sell signals occur only by double-clicking on the trade in the Results pane. Post this, you are presented with raw or unfiltered signals for each bar where buy and sell conditions are met. If you wish to see only a single trade arrow (opening and closing currently selected trade) you are required to double click a line while holding the SHIFT key pressed down. The other option that you can choose is the kind of display by choosing the appropriate item from the context menu which appears once you click on the results pane with a right-click.

In addition to the results, you will also be provided with detailed statistics on the performance of your system by choosing the Report option.

Changing Your Backtesting Settings

Backtesting in AmiBroker makes use of predefined values for performing its task including portfolio size, periodicity, i.e. daily/weekly/monthly, amount of commission, type of trades, price fields, interest rates, and so on. These settings can be altered by the user settings window. Post changing the settings, you must remember to run your backtesting if you wish the results to be in-sync with the settings.

Advanced Concepts

Until now, we have discussed fair simple use of the backtesting. However, AmiBroker comes with a lot more sophisticated concepts and methods.

We will be listing the new introduced-features of the back tester. There you go –

• AFL scripting host for Advanced Formula Writers
• Enhanced Support for Short Trades
• Way to Control Order Execution Price from the Script
• Types of Stops in Back-tester
• Position Sizing
• Round Lot Size and Tick Size
• Margin Account
• Backtesting Futures

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Ques. 1. What skills do I require to build an effective Algo Trading Solution using AmiBroker?

Ans. 1. Here is the list of following skills you may require to build an effective Algo Trading Solution using AmiBroker  –

• It is necessary for you to have knowledge in AmiBroker AFL Programming, Backtesting, Optimization, System Validation of Training
• You must have an understanding of the Broker API’s/Bridge Function and knowledge in the know-how of integrating with AmiBroker.
• It is essential to have knowledge about VPS (Virtual Private Servers) and how to remotely connect and deploy AmiBrokers, Trading Terminal, and Bridge Components in the servers.
• You have knowledge about Setting Risk Control Parameters and Order Execution Logic.
• You must take data backup and trade logic backup at regular intervals.
• It is necessary to use a statistical test like Monte Carlo Analysis to determine if the trading system has broken.

Ques. 2. Are there any additional requirements to build an effective automated trading system infrastructure?

Ans. 2. Yes, you do need additional requirements to build an effective automated trading system infrastructure.

Here are these additional requirements –

• You must have a Good Historical Data for Backtesting.
• It is necessary to have a Good Realtime for Live Trading.
• You should have Trade Execution Capabilities, i.e. market order, limit order, bracket order, cover order, etc.
• It is essential for you to have a good understanding of money management and types of systems, i.e. trend following, mean reversion, pattern recognition, seasonal, cynical, and so on.
• It is important for you to have a sense of risk management in terms of what to trade, symbol level stop-loss, portfolio level stop-loss, fnoban check, panic button square-off, etc.
• You require capabilities in position sizing, i.e. partial profit/loss booking, adding positions to the existing trade (scale).

Ques. 3. What availabilities does one need after taking your system live?

Ans. 3. You should have the following availabilities after taking your system live –

• Ensure that the trading model that you use is free of glitches and that the system is tradeable.
• You should have enough time to compute and place orders.
• The assumptions that you make regarding trading costs, i.e. brokerage, commissions, slippage, taxes are realistic.

Ques. 4. Are there any disadvantages to use AmiBroker?

Ans. 4. Well, not technically disadvantages but yes, there are a few issues with AmiBroker which one must know –

• This tool is not really suitable for those who aren’t tech-savvy and are unaware of the programming languages such as HTML, C/C++, etc.
• This tool works best for those who are keen to write their own codes.
• Since the tool is fully customizable, AmiBroker does not have a standard template, to begin with. It might not be an issue for an advanced coder, however, it can be quite cumbersome to come up with a new code or research about it.
• The managing of quotes takes a lot of time.
• It isn’t practically possible for you to run two or more databases per instance/session.
• AmiBroker isn’t suitable for big traders who transact in lump-sum money and not for one-time traders or small traders.

AmiBroker is one of the best when it comes to coding, programming, developing, however, it does not satisfy those who are from a non-technical background. One requires extensive training before using the analysis and charting tool.

Even though AmiBroker has quite a number of features and tools, that makes it the trading process safe and satisfying.

We are hoping that in neat future AmiBroker will become popular among the non-technical users as well.

Till then, keep trading!

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