I graduated from UNC Asheville with a B.S. degree in Computer Science many years ago. I was fortunate to study under some real brains – Dr. Joe Daugherty, Dr. Mark Boyd and Dr. Wayne Lang. A truly great university that is comparable to any in the nation.
UNC Asheville’s Undergraduate Research Program has been recognized in U.S. News and World Report’s national rankings as a “program of distinction.”
I joined Futures Truth as a senior in college in 1989 as a C programmer and incorporated a sophisticated and large programming project into my senior project [Excalibur]. I worked there for 31 years and have authored many articles in magazines and trade journals. I have written and co-written several books that can be purchased at Amazon.com: The Ultimate Trading Guide, Building Winning Trading Systems with TradeStation – (first and second editions), The Ultimate Algorithmic Trading System Toolbox.
I am now the owner of TrendFollowingSystems.com. This is where I like to dedicate a portion of my time searching for good trend following algorithms and continuing to develop my Python based back tester.
My latest books TrendFollowing Systems: A DIY Project – Batteries Included, Easing Into EasyLanguage Trilogy [Foundation, Hi-Res and Advanced Topics have been very popular. If you want to learn EasyLanguage I would recommend checking out the trilogy.
I really enjoyed my writing my last Wiley book – The Ultimate Algorithmic Trading System Toolbox, because I got to create a very simple, but powerful, back testing engine in my now favorite programming language, PYTHON [ My Trend Following books have extended this simple Python script to a full blown back testing platform that is name TradingSimula-18]. This book was released almost two years ago and I am dedicating a good portion of this website to its support. This book, unlike my others, is chocked full of source code that can be incorporated into TradeStation, Amibroker, MultiCharts and the Python and Excel based platforms presented in the book. I want to build upon this code and create new and different ways to expand the software and technical analysis. This will undoubtedly be a ongoing adventure for both myself and my readership.
This photo is used so Google gets the right picture in the Authors Pane when you search for me.
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6 thoughts on “Biography”
Mr. Pruitt,
Good afternoon. My name is Elijah H. Walker and I am new to trading. The software engineering component is fascinating to me. When I was 10, I began to learn BASIC in a summer public school program. I wrote SO MANY programs. However, my Catholic school was not tech savvy at all. I ended up not doing anything with my new found interest. Plus my father said that he was not interested. I am now a funeral home owner that wants to recapture the past and go to school for computer programming. I would like to use my Finance degree and knowledge of the markets to learn to support programs like Tradestation. Please advise.
You really don’t need a computer science degree to utilize TradeStation. I would simply suggest downloading a simple course on one of the BASIC variants and review the concepts on if-then, loops and arrays. Let me look around and see if I can find a link for you. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
Hi George! What\’s the advantage of using python to back test, over using something like tradestation\’s platform? I attempted python many years ago, but found the data to be very expensive to purchase. Have things changed over the years?
I am currently working on another book that introduces a much more powerful Python backtesting engine. I think Python and the associated testing capabilities are right up there with TradeStation, but you are right. Purchasing quality historical data is not cheap. Intraday data is very expensive, but EOD data is not too bad. In my book, I will provide 20 years of historic commodity futures data that I have culled from QUANDL’s free data. I have cleaned it to the point that you can use it to help develop an algorithm, but further testing with premium data would be highly recommended prior to actual automation. CSI and Pinnacle Data are very reasonable. You can buy a very deep database from Pinnacle for $99 and then update if you like. Keep an eye open on this website for the release of my new book.
Thanks again,
George
Backtesting with [Trade Station,Python,AmiBroker, Excel]. Intended for informational and educational purposes only!
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Get All Four Books in the Easing Into EasyLanguage Series - The Day Trade Edition is now Available!
Announcement – A Day Trade Edition will be added to my Easing Into EasyLanguage Series this year! This edition will be the fourth installment and will utilize concepts discussed in the Hi-Res and Advanced Topics editions. I will show how to develop and program algorithms that will enter after the open of the day and get out before the market closes. Hence, no overnight exposure. Most examples will be carried out on the mini Dow, Nasdaq, S&P500 and Russel. The programming skills that you will learn can be carried to any market that provides enough bang for the buck to day trade. Look for this edition later this year. But get geared up for it by reading the first three editions in the series now. Get your favorite QUANT the books they need!
The Cover of my latest book. The first in the series.
Hello to All! The Easing Into EasyLanguage Series is now complete with the publication of the Advanced Topics Edition. This series includes three educational editions. Start out with the Foundation Edition. It is designed for the new user of EasyLanguage or for those you would like to have a refresher course. There are 13 tutorials ranging from creating Strategies to PaintBars. Learn how to create your own functions or apply stops and profit objectives. Ever wanted to know how to find an inside day that is also a Narrow Range 7 (NR7?) Now you can, and the best part is you get over 4 HOURS OF VIDEO INSTRUCTION – one for each tutorial. All source code is available too, and if you have TradeStation, so are the workspaces. Plus you can always email George for any questions. george.p.pruitt@gmail.com.
