MultiCharts software explained: price, PowerLanguage, backtesting

Contents

1. What is MultiCharts software and what do systematic traders use it for?
2. How much does MultiCharts cost and is there a free version?
3. How do charting, backtesting and PowerLanguage work together?
4. Which data feeds and brokers does MultiCharts connect to, and does it support TAIEX futures?
5. How does MultiCharts differ from TradingView and TradeStation?
6. How do you bring a strategy built elsewhere into MultiCharts?
7. Frequently asked questions
8. References

What is MultiCharts software and what do systematic traders use it for?

MultiCharts software is a Windows trading platform that puts charting, the PowerLanguage strategy language, a backtester with an optimizer and automated order sending in one program. A systematic trader can test a rule and trade it live from the same chart. It is paid software with a time-limited trial, and it connects to data vendors and brokers that you choose.

A systematic trader is a trader who writes the entry and exit rules down and lets a program apply them, instead of deciding trade by trade. For such a trader the four jobs normally sit in different tools: one program for charts, one for writing and testing rules, one for order routing. MultiCharts keeps them in one window, which is the reason it is common in futures trading rooms and among Taiwan futures traders. How that choice compares with other ways of automating is covered in how no-code automation platforms differ.

The argument of this article is simple: the useful thing about one program with four jobs is not the optimizer, it is that the backtest and the live run share one set of settings for session, bar size, costs and order timing. Most of the gap people see between a MultiCharts backtest and their live fills comes from one of those settings being different, so this article returns to them in every section.

• Charts draw bars from the connected data feed in time, tick, volume or range bar sizes, with a session template that says which hours belong to a trading day.
• PowerLanguage signals are the rules. A signal is a compiled PowerLanguage program that places orders on a chart; an indicator is a program that only draws.
• Backtest and optimizer replay the signal over the chart history and print the Strategy Performance Report, then search parameter ranges for the best-scoring values.
• Broker automation sends the signal's orders to the connected broker when you switch automation on for that chart.

A separate product, MultiCharts .NET, replaces PowerLanguage with C#. The rest of this article is about the PowerLanguage product, because that is the one most strategy tools export to.

How much does MultiCharts cost and is there a free version?

MultiCharts is paid software sold as a lifetime licence or a subscription, and the free route is a time-limited trial of the full program, not a permanently free version. Prices change, and the vendor's own price page is the only place to confirm the current figure, so this article gives no number.

The ways to get the program fall into four groups:

1. Lifetime licence. One payment for the current major version, with upgrade terms set by the vendor. Suits a trader who already knows the program will be the daily tool.
2. Subscription. A monthly or yearly fee. Suits a trader who wants to test the full program for a few months before committing.
3. Trial. The full program for a limited number of days. Enough time to load your own data, compile one signal and read one performance report; not enough time to run a live strategy through a full market cycle.
4. Broker-provided. Some Taiwan futures brokers provide a MultiCharts connected to their own data and order routing for their customers. The conditions are set by the broker, not by the software vendor, and usually tie the connection to that broker's account.

Two cost items sit outside the licence and are easy to forget when you budget: the data feed, which most futures data vendors charge monthly plus exchange fees, and the Windows machine that must stay on while a strategy trades. A trial decides whether you like the program; it does not tell you what the running cost of a live setup will be.

How do charting, backtesting and PowerLanguage work together?

A strategy in MultiCharts is a PowerLanguage signal that you compile in the PowerLanguage Editor, apply to a chart, read in the Strategy Performance Report, tune in the optimizer and finally switch to automated order sending, in that order. The chart is the thing that joins the steps: every signal, backtest and live order belongs to one chart with one symbol, one bar size and one session template.

PowerLanguage is a strategy language with the same basic syntax as EasyLanguage, built around reserved words such as the open, high, low and close of each bar, and order statements such as buy and sell. The PowerLanguage Editor is the window where you write and compile it; a signal that does not compile cannot be applied. The Strategy Performance Report is the report MultiCharts prints after the backtest, with net profit, drawdown, the trade list, periodic returns and long and short breakdowns. The optimizer is the part that reruns the signal for each combination of parameter values in a range you set, either exhaustively or with a genetic search, and MultiCharts also offers a walk-forward optimizer that re-tunes on rolling windows.

