I've posted most of this stuff at various times, but I don't see them all in this particular thread. So I include them all here for your enjoyment.
1. Some sort of simple trade manager, that ideally is able to send the data to Quicken/ MS Money. Then use the vastly superior charting that Metastock provides.
2. System optimizer/tester:
a. An output that just gives results as small graphs that can be viewed say ten or twelve to a page. (indeed, a print-out with all the graphs would be good) Then be able to select the graphs for a summary (which in turn has the same ability, so you can perform a "grand summary"). Once you have selected all the graphs/results you want, then discard the remainder in the "System Cleanup" rather than needing to blow off the whole thing.
b. An interactive graph of results, on which you can drag the mouse cursor over a span of dates to get a summary of the results for that time span. Thus one set of parameters for a bear market could easily be compared to another set of parameters that did better during a bullish period covered in your results. This can be more quickly extracted from the current data than to run the test with each time span. The result set should also be able to be re-ordered based on a selected time period.
c. Allow an option to use percentages instead of dollars in the results. Stating that you have a maximum loss of $8000 is actually quite meaningless compared to a maximum loss of 8%. This $8000 could be at the start of the timespan and represent 8%, or it could be toward the end where it might be 2%. I'd be more interested in percent shifts than $.
d. Comparisons are to "Buy and Hold", and should be. It would be nice to also be able to select another index or security for comparisons (How does it compare to Buy and Hold QQQQ ?).
3. Experts that can display more than one symbol/tick per bar. ie a go-long arrow on the same tick that has an end-short arrow. Plus additional symbols that can warn about a full moon if so desired.
4. Experts (formulas) that can switch to another security. Thus when my energy stock goes down, sell it and buy chemicals; switch between pro-funds, etc.
5. User formulas that can take and pass variables just like the built-in indicators. The optimizer also must be able to process these as "OPT1" etc
6. While we're on the subject, the optimizer should be able to take a much larger system. It should AT LEAST be able to take any expert that can be written, drop it into the optimizer and select the variables to be optimized.
7. The system tester ought to be able to handle trading mutual funds in my 401k or IRA: no commissions, no minimum balance, 100% goes to buy or sell.
