I am in the process of learning to code in Python and am, I must admit, no programming genius. So I was delighted to see that George Pruitt, best known for his book on TradeStation’s EasyLanguage (Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation) had written a new book that covered not only the TradeStation platform but also AmiBroker, Excel (with VBA), and Python. The Ultimate Algorithmic Trading System Toolbox: Using Today’s Technology to Help You Become a Better Trader (Wiley, 2016) is a how-to manual for the non-quant who wants to incorporate algorithms into his trading.
Pruitt’s focus in this book is not so much on system development per se as it is on popular programming tools for building and back testing technical trading systems. Yes, he has chapters on “Genetic Optimization, Walk Forward, and Monte Carlo Start Trade Analysis” and “An Introduction to Portfolio Maestro, Money Management, and Portfolio Analysis,” but what will most likely draw traders to Pruitt’s book is his extensive array of clearly explained sample code. (more…)