1. Write the signal in the PowerLanguage Editor. Entry, exit, position size and parameters as inputs.
2. Compile. The editor reports syntax errors; fix them until it compiles.
3. Apply to a chart. Pick the symbol, bar size and session template. Set the strategy properties: commission, slippage, and whether orders fill on the next bar or inside the current bar.
4. Read the Strategy Performance Report. Look at the trade count, average trade after costs, drawdown and the equity curve. If the rule is wrong, go back to step 1.
5. Optimize parameters. Set ranges for the inputs and let the optimizer rerun. Treat the best result as the best of many tries, which carries a selection bonus; Pardo (2008) describes why the top of an optimization grid overstates what the rule will do next, and Bailey et al. (2014) show how fast that bonus grows with the number of combinations tried.
6. Enable automated trading. Switch the chart to automation so the signal's orders go to the broker.

Two chart settings deserve attention at step 3 because they change the report more than any parameter. The first is order timing: by default a signal calculates at the close of a bar and its market orders fill at the open of the next bar, and MultiCharts can also generate orders inside the bar or refine fills with a tool it calls Bar Magnifier that reads finer data. The second is the session template, which decides which bars exist at all and therefore where a daily bar closes. The PowerLanguage comparison checklist for a generated strategy walks through these settings one by one. Once the strategy is live, a trading journal that records live fills next to the backtest report is the way to see whether the slippage you set at step 3 matches what the broker actually gives you.

Which data feeds and brokers does MultiCharts connect to, and does it support TAIEX futures?

MultiCharts keeps the data connection and the broker connection separate, so the source of the chart bars and the route for the orders are chosen independently, and TAIEX futures can be charted and traded through the Taiwan data vendors and brokers that the platform lists. The practical effect is that one data source can feed several charts that send orders to different brokers, and a broker can be changed without rebuilding the charts.

A data feed is the connection that delivers historical and live prices to the charts; a broker connection is the connection that receives orders and reports fills and positions. Many international futures data vendors and brokers appear in the MultiCharts connection list, and some firms act as both. The current list is on the vendor's site and changes, so check it against your own broker before buying a licence.

For Taiwan traders the answer is yes: MultiCharts supports TAIEX futures, Mini-TAIEX and the other TAIFEX contracts through Taiwan data sources and broker connections, and several Taiwan futures brokers distribute a MultiCharts tied to their own feed. Three settings matter more for TAIEX futures than for US contracts:

1. Session template. TAIEX futures trade in a day session and a separate night session. A chart with a day-only template and a chart with a full-session template produce different daily bars and different backtests from the same rule; the differences are explained in TAIEX futures night session hours and settlement, and the free futures market hours by exchange and session tool shows the current times in your own time zone.
2. Symbol and roll. The data vendor decides how the continuous contract is built and when it rolls from one month to the next. A backtest on a continuous series and a live chart on the front month can disagree around settlement.
3. Point value and costs. The strategy properties carry the commission and slippage per contract, and the symbol settings carry the point value. Exchanges change session times, point values and margins; the TAIFEX contract page for each product is the place to confirm the current values.

How does MultiCharts differ from TradingView and TradeStation?

The three platforms differ mainly in where the program runs, which strategy language it uses, where the data comes from and whether the broker is fixed or chosen, not in whether they can backtest. All three replay a rule over history and print a report; the choice between them is about the surroundings of that report.

Question	MultiCharts	TradingView	TradeStation
Runs on	Windows desktop	Browser (and apps)	Windows desktop
Strategy language	PowerLanguage	Pine Script	EasyLanguage
Data source	Data vendor you choose and pay for	Built into the service	Included with the brokerage account
Broker	Any broker in the connection list	A broker from its connected list	TradeStation's own brokerage
Pricing model	Lifetime licence or subscription	Subscription plans	Tied to a brokerage account
Machine must stay on for live trading	Yes, your own PC	No, the service runs the chart	Yes, your own PC

The language row matters most if you move strategies between platforms. PowerLanguage and EasyLanguage share most of their syntax, so a signal often moves between MultiCharts and TradeStation with small edits; what changes when a strategy moves from EasyLanguage to PowerLanguage lists the differences. Pine Script is a different language with a different execution model, so a TradingView strategy is rewritten rather than edited when it moves to a desktop platform.

The data and broker rows decide your running cost and your dependence. A bundled setup (data and broker from one company) is simpler to start and ties the strategy to that company; a chosen setup (MultiCharts) costs more to assemble and lets you change the data vendor or the broker without changing the strategy. Which one suits you depends on whether you trade one broker's products or several markets through several brokers.

How do you bring a strategy built elsewhere into MultiCharts?

A strategy built in another research tool reaches MultiCharts as PowerLanguage source that you compile and apply with the same session template, bar size, costs and next-bar execution the research run used, then check against the research report before you switch on automation. The import itself is a few minutes; carrying the settings over is the part that decides whether the MultiCharts report means anything.

1. Export the PowerLanguage source from the research tool. Keep the research report open next to it.
2. Compile in the PowerLanguage Editor. If the inputs appