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He's very good at accommodating suggestions and solving people's problems that may arise.
RealTest - Portfolio Level backtesting software
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Richard Dale
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This has been solved programatically by Marsten after I told him how we calculate dividend yield... no import needed!
Richard Dale
Norgate Data
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Fundamental data, for latest bar scans, is in RealTest 2.0.23.5, released today (2 Mar 2022).
A few things from the first week with the free trial.
Starting a variable name with Daily, Weekly or Monthly uses Daily, weekly or Monthly bars. No need to change, reset & expand the time frame. DailyMA(C, 15) is the 15 bar daily MA and WeeklyMA(C, 15) is the 15 bar weekly MA.
When you have multiple exit reasons you can have the reason display is the back test trade log. Helpful to know what actually triggered the exit and very easy to code.
While not strictly correct it allows for division by zero. It's nice not having to check every time.
While not giving identical back test results I've converted a system with over 300 lines of code in Amibroker into 85 lines in RealTest. I need to better understand the differences but they are very close.
It's a great program. I still haven't mastered porting AB code to RT, but if I'm stuck I give it a go and then ask Marsten. Someone in the forum should be able to help.
Hope you're liking it.
I'm still in the free trial period but definately liking it and almost certain to buy it.
Another tip is add "Adjustment: Capital" to your Import section
By default RealTest does price & volume adjustments for Capital reconstitutions and special distributions (which is also the Amibroker default). Unlike Amibroker the RealTest Backtest trade list shows BOTH the buy and sell quantities and treating Special dividends like share splits increases the quantity held.
Actually it probably depends on your strategy. Sometimes it would make sense to adjust the historic prices for all the non trading changes and sometimes make no changes at all.
At least with RT the adjustment is done in the script allowing you to use the most appropriate setting for each system / strategy.
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What sort of strategies are you developing Bonez? I have tested a few different types so I may be able to help out if you need
At present I'm busy just trying to learn RealTest rather than developing new strategies. I started with the really simple strategies I copied from the internet when I started learning Amibroker and migrated them to RealTest then went down the rabbit hole when the results didn't always match. I've migrated one current strategy but will continue running Amibroker and RealTest in parallel and plan on doing the same with my other active strategies. Running what should be the same logic but coded in different applications can produce some interesting results.
My current active strategies are either trend following or buy and hold. One style gives me income from dividends and the other profits which ultimately grows both. After twenty years of trading I've learnt these suit me best.
My free trial expired so I brought a licence.
I'm still running systems in parallel and still finding differences but have so far tracked them down to user error. The latest being padding which is off by default in RT but I had turned on in Amibroker. It's not a big deal when looking back 20 bars but when looking back 200 bars a lot of companies have had no trading days.
I'm still running systems in parallel and still finding differences but have so far tracked them down to user error. The latest being padding which is off by default in RT but I had turned on in Amibroker. It's not a big deal when looking back 20 bars but when looking back 200 bars a lot of companies have had no trading days.
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Yes i use Padding: AllMarketDays
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I saw this on the real test forum, this is a pretty major enhancement for back testing software. Will be very handy for people who are trading short-term systems via real test and interactive brokers (I'm assuming it will only be interactive brokers)
"The major feature of 2.0.24 will be the ability to place orders in IB without Basket Trader or Alera (via a new separate app called “Order Clerk”) and generate tomorrow’s orders with accurate knowledge of current live trades organized by strategy. Stay tuned!"
"The major feature of 2.0.24 will be the ability to place orders in IB without Basket Trader or Alera (via a new separate app called “Order Clerk”) and generate tomorrow’s orders with accurate knowledge of current live trades organized by strategy. Stay tuned!"
I'm using AB for my short-term system right now, with Radge's API.
That is a great feature though! Will open things up a little more as capital grows and I introduce new systems.
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I think Nick's API would have more flexibility with controlling the number of entries etc, but this could be a good option for placing trades that don't need to be managed during the day
After 12 months, are you solely using RT and if so, was it worth the change?
Nick Radge just confirmed (via video on website) he is moving to RT beginning next year. Along with Nick's reason for this and the posts here, RT seems worth changing to. The short video highlights being able to backtest a portfolio of multiple strategies and the coding as Nick says is considerably easier. Certainly seems worth trying out the trial version.
Sid
I didn't see the video but I saw a post from NickR on the RT forum. Happy he's moving to RT!
RT is a one person project, which is a downside. But the person running it is very receptive to new features or improvements, or helping you figure out how to code your strategy.
I use Realtest.
It's main strengths appear to be running multiple strategies and simplicity of coding.
The simplicity was why I got it.
I only use it in the most basic way, probably comparable to sitting in a Lamborghini in the drive way while making car noises.
I've got no coding abilities, but after a week of a few hours a night had a decent understanding of how it works.
It's main strengths appear to be running multiple strategies and simplicity of coding.
The simplicity was why I got it.
I only use it in the most basic way, probably comparable to sitting in a Lamborghini in the drive way while making car noises.
I've got no coding abilities, but after a week of a few hours a night had a decent understanding of how it works.
I'm still using AB for my live systems but have been coding systems in RT. I'm like you in that I like the simplicity and my coding skills are very basic. I doubt I'm using it to its fullest either. One day ...
What data source are you using to populate RealTest - or to put it another way what fuel are you putting into your Lamborghini?
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