MultiCharts.NET - my experiences some weeks in

I thought I'd take the time to write up my experiences using MC.NET.

Background:
I started trading some years ago - initially signing up via InteractiveBrokers and acting more like an investor than a trader (trading mainly US equities and options). I am a tech-head by profession and had spent many years as a software developer.

I soon discovered the joys of futures trading (mainly ES, sometimes GC/CL/NQ) but needed some tools better than what IB were providing. A guy I know who sells some neat indicators only supported TS so I went there. The charting was much better than IB but I never liked the platform-only pricing.

I worked with a TS/IB combo for a year before deciding that the allure of automated trading was too great for me to pass up. I spent a lot of spare time throughout 2014 developing my own strategies and indicators. However, EasyLanguage was horrible for anything semi-sophisticated so I started looking elsewhere. Around the same time I felt the pinch of paying ~$300/mo for TS and manually having to execute my trades via IB. A TS brokerage account was more pain than it was worth (commissions weren't great and most of their forms can't be filled out electronically/online).

I installed an MC.NET trial and gave it a go...

MC.NET - dipping toes
I really liked it but converting/refactoring/enhancing my EasyLanguage code to C# has been a monumental effort. It was tough that no existing EasyLanguage code can't be reused so conversion was an all-or-nothing proposition. It hurt a lot that there are far fewer MC.NET built-in functions than EasyLanguage has (e.g. things as simple as a Median function are absent in MC.NET).

I persevered and have converted so far about 60% of my code - at least enough to manually be trading.

MC.NET - going all the way
I decided that I'd ditch IB and TS and go over to AMP Futures. Main reasons were they provide decent commissions, nice day-trading margins and best-of-all - FREE MC.NET (albeit a 'Special Edition' that only supports their own data providers).

I've now been trading this setup for a week and am extremely happy. Happy enough that I expect to cancel my TS platform subscription within the coming weeks!

MC.NET - favourite features
- Data playback (not used it fully yet but I know it will be useful for me)
- Speed of support via this forum (Henry has replied to everything I've asked, and always professionally and promptly)
- Code execution speed (yes, my code does calculate A LOT FASTER under MC.NET than TS)
- Ability to properly debug my code via VisualStudio
- The ChartTrader is exceptionally nice
- I've never had it crash on me (which is more than I can say for TS)
I'm not kidding: being able to navigate to a bar (Ctrl+G from a chart window)!


MC.NET - what I'm looking forward to in future versions
- Mac support (maybe once Microsoft fully port .NET Framework over to it)
- Being able to backtest performance of strategies that use sophisticated order types like OCO (I know this is slated for 9.1 and I can't wait!)


So in short: thank you guys for a very nice product.

Mac support (maybe once Microsoft fully port .NET Framework over to it)

That's something I'd definitely like in the future also.

As it stands I do use MC on my iMac with zero issues through Parallels 10/Windows 7, however a native Mac version of Multicharts would be preferential as I'd then be able to ditch Windows for good!

Also agree that Henry is very useful!