The Forex Back Testing Software choices for Algorithm Builders.
The days of discretionary trading are over and retail traders are moving to algorithmic trading strategies built by software.
In the past traders created strategies using print outs of charts laid out onto the floor and drew lines and patterns onto the print outs. They did everything manually and many of the strategies and tools we know today were built from those very same people who manually built strategies.
Those days are long gone and we can now harness the power of computers to back test and build strategies with 20 years of financial data in less than a second. These tools have leveled the playing field for retail traders against the big bank traders.
For those looking to turn your trading into a professional career you are going to need good software. You need to build and test out your strategies to see how they perform on past data to get an idea on how they will profit in the future.
Lets dig into the top four choices of software for everyone’s budget.
1.) Forex Tester 5 (www.forextester.com)
For an intermediate trader – this is the best type of forex software you can buy for yourself. This has instructions on how to trade incorporated into the back testing software. It offers basic courses and gets you started into back testing immediately. It has very advanced features for traders who already know what they are doing and simply want to use it as a tool. It has a builder, an AI based strategy optimizer, money management and automated trading options when you want to test your strategy on real-time accounts. It offers free historical data for daily and weekly chart for 20 years.
The price is reasonable: 149USD
2. ) Soft4fx (www.soft4fx.com)
This was my first forex software that I still use today. It is for the MT4 platform and it’s loaded from an expert advisor. The simplicity of the software is what makes it so easy to use and get started. It is very robust allowing you to back test strategies on all currency pairs, metals, oils, and indices and timeframes with free historical data. The best part of this software is how it allows you to easily understand exactly how your algorithm will work. When your build is completed you can manually take each trade once your indicators have signaled. This is a must for anyone serious about trading and wants to start their career. A great all-around software.
The price is very inexpensive: 109USD
4.) Strategy Quant X (https://strategyquant.com/)
This is the software that I currently use to create all my algorithms and has paid for itself within the first few months of using it on my live account. This completely blows away any type of strategy creating software that has hit the forex market. It has an AI Builder that will create a strategy with the indicators and trading management that you have predefined. It will choose the best strategy for you over vast periods of historical detail and retests that strategy on other currency pairs. Then runs it through Monte Carlo Simulations which mixes up and changes the data, and finally you can run it on a Walk Forward Matrix to see how it will perform on future data. This software is for serious traders who would like to trade for a living and work for a professional prop firm. I recommend this software to anyone that would like a career in trading.
The budget for the software is as follows:
Professional Edition
Payment Plan (12 monthly Installments) w/ coupon code
Coupon Code: strategyquant180offplan
1490USD – 180USD = 1310USD / 12 months = 109USD per month
One-time Payment w/ coupon code
Coupon Code: strategyquant200off
1490USD – 200USD = 1290USD
Try out the free 14 day trial before you purchase it and you can make a strategy within the 14 time period to use.
In Conclusion, you need trading software to back test on historical price data because you need to understand how it performed in the past to get an idea of how it will perform in the future. If you do not use any software and just start trading a strategy you are going into the market blind.
Whatever software you choose, it should meet your trading career goals. All of the above choices are good and are reasonably priced. If you need more consultation on what software to buy please feel free to reach out to me anytime by e-mail and I can help you make the choice,
Happy Trading and Good Luck