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My concern adopting Neoticker

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 2:22 pm
by BlowFish
Neoticker is a great piece of software. I used it a couple of years ago. The only reason that I stoped was that I experienced problems with 'holes' appearing in disc cache data. I am sure that has long been fixed.

Before I take the plunge again I wanted to air one concern. Lack of public domain indicators and code fragments. I guess we are spoilt with tradestation in this regard. Just look at Avery's prolific contribution.

If I want to implement something chances are there is an indicator somewhere I can plagiarise and convert. Actually there is a good chance that it will 'plug straight in' and go. With Neoticker I am not sure that is the case meaning that many things I would have to do from scratch.

I just wonder if anyone can give a few words of encouragement in this respect? I think with a bit of arm twisting I could be persuaded to sign up for the summer discount :-)

Cheers.

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:11 pm
by michal.kreslik
Blowfish,

I'm not going to twist your arm here :) but I'd say that in fact, there's an abundance of available public domain indicators and systems for NeoTicker. The only issue is that they are scattered across many different languages that NeoTicker supports. Which means that they don't have to be available in your favorite programming language, but you can still get them for Neo.

Also, as it seems to me, a typical NeoTicker user has long been on a much higher level of understanding on how to write an efficient and coherent programming code than a typical user of BrakeStation. Which translates to the fact that the code written for Neo makes much more sense from the trading and programming point of view than an average piece of code written in QueasyLanguage/BrakeStation.

These are just my brief observations.

Michal

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:40 pm
by BlowFish
Thanks Michal,

I got reasonably used to using Neo with Delphi. I am sure I could pick it up again. I guess EL is based on delphi/pascal. Of course once you get use to the heap and referencing the data series the rest does not look too alien.

While I am no fan of Tradestation I do like easy language for quick and dirty prototyping of ideas.

I wish the had a macro pre-processor you could make things look similar with one.

Are there other sites apart from NT forums where I can look at bits of code ?

Cheers.

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:52 pm
by michal.kreslik
I'm not using heaps in Neo at all :) I'm doing all of this memory-wise work with my own objects in .NET.

By the way, Avery discovered this QueasyLanguage to C# convertor:

http://topdog.cc/

As for the macro preprocessor: you can write your own (for instance, XML-based) that would help doing quick and dirty work with NeoTicker objects easily in .NET.

Also: [google]NeoTicker indicators[/google]

Michal

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 8:11 pm
by 2.klever
Any other good links to get "there's an abundance of available public domain indicators and systems for NeoTicker" Michal?


thanks.
2.klever

Re: My concern adopting Neoticker

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 4:48 am
by aspTrader
BlowFish wrote:Before I take the plunge again I wanted to air one concern. Lack of public domain indicators and code fragments. I guess we are spoilt with tradestation in this regard. Just look at Avery's prolific contribution.

If I want to implement something chances are there is an indicator somewhere I can plagiarise and convert. Actually there is a good chance that it will 'plug straight in' and go. With Neoticker I am not sure that is the case meaning that many things I would have to do from scratch.

I just wonder if anyone can give a few words of encouragement in this respect? I think with a bit of arm twisting I could be persuaded to sign up for the summer discount :-)

I have used both Tradestation and NeoTicker for a number of years.

I think it's certainly true that Tradestation "feels" easier at first. Over time, however, the Tradestation software architecture takes a huge toll on productivity and code reuse. To give just one example:

If you are a Tradestation user, how many times have you coded functionality as an indicator or a show me or a paintbar or a strategy and then wanted to reuse that functionality in another type of Tradestation indicator? So, do you rewrite the whole thing as a function to facilitate reuse by the other program types or do you just cut and paste and wind up with batches of redundant code all over the place?

In NeoTicker, EVERY indicator IS an indicator, IS a system, IS a PaintBar, IS a ShowMe, IS, get this, IS a function. Any indicator can call any other indicator...

And SYSTEMS can plot values like Indicators, PaintBars, etc.

The "Tradestation is simpler" belief is an illusion. Sure, if you're not going to do anything very sophisticated, stick with TS. If you're in it for just a little while, stick with TS.

But if you're committed to a long term project of using a technical analysis platform to trade and/or invest then my view is that there is no question but that the NeoTicker platform is superior to Tradestation. And if you're doing intra-day trading, then, it's even more of a no-brainer.

I understand and appreciate Michal's vision for and commitment to using C# with NeoTicker. For myself, Delphi (and earlier Delphi Script) made a lot of sense because it's similarities with Easy Language.

You can find some code snippets at the old NeoTicker Yahoo Group here:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/neoticker/

The code there is often not well done but you can get a few ideas of how things work there.

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:33 am
by BlowFish
Thanks asp,

Most things I am doing are pretty simple at heart. A good example is this. Recently I decided to have a look at Wolf Waves as they are based on geometry and share some similarities to pitch forks. Now this is a pretty 'fringe' methodology but while I was trauling I came across an indicator that someone had coded. It wasn't particularly elegant but it worked.

Actually I am using Multicharts but after two years with the same irritating bugs un adressed I am becoming pretty much at the end of my tether (MC compiles easy language natively.) As a side issue I really would warn people to be cautious about going down that path. Neoticker at version 2 (some years ago now) was way more solid.

Cheers.