Installation and Setup

Ok, so you've gone to www.rightedgesystems.com and signed up so that you can download the free trial. I'm not going to talk about the installation here as it's pretty straight forward. One thing I'd like to note though is that I haven't managed to get the SQLEXPRESS data store to work and I have written to the developer's forum to get this resolved.

Once the installation is complete, you will find RE in the start menu. After the first startup you're faced with something like this


This may seem somewhat barren and hostile, so let's take it step by step. The RE environment has been separated in several windows or panes (all of which can be detached, hidden, moved around, etc.).

1. The menu bar is pretty standard
2. The Indicators pane shares the window with two other panes, Chart Objects and System Components. These provide an overview of the available indicators, other objects one can place on charts (lines, support levels, etc.) and System Components (such as buy triggers, conditions, etc). All of them can be used for dragging and dropping a system together from basic components.
3. The watchlist window. Displays the available watchlists and is used to select which symbols a system is run on.
4. The Output pane, will contain messages from the compiler, the system itself or show live, incoming data for a realtime system.
5. The big grey area in the middle, will house the editor or the drag'n'drop composer
6. The trading system pane will show the components of the currently open system, such as source files, indicators used, etc.
7. The property pane can be used to edit properties of certain objects that are selected (e.g. Starting Capital for a simulation).

For those with a programming background the environment will feel familiar as it is close to most compilers/IDEs.


Key Points/Terminology:

1. Datastore: A term used in RE to denote the database that your historical data is saved in (or that new, incoming data gets written to). RE supports it's own proprietary store (a bunch of xml files), a Jet/Access DB store and a SQL DB store out of the box. For our examples, the standard setup should suffice.