AmiBroker: learning the language!

[lukeaye]

Hi guys,

I am trying my hand at mechanical systems trading, and have no frigin idea how to program any type of trading system. Can i ask the general ASF population a few things.

(1) How did you learn how to program with amibroker?
(2) What are the most useful resources you have come across for amibroker?
(3) If you had a piece of advice for somebody wanting to become apt with this program, what would it be?

Thanks in advance

 

[professor_frink]

Re: Amibroker learning the language!

Hi guys,

I am trying my hand at mechanical systems trading, and have no frigin idea how to program any type of trading system. Can i ask the general ASF population a few things.

(1) How did you learn how to program with amibroker?
(2) What are the most useful resources you have come across for amibroker?
(3) If you had a piece of advice for somebody wanting to become apt with this program, what would it be?

Thanks in advance

The help section/user's guide in the program is a really good place to start.

 

[Timmy]

Re: Amibroker learning the language!

ASF is the great resource for AmiBroker, do a search for "Amibroker", search in "Title Only" and it brings up 3 pages of threads. See screenshots attached.

 

[nomore4s]

Re: Amibroker learning the language!

The best way to learn is to get some basic codes and play around with them. As Timmy & Prof Frink said use the search function here and read the help section in Amibroker.

Also search this site for Howard Bandy and look to buy his book on Amibroker. If you are serious about getting the most out of amibroker this is very good tool.

I will just add that it appears very overwhelming at first but it isn't too bad once you spend a bit of time playing around with it. Good luck

 

[aramz]

nomore4s and anoyone willing to help,

I have a few questions about amibroker and its language. I thought i should add on to this thread as it regards newbies learning the AFL langauage system and i didn't think i should just start another thread.

With regards to amibroker how long did it take you to learn the language and be quite proficient with it? I have seen H. Bandy's internet site and his amibroker book and I would certainly purchase it if i was to buy amibroker. Atm I am using incredible charts but am getting at the stage where i want to delve more into creating systems and advancing my trading. i have been looking at bullcharts, metastock and amibroker. They all look good. I have read that AFL is the most difficult language to learn and without this sounding like a copout I don't have alot of time on my hands to spend hours everynight learning to code. I work full time, study and train 3 hours a night as i'm an amatuer kickboxer and fight regularly. I do my best to read books on tech analysis, the stock market and monitor trades etc. Having to learn a whole coding language does seem daunting atm. Thats why i was considering bullcharts as it has a huge amount on inbuilt scans that you can customize and would be more time efficient. Although it has nothing for pattern recognition like ascending triangles and triple tops and bottoms etc. With amibroker i have seen add on programs for pattern recognition as with metastock and also you could probably find formulas for them. Amibroker seems like a limitless piece of software although im wondering how long does it take one to really shift its gears and learn the language. Can one just browse forums and find links for codes and apply these codes and learn fairly quickly without having to devote hours a night for months on end?

Still sussing out that first software purchase and trying to find something that isn't hanpered by my busy schedule. Any replies are greatly appreciated.

 

[Wysiwyg]

Aramz, since I`m a K1 fan I will give an explanation of what I have discovered. The programming language these software packages use is something many don`t want to learn, simply because to learn a programming language is not a desire in the normal course of things. Let alone the neurons required to actually pick it up (which counts me out).

So this leaves three options (what I didn`t think about first) and they are ;

1) Learn the programming language (how long to proficiency I don`t know).
2) Pay to have your strategy written in the language (costs I have seen vary between 50 & 100 dollars / hour).
3) Purchase a program that has inbuilt strategies and natural language conversion.

Now 3) is what I am looking at right now and although more expensive, it does get straight to design, test and run much much quicker than 1) & 2). Amibroker, although it is valuable to me for trading with the stock exploration feature, isn`t what I need for design and test of a trading strategy.

Add Ons :
Pattern Explorer -- great for finding stock that match the patterns i.e. triangles etc. in pattern recognition or hammers etc. in candlestick recognition.

Power Scan -- simply click the indicators, operators, value etc. and search for matches from a chosen stock universe. Basic, yet effective.

Finally (then it`s good night Irene ) this snippet and a connection to the website which you may find interesting for system design and testing minus the programming language boggle. More expensive but it does bypass the previously mentioned obstacles with programming language.
The video skips through so I watched/pause/watched the introductory a few times. The Turtle System looks interesting which is based on the Turtle Traders Strategy from the 1980`s.

Each system included with Trading Blox™ Professional has many easily adjustable settings, so you can build and test literally millions of different system variations without writing a single line of code.

 

[aramz]

Thanks for that Wysiwyg, im a huge k-1 max fan.

Trading blox looks like an insane piece of software, expensive though. Those amibroker plugins look great. Has anyone used them and rated them high, especially with regards to aptly recognising any of the patterns? For example i have heard the metastock pattern recognition plugin by Murphy isn't that great.

Anyway thanks for the help.

Luke

 

[Wysiwyg]

The Turtle System looks interesting which is based on the Turtle Traders Strategy from the 1980`s.

This PDF attachment is about the traders and their breakout system. Light reading and although the 20 day breakout method they used may not suit many, the paper is full of valuable knowledge such as ; stops, position sizing,entry and exits.
Learning involves comprehension and sometimes things just don`t make sense until reread or through real life experience.

 

[howardbandy]

Hi Lukeaye --

If you are going to trade mechanical systems, you need a way to estimate how they will perform tomorrow, with real money. The best way to do that is using out-of-sample testing -- preferably automatic walk forward testing using an objective function of your own choosing. AmiBroker has all of those features -- many other trading system development platforms do not.

No matter which platform you pick, you will need to become proficient in programming its language. AmiBroker's afl is very powerful and very easy to use once you understand its array-orientation.

Thanks,
Howard

 

[nomore4s]

With regards to amibroker how long did it take you to learn the language and be quite proficient with it?

Aramz,

It doesn't take long to learn the AFL coding but it does seem overwhelming at first. There are plenty of sites around with freely available codes for scanning different things, and you will also be able to find some mech trading systems as well.

There are plenty of forums around that you can get help with learning how to use & code amibroker and there are also services around that will code up ideas for you if it is too advanced.

I'm obviously biased towards amibroker because that is what I use but I haven't used any of the other products available. The reason I went with amibroker is because on a cost basis it was (to me at least) the best product available, also the amount of coding freely available is amazing.

If you do go with amibroker let me know and I will send you some codes to get you started.

 

[aramz]

If you are going to trade mechanical systems, you need a way to estimate how they will perform tomorrow, with real money. The best way to do that is using out-of-sample testing -- preferably automatic walk forward testing using an objective function of your own choosing. AmiBroker has all of those features -- many other trading system development platforms do not.

How does this testing compare to tradesim plugins with metastock or amibroker? I know this would be a free aspect of amibroker and tradesim is $198. Does this automatic walk forward testing differ alot from backtesting? How does amibrokers backtesting capabilities compare to tradesim?

Can amibroker perform sector analysis?

finally when conducting scans with amibroker and if you wanted to combo scan with various indicators is it a matter of researching the AFL codes required for each indiicator and building a scan? Can you save that scan as a favourite and store it somewhere for fast efficient use later on? Do you have to create lots of different combo scans with AFL codes or can you create a code for certain indicators and easily add them to a combo scan when you want to mix the scans up?

Hope i am making sense here. I will have to research more and play with the trial but if someone could answer these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[aramz]

Also thanks nomore I would love some help when i trial or buy the software.

Cheers.

 

[tech/a]

very easy to use once you understand its array-orientation.

I'm a red coat.
Metastock.
But had to learn the language.

I think Howards Statement says a great deal about learning the language.

All languages it appears have a natural logic and progression to them.
I often save templates which I find other people have used for their purpose and I just adapt my code to suit.
I also try to work through code that others have written and try to understand their thinking in the coding.

Another thing I found helpful was to write out what I wanted to do in long hand and then tick off each portion as I coded it.
Really hard stuff I pay for.

Lots and lots of trial and error.
Now with vitamin"C" for metastock off I go again!

When people know I can speak 2 languages they are impressed.
Metaspeak is pretty rare you know.

 

[theasxgorilla]

All languages it appears have a natural logic and progression to them.
I often save templates which I find other people have used for their purpose and I just adapt my code to suit.
I also try to work through code that others have written and try to understand their thinking in the coding.

Another thing I found helpful was to write out what I wanted to do in long hand and then tick off each portion as I coded it.
Really hard stuff I pay for.

Lots and lots of trial and error.

Great post tech/a.

What you describe here is called pseudocoding. It's a method used by professional coders. It also helps to comment code with the pseudocode pieces so someone who wants to use your code as a template in the future can more easily get a grasp of it.

 

[howardbandy]

How does this testing compare to tradesim plugins with metastock or amibroker? I know this would be a free aspect of amibroker and tradesim is $198. Does this automatic walk forward testing differ alot from backtesting? How does amibrokers backtesting capabilities compare to tradesim?

Can amibroker perform sector analysis?

finally when conducting scans with amibroker and if you wanted to combo scan with various indicators is it a matter of researching the AFL codes required for each indiicator and building a scan? Can you save that scan as a favourite and store it somewhere for fast efficient use later on? Do you have to create lots of different combo scans with AFL codes or can you create a code for certain indicators and easily add them to a combo scan when you want to mix the scans up?

Hope i am making sense here. I will have to research more and play with the trial but if someone could answer these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Greetings --

Walk forward testing and backtesting appear similar, but are night and day different. Backtesting tells you how well you can make the system fit the past data. Walk forward tells you how profitable your trades might be in the future.

AmiBroker can perform sector analysis.

You can combine as many scans and as much code as you want to in a single AmiBroker program. You can save the code and rerun it whenever you want to without making any other changes. If you want to run it using a different list, you just click on which list you want to use for that run.

Thanks,
Howard

 

[wayneL]

Great post tech/a.

What you describe here is called pseudocoding. It's a method used by professional coders. It also helps to comment code with the pseudocode pieces so someone who wants to use your code as a template in the future can more easily get a grasp of it.

As someone who has learnt Metamumbojumbo and AFL (and little bits of HTML) by basically reverse engineering other people's code, I find this VERY helpful.

Kudos and thanks to the many who have contributed to my knowledge this way.