Automated Trading Tools For Excel
Excel is the first choice for many traders. Most people have some familiarity with it and can lay out spreadsheets for their trading data, it allows construction of trading strategies using formulas and it also has VBA, which is a powerful programming language, capable of automating manual processes.
The disadvantage is that it can take time to build testing tools, or build the trading tools that you need. Also, it can be difficult to integrate your spreadsheet with the market, if you want to automate your trading. Previously, I wrote macros to do a lot of this, but I have recently started using commercial software. Writing my own macros, or getting contractors to write them was time consuming, and sometimes I felt that I could not rely on the results.
I am now using AnalyzerXL (www.analyzerxl.com), which includes a number of separate tools. The main tools that I use at the moment are the BacktestingXL and PredictorXL modules, but there are also tools to automate downloads of data, options analysis, neural network classification and technical analysis.
I find the BacktestingXL module particularly helpful because it is rock solid, and it can be difficult to write the tools to evaluate your own trading strategy. I use this quite extensively for evaluation of trading approaches. It generates a summary page, equity curve and analysis of each trade. The only thing that I would like to see is a way of automating stop losses (there may be a way which I am not yet using).
The PredictorXL is a neural network that is within Excel. I quite like it for initial analysis (I use it to identify input variables), and it is reasonably fast, but I would not buy the entire suite to get just PredictorXL. Also, I can’t find a way to run it from macros. This would be useful in a situation where you have a trading model that relies on automated propagation of a neural network.
The most recent module that I am experimenting with is Forex4XL, which allows for automated trading from Excel (to Forex.com, which is Gain Capital). I think that this is a great idea. This is actually a free download.
You can download the AnalyzerXL suite for free to try it out to see whether it suits your needs before purchasing it. I would definitely recommend using the backtesting module rather than trying to write your own formulas or macros for testing your trading – focus on your strategy, and buy the other tools you need.
