As you can see from the graphic of the "Tools" menu to the left, there are plenty of useful features in this software. As well as the standard charts (historical and real-time), indicators (very comprehensive), and alerts, there are a selection of major functional areas that are very useful for designing, testing, and executing automated trading systems. The main ones include: Data Manager - quickly and easily retrieves historical data from multiple data vendors and timeframes. Neat Scan - a filtering and scanning tool. Strategy Builder - fully-functioned trading strategies defined using a programming language "Improvian". Simulation - a comprehensive strategy back testing feature. Execution - ability to automatically send strategy orders to Interactive Brokers. As well as these major functional areas there are other tools to handle streaming versus real-time data, a neural network model, and facilities to call external code/programs using the dynamic link library (DLL) module. There is also comprehensive online help and most features are accessed using "wizards" and structured dialogues rather than having to learn the programming language immediately.  This allows a novice user to utilize the built-in functions easily, but is also flexible enough for the advanced professional user.

Each major area of functionality will now briefly be described.

Data Manager

Data manager is the way all historical and streaming data is controlled by the software. The number of data sources is impressive with all major vendors being supported (including a couple of free ones for historical daily data like Yahoo and MSN). Functions to manage splits, dividends, and other data actions are included. There is also a nice feature to add a list of symbols based on a major index instead of having to add all the components manually. Once configured, data can be automatically updated when the main program is run.

Neat Scan Neat scan is the filtering and scanning function that can be used to find groups of instruments you are interested in. You can scan for setups and entries, or simply create lists that match certain criteria to go on a watchlist. There is a plethora of available attributes to scan on and there were no problems constructing scans to find the equities of interest.

Strategy Builder

Strategy builder is the engine that makes this software run. A strategy is split into 4 main sections to specify criteria for entering and exiting long and short trades. There are also many built-in functions to handle things like stops and position-sizing so you don't have to program them yourself using the "Improvian" language. Personally, I don't like separating code into 4 sections (that can't communicate with each other except via the position-size functions) but it was still possible to program most of what I wanted to do.

Simulation

Simulation functions are the heart of the testing suite in the software. One great feature is the ability to apply a strategy to a list of symbols, run historical tests, and collate all the results to see the overall performance of the strategy on the list of symbols. This is one of the best back testing features I have used.

Execution

Execution services allow you to automate the trading of a particular strategy using Interactive Brokers. This is useful if you use intra-day or shorter term trading systems and don't want to have to manually enter every order.