Hi-Res Edition Cover
This book is for those that have read the Foundation Edition or have some experience working with EasyLanguage and the various functions that help make a trading decision. This book’s audience will be those programmers that want to take an idea, that requires an observation of intraday market movements to make a trading decision, and program it accurately. If you have programmed daily bar systems, and you want to drill down and add some components that require additional market information (like what came first – the high or the low), then you have come to the right place. If you want to buy and sell short in the same day and use trade management principles such as profit targets and stop losses then The Hi-Res Edition is the book you need. There are two paradigms that EasyLanguage covers: daily and intraday bar programming. It’s the same language, but the move from daily to intraday programming can be quite difficult. Learn all the essentials and shortcuts with this edition. 5 HOURS OF VIDEO INSTRUCTION in this Hi-Res edition – one for each tutorial. All source code is available too, and if you have TradeStation, so are the workspaces. Plus you can always email George for any questions. george.p.pruitt@gmail.com.
Advanced Topics Cover
Advanced Topics (AT) could cover a vast amount of ideas and concepts and be the length of “War and Peace” on steroids. Since this book is part of the series, I wanted to cover a handful of concepts that included the follow programming constructs. Arrays and their manipulation. Buffers (fixed length arrays) and the tools to maintain buffer elements with formulas for extraction and sorting. Finite State Machines using the switch-case construct and range based case values. Using original text graphic objects and retrieving and analyzing their properties to determine X and Y coordinate values of text location. Seasonality: The Ruggiero/Barna Universal Seasonal and the Sheldon Knight Seasonal methods. In AT, you will also find an introduction to EasyLanguage’s Project Concept and the steps to create one by adding/deleting component files. TradeStation now provides access to fundamental data such as Commitment of Traders – learn how to convert the Net Change indicator into a strategy utilizing the FundValue functionality. If you wanted to find out how to merge multiple time frames into a single indicator, you are in luck! Create a MTF indicator for yourself.
Get Day Trading Edition Today!
Day Trading (DT) – This is a surprise installment in my Easing into EasyLanguage Series, as I had only intended on three books. However, I think it will fit well with the other books. Daytrading is a very popular approach as overnight risk is eliminated. Don’t worry there is plenty of risk during the day too! However, it can be very difficult to accurately program a trading idea on higher resolution data such as five- or one-minute bars. Like my other books, there is no “Holy Grail” included. And if you are looking for a book that gets in and out of a trade in a few seconds, this is not the one for you. I discourage trading more than a handful of trades per day – this is best left up to the professionals. But, if you want to learn about volatility-based break outs, pyramiding, scaling out, zone-based trading, accurate trade accounting and having a peek at algorithms that once ruled the systematic daytrading industry, then this is the book for you. A beginner might have a little difficulty in following along with the tutorials. If you have read the first two books (Foundation and Hi-Res) in this series, you are good to go. Or if you have some experience working with EasyLanguage and minute data, you will be OK as well.
Pick up your copies today – e-Book or paperback format – at Amazon.com
I graduated from UNC Asheville with a B.S. degree in Computer Science many years ago. I was fortunate to study under some real brains – Dr. Joe Daugherty, Dr. Mark Boyd and Dr. Wayne Lang. A truly great university that is comparable to any in the nation.
9237
Mr. Pruitt,
Good afternoon. My name is Elijah H. Walker and I am new to trading. The software engineering component is fascinating to me. When I was 10, I began to learn BASIC in a summer public school program. I wrote SO MANY programs. However, my Catholic school was not tech savvy at all. I ended up not doing anything with my new found interest. Plus my father said that he was not interested. I am now a funeral home owner that wants to recapture the past and go to school for computer programming. I would like to use my Finance degree and knowledge of the markets to learn to support programs like Tradestation. Please advise.
Elijah Walker
Elijah,
You really don’t need a computer science degree to utilize TradeStation. I would simply suggest downloading a simple course on one of the BASIC variants and review the concepts on if-then, loops and arrays. Let me look around and see if I can find a link for you. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
My Best,
George
Hi George! What\’s the advantage of using python to back test, over using something like tradestation\’s platform? I attempted python many years ago, but found the data to be very expensive to purchase. Have things changed over the years?
Hi Again MJ,
I am currently working on another book that introduces a much more powerful Python backtesting engine. I think Python and the associated testing capabilities are right up there with TradeStation, but you are right. Purchasing quality historical data is not cheap. Intraday data is very expensive, but EOD data is not too bad. In my book, I will provide 20 years of historic commodity futures data that I have culled from QUANDL’s free data. I have cleaned it to the point that you can use it to help develop an algorithm, but further testing with premium data would be highly recommended prior to actual automation. CSI and Pinnacle Data are very reasonable. You can buy a very deep database from Pinnacle for $99 and then update if you like. Keep an eye open on this website for the release of my new book.
Thanks again,
George
Has the book been released or still not yet
Trend Following: A DIY project is available on http://www.amazon.com. Kindle and paperback versions.