Cheapest Way to Get Data into Amibroker

Several traders have asked about using Amibroker and the best way to import data.

The easiest way to import data is to use the IQFeed plugin and then backfill data.

I've used this method to import data going back to 2005 in my backtesting database.

But IQFeed is not the cheapest way.

The cheapest way is with Polygon (inexplicably renamed to "Massive" recently).

If you aren't yet sure you'll use Amibroker with real-time data, it's a great choice for backtesting only.

Polygon has a "flat files" offering that allows you to download their minute agg files.

These are zipped files that contain 1-minute bar data (Open, High, Low, Close, Volume) for every US equity on any given trading day.

This is ideal for importing into Amibroker to use for backtesting.

I like this approach for traders who are getting started because it allows them to focus on the hard part (creating a profitable strategy) in the cheapest way possible.

Once you create a strategy that looks great, then you can go down the path of trading it in real-time.

If you're a Strategy Cruncher user, you can download the scripts I use to download the Polygon files and import them into Amibroker.

Here's the documentation for how the process works.

-Dave