An Open Source Finance System for Stocks Backtesting Trade Strategies

2. Research Problem And Novelty

Financial backtesting systems are widely used in financial algorithmic trading systems and allow the trader to simulate a trading strategy using historical data and afterwards to generate results and analyze the corresponding risk and profitability before risking any actual capital. However, such systems are not free for use. In some cases the software company provides a free trial version for a limited time and afterwards the client is required to pay a monthly fee for system license maintenance and support. Another common marketing ploy is to provide a free, no-credit-card-required evaluation account but with restricted data access. Besides these limitations, a problem with the existing products arises when the individual user/investor wants to obtain results on new developments or via non-standard parameters, optimizations and simulations; or to analyze other financial instruments which are currently not represented in the system. In these situations the user is asked to pay more or to cope with a complicated in-site API environment which in many cases turns out to offer just specific functional interfaces without the possibility of understanding the system’s internal logic and architecture. These limitations prevent the user from improving, developing and testing any new financial indicators, instruments and features.

Corresponding research investigates the current development tools which can process financial data and perform analysis of the most popular financial backtesting simulation strategies. The significant conclusion of the paper concludes is the user interface design and implementation.