Today we continue our brief look at the TraderXL Pro package and examine AnalyzerXL. In short AnalyzerXL allows you to apply technical analysis to price data. The technical analysis library is quite extensive with around 165 functions, experts and indicators. The best way to understand how AnalyzerXL operates is by way of example.

You can download a free 10 day trial of TraderXL Pro.

AnalyzerXL

The AnalyzerXL menu is shown below. As with most of the features of the addin the true complexity of this addin is abstracted away.

Before we run AnalyzerXL we use DownloaderXL to download the price data for our desired company. After the data is acquired it is a simple matter of selecting AnalyzerXL and a dialog box like the one shown below will appear.

In this dialog box you select the function, indicator or expert you wish to apply to your data. For this example we select the exponential moving average and click next. In this second dialog box we refine the variables as shown below:

After you are happy with all the settings then it is simply a matter of clicking the finish button and the output will be similar to the sheet shown below.

As you can see above the automatically generated graph needs some refinement however the power of having these pre-programmed functions available in Excel is a huge advantage.

You can download a free 10 day trial of TraderXL Pro.

With the ability to automate these functions with VBA and back and forward test strategies AnalyzerXL is a solid component in the TraderXL Pro package. The full list of functions, indicators and experts is shown below. Read the full story

Popularity: 6% [?]

I am always on the lookout for tools and applications that will make life easier an on the weekend I stumbled across one of these applications TraderXL Professional. In my previous article you may have read that I was using the free Stock Market Functions Add In for Microsoft Excel to download data. This proved to be quite an easy to use plug-in however it is by design limited in its functionality.

TraderXL comprises of a suite of addins for Microsoft Excel, the addins include:

• AnalyzerXL
• BulkQuotesXL
• DownloaderXL
• RTQuotesXL
• PredictorXL
• BacktestingXL
• ClassifierXL
• PortfolioXL
• OptionsXL

I was truly blown away with the scope of this group of applications and reviewing them will be no small task. In the next few posts I will look at the core features of this package and I will showcase how I will be using them.

You can download a free 10 day trial of TraderXL Pro.

DownloaderXL

DownloaderXL makes it simple to download Equities, Indices and Mutual fund data from all the major markets around the world. For equities the data includes open, high, low, close and volume fields. The indices data also includes open, high, low, close and volume fields. The mutual funds data includes the net asset value. You can specify three different timeframes daily, weekly and monthly.

Downloading Stock Data

In order to show you how simple it is to download data using this tool we will download data for MSFT from May the 10th to August the 8th. The image below shows the DownloaderXL menu in Excel 2007.

In order to download data you need to click on Download Prices menu item and a dialog box will appear as shown below.

From this simple dialog box all the data input variables can be set. It is very simplistic in nature but yet powerful. You can enter a single ticker symbol or a list of symbols to download data for. You can also set what chart type you want generated after data import. Once you are happy with the settings it is simply a matter of clicking on the get historical data button. After downloading is complete a new sheet will be added to your workbook like the one shown below.

As you can see it is a very simple process to download data and integrate it into your spreadsheets. It is also easy to conditionally update your stock data. In the next article we will examine AnalyzerXL.

You can download a free 10 day trial of TraderXL Pro.

Popularity: 3% [?]

NinjaTrader is a broker independent trading platform. This means that you can use one piece of software with several different brokers. NinjaTrader is available as a free download (after providing your email address). The free download version can be used for simulation and testing. Before you download this software you should ensure your computer meets the minimum system requirements shown below:

NinjaTrader 6.5 Minimum System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista  or Windows XP.
• Monitor Resolution: Minimum of 1024 x 768.
• CPU: Minimum Pentium 4 or higher.
• RAM: 1GB RAM or higher if you are running Windows XP and 2GB or higher if you are running Windows Vista.
• Additional Software Requirements: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

NinjaTrader has a vast number of brokerage and market data providers for you to connect to these include:

• Barchart.com
• eSignal
• FuturesBetting
• GAIN Capital/FOREX.com
• Interactive Brokers
• IQ Feed from DTN
• MB Trading
• OpenTick Patsystems
• PFGBEST.com
• TD AMERITRADE
• Track Data
• TradeStation
• Trading Technologies
• Yahoo
• Zen-Fire
• Text file based historical data import

It is due to these large amount of providers of data and brokerage services that I have decided to use NinjaTrader as my main trading platform. I will test it solidly for a month and then purchase a Live trading licence if it meets all my needs, which at this stage it appears to do.

I found the download and install process to be seamless, you will need to enter your free licence key on first use. One thing you will have to do is allow NinjaTrader to send and receive data over your network and you may get a dialog box like the one below whilst using Vista.

After loading  NinjaTrader you will be greeted with a screen similar to the one below. This is NinjaTrader’s control center, as the name suggest you will launch most of NinjaTraders functionality from here.

The first thing I did after installing was to add my demo MB Trading account details. This is a very simple process to setup and with in no time I was receiving currency data. Another great feature of NinjaTrader is that you can enable the MB Navigator window this allows for easy transition for users that are used to Navigator. At the moment I am still getting to grips with NinjaTrader so far I am very impressed. I will post some more info and tutorials as I come to grips with all the functionality. You can download the free version of NinjaTrader here. Below is my current workspace setup as I learn more about NinjaTrader I am sure this will change.

UPDATE: I have noticed slow load times and sometimes NinjaTrader stops responding all together whilst Outlook 2007 is open. I am not sure if this is a widespread issue or not however I will be looking into it. I am sure this is probably just a issue related to my configuration but would be interested to hear if others have problems.

Popularity: 6% [?]

When it comes to writing computer programs or in this case automated trading systems translating English into programming code can be fraught with danger. Pseudo Code on the other hand refers to a more structured English for describing a process or program. It is important that you learn to write quality pseudo code as it will make a big difference when you come to coding your system your self or hiring a programmer.

There are many benefits in writing your algorithms or trading logic in pseudo code these include:

• You will gain a detailed understanding of the program or algorithm you are developing.
• Errors in logic picked up early.
• Not constrained by a single programming language.

Below is a brief example of pseudo code:

Read the full story

Popularity: 5% [?]

It has been a little over a week now since I first installed Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition. My first impressions are that this is a very solid program. Visual Studio 2008 was released in late November 2007 and by now most investment banks have migrated their development environments from Visual Studio 2005 to 2008.

The first thing you will notice after installing Visual Studio 2008 is how quickly it loads. Even on my old Pentium four system Visual Studio is still snappy and responsive. Visual Studio 2008 includes the .NET Framework 3.5 and in the professional version you have the ability to target different versions of the .NET  framework. This is a huge advantage over Visual Studio 2005 were you could only target one framework. The .NET Framework 3.5 brings with it many additional class libraries and features. Some highlights include:

Read the full story

Popularity: 3% [?]

In our previous article we used a simple method for importing stock quote data into Excel. Today we will look at a robust automated method for querying more data sources then just Yahoo finance. The Stock Market Functions Add-in for Excel is a free tool developed by by Randy Harmelink. The stock market functions Add-In allows you to import data from sites like Yahoo, Business Week, Reuters, Google, Bloomberg, MSN and many more. In the latest release there are beta features for several technical analysis functions like

• Accumulation Distribution Line
• Average True Range
• Commodity Channel Index
• Simple Moving Average
• Moving Average Convergence Divergence
• Exponential Moving Average

Read the full story

Popularity: 12% [?]