Why I use TraderXL Pro

Long time readers know that I use a few pieces of software on a regular basis to help me build financial models.  One these is TraderXL Pro, a sophisticated Excel Add-in suite, that I rely on extensively.

I primarily use the TraderXL Pro package to download my stock, futures, and currency data, apply technical analysis, run my stock models in real time, fool around with its classifier algorithms, and backtest my strategies. I like TraderXL a lot because I'm a heavy Excel user and develop many of algorithmic models in Excel before I load them into a neural net.  This little package allows me to do a helluva lot with downloaded stock data before I data mine for statistical relationships.

The TraderXL Pro package comes loaded with several Excel add-ins (I bought the whole bunch because it had a Neural Net and Classifier in it) and was surprised by how extensive its technical analysis library was.  This is an all-in-one investment solution for Microsoft Excel. It has 165 technical analysis functions, historical data downloads, real-time quotes, backtesting, neural network-based prediction and classification, and you can download free historical end-of-day stock data, indexes, mutual funds and futures, delayed and real time quotes for stocks, options, indexes and other securities for more than 50 markets worldwide.

The entire TraderXL suite comes with the following Add-ins:

1. AnalyzerXL – A heavy duty technical analytic add-in. You can download data and attach all kinds of technical analysis functions to your price data. It comes with “expert functions” like Cutler RSI or simple ones like volatility calculations
2. BulkquotesXL – This is my mainstay, I use this add-in to download all my stock, futures, and currency data. You can download price data and transform it in different tables, apply technical indicators on the fly, and even automatically generate charts. This is a very powerful data downloading add-in
3. DownloaderXL – Similar to BulkquotesXL and it downloads stock data and generates a nice graph with volume. I very rarely use this one because it doesn’t give the flexibility as BulkquotesXL
4. RTQuotesXL – this is a nice macro, it allows to download delayed (free) or real-time (fee-based) stock quotes from Yahoo or PCQuote. There is the ability to integrate other quote providers as well
5. PredictorXL – This is a neural net add-in that has been redesigned and is REALLY easy to use and pretty powerful.  I really like the redevelopment work on this add-in. Very easy to setup and use.
6. BacktestingXL – This is their backtesting and strategy macro and it works really well. The setup takes a bit of time but once its done, a simple click of the button will generate your returns.
7. ClassifierXL – For ease of use, and decent results, this is one good little classifier algorithm. I’ve used this to segment the S&P500 index and identify similar groupings of data.
8. OptionsXL – I never use this macro but I have downloaded put and call stock option data. I guess this would be handy if you were an option trader.
9. PortfolioXL – A great add-in for keeping track of your positions.

Now you don't have to don't have to download TraderXL Pro and get the entire package, you can download smaller packages to suit your individual needs, for example:

The TraderXL Pro package comes with all the above listed macros (the best package)

The AnalyzerXL package comes with: AnalyzerXL, BulkQuotesXL, DownloaderXL, RTQuotesXL, and PortfolioXL, OptionsXL (second best package)

The DownloaderXL package comes with: DownloaderXL, RTQuotesXL, PortfolioXL, and OptionsXL.

The PredictorXL and ClassifierXL macros come packaged in the NeuroXL suite (good to have it you want to neural net model!)

 Note: These links, with the exception of the NeuroXL suite, will download the trail versions.  Just save them and test it out for 10 days for FREE.

I hope that this article has helped you understand why I like using TraderXL so much. I've been using this package almost daily since about 2004 and even used it to build my ETF Trend System in Excel. I hope you take advantage of the free trials to test it out and as always, if you have any questions, please leave me a comment.

In case you want to supercharge your 10 day free trial, check out my other posts on how to use the macros in TraderXL Pro:

1. Using ClassifierXL to Find the Right Stock to Buy
2. Using TraderXL Pro to Build an Algorithmic Trading System (ATS)
3. Build an ETF Trend System in Excel
4. Build an ETF Trend System in Excel – Part 2
5. Using TraderXL Pro to Download Data for RapidMiner Modeling
6. Calculating Historical Volatility
7. Calling ATR and A Stop Loss In TraderXL Pro