Classic Multicharts vs. Dot Net

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
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syswizard
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Classic Multicharts vs. Dot Net

Postby syswizard » 26 Apr 2015

I am a former TS user and Easy Language programmer.
I definitely want to start algo/auto trading again.....likely the CME emini contracts....
gold, oil, Nasdaq and Dow futures. I'll be using the Interactive Brokers data feed.

I can definitely get up to speed on the MC features and the coding platform pretty quickly.
However, I want to think about the time needed to learn C# and the dot-net platform.

If I decide to go with the Classic MC, will I be losing any functionality present in the dot-net platform ? Is it worth taking a few months to learn C# and dot-net ?

Any and all suggestions welcomed !!

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TJ
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Re: Classic Multicharts vs. Dot Net

Postby TJ » 26 Apr 2015

I am a former TS user and Easy Language programmer.
I definitely want to start algo/auto trading again.....likely the CME emini contracts....
gold, oil, Nasdaq and Dow futures. I'll be using the Interactive Brokers data feed.

I can definitely get up to speed on the MC features and the coding platform pretty quickly.
However, I want to think about the time needed to learn C# and the dot-net platform.

If I decide to go with the Classic MC, will I be losing any functionality present in the dot-net platform ? Is it worth taking a few months to learn C# and dot-net ?

Any and all suggestions welcomed !!
How quickly can you learn C# and .net? It all depends on your computer oriented cognitive skill...

Can you think in terms of objects?
Some people can pick up OOP in 30 days,
Some people are still struggling after 30 months.

The best way to find out is to try some of those free tutorials on the web. You should be able to judge for yourself after a weekend of trying. The verdict you are looking for is, either it "clicks" for you, or it doesn't. If it doesn't "click", I wouldn't waste too much of my precious time. You can get further ahead by either hiring a programmer, or using EasyLanguage.

The EasyLanguage is plenty powerful for most scenario. The language is procedural based, ie. the programming method/style is in a Step-by-Step format, making it easier to learn, code, and debug. Thus the EasyLanguage is more suited to the non-professional programmers. With the MultiCharts enhancements, it can pretty well do 99% of the things you would ever want it to do.

hughesfleming
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Re: Classic Multicharts vs. Dot Net

Postby hughesfleming » 27 Apr 2015

I started out with MC.net and Visual Studio and after a few of months, I converted my license to the Easylanguage version. I don't regret doing this for one second. Even having some programming experience with MT did not prepare me for the learning curve. It was a breath of fresh air.

The other thing I did which I highly recommend is to have some indicators and strategies coded by a really good programmer. I feel fortunate to have found Chris at ABC Trading who did this for me. I learnt more about Multicharts Easylanguage and correct programming style from his examples than I would have if I had just tried to learn everything from the available documentation. This mostly had to do with converting code from MT which was way over my head at the beginning.

If you are concerned that the Easylanguage version might be too limited then look at the SDK. It is really not that bad. For many things, you might not need the SDK at all. You can just use for example:-

DefineDLLFunc: "Test.dll", double, "test_double", double;

This will call the function "test_double" from Test.dll and Test.dll can be created in any language that can create x64 dll's. This really is the best of both worlds in my opinion.

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syswizard
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Re: Classic Multicharts vs. Dot Net

Postby syswizard » 27 Apr 2015

Thanks TJ and HugesFleming....that's all I wanted to hear...."30 months"...LOL.

I want to be TRADING, not learning CODING....and a new platform.
Plus, OO has become so totally overhyped. In many cases, it gets you into more trouble than you would be with good procedural technique.

I have over 100 sophisticated indicators, functions, and signals already written and built in Easy Language. I am a very proficient EL programmer.

This decision is a "no brainer".

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Re: Classic Multicharts vs. Dot Net

Postby tony » 28 Apr 2015

I had the same questions a few years back, and opted to go the "easier route." And it was the right decision for me. If you have an extremely complex strategy / algorithm then perhaps .net is the way to go but so far, I have been able to do everything I need and then some without it. I believe those who run or are involved in automated systems either coming with a programming background and learn to trade or a trader learning to programming. I'm the latter and for me .net was not needed.

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syswizard
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Re: Classic Multicharts vs. Dot Net

Postby syswizard » 28 Apr 2015

Yes, and as Huges mentioned....the DLL option provides yet another way to boost the flexibility of the multicharts standard environment.


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