1

Amibroker vs Tradetron – A Comprehensive Comparison

Amibroker and Tradetron are the two prevalent algorithmic trading platforms that traders across the globe use. Both of them are used to build, backtest and deploy trading strategies. In this article, we’ve done a comparative study of Amibroker vs Tradetron on various parameters. It should help you to choose one or both of these platforms for your algo trading needs.

Amibroker vs Tradetron –  Comparison Table

We’ve compared Amibroker and Tradetron across 5 different parameters:

  1. User Interface
  2. Strategy Creation
  3. Automation
  4. Backtesting
  5. Cost

Frankly speaking, it’s not an apple to apple comparison as the two tools are not meant for the same purpose. However, it would give you a fair idea of their similarities and dissimilarities. See the comparison table below:

Amibroker vs Tradetron

User Interface

Amibroker is a desktop-based application that needs to be downloaded and installed on your computer. Currently, it supports only Windows operating system. In terms of look and feel, it is similar to any other desktop application. There are features organized in different menus that can be accessed as required

Amibroker UI

Tradetron, on the other hand, is a web-based tool. It can be accessed from your browser in any OS of your choice. It’s a lightweight intuitive web application with easy drag and drop functionalities. You can access Tradetron from this link.

Tradetron UI

Strategy Creation

Trading strategies can be created in Amibroker using the Amibroker formula language (AFL). You get keywords available for all the common technical indicators that can be incorporated into your trading system logic. After writing the strategy code, you can also visualize it (with buy-sell arrows) in the chart.

Amibroker Strategy Creation

Creating strategies in Tradetron is super simple as well. It offers a drag and drop interface where you can combine various keywords and operators to build your strategy logic. You can also use external python libraries for strategy creation. However, Tradetron doesn’t support charting so you cannot really visualize your strategy after building it.

TradeTron Strategy Creation

Automation

Traders usually want to automate their strategies so that it automatically places an order at the exchange when the buy-sell conditions are met. It’s possible to automate the strategies using Amibroker, but you’ll have to use some 3rd party plugins to do that. And the plugins may differ based on your preferred broker.

Tradetron excels in the automation aspect as it has out-of-the-box integration with several brokers. As soon as the buy-sell signals are received, it gets passed to the broker’s APIs and the order is placed. All this happens within a fraction of the second with no manual intervention required at all.

Backtesting

There is no tool on this planet yet that can beat Amibroker in terms of backtesting, period! You can backtest your trading systems with ease and generate custom backtesting metrics to evaluate the system. There is also an option to optimize the parameters of the system to judge what is working and what is not. All these within a click of a button and no long wait times.

Amibroker Backtesting

Tradetron also supports backtesting, but it’s not as quick and feature-rich as Amibroker. You’ll need to submit your strategy for backtesting and wait for a few hours before the results come up. They are continuously improving this feature and hopefully, it would get better down the line.

Tradetron Backtesting

Cost

Amibroker’s license starts from $299 one-time cost. There is no recurring fee and you’ll be entitled to regular updates and support. A separate subscription is required for data. There is a trial version available that you can use before buying the software. Check out the current price at this link.

Tradetron subscription starts at 300 INR per month for the Starter plan and goes up to 15000 INR per month for the institutional plan. For the US market, it ranges from $10 to $475 per month. There is also a free plan (0 INR) that allows you to do paper trading and create 1 private strategy. No additional data subscription is required for any plans. You can check the latest pricing details at this link.

Also Read: Amibroker vs TradingView – A Comprehensive Comparison

Final Thoughts

Amibroker and Tradetron are two extremely powerful platforms, but in my opinion, they’re not really designed for the same purpose.

Tradetron is more automation-focused, and its primary objective is to fully automate your algo trading strategies.

While Amibroker is a fully-fledged technical analysis tool with lots of powerful features to analyze, build, backtest and optimize trading systems. It was not designed to automate the strategies and so it doesn’t have native integration with brokers or exchanges.

For serious algo traders, we would recommend using Amibroker and Tradetron in conjunction. Amibroker should be used to build, visualize and backtest the system. And Tradetron should be used to automate it. There is also an integration available between the two platforms so that you don’t have to rework.

I hope you liked this Amibroker vs Tradetron comparison. In case you have any questions please post it in the comments section below.

Related Posts

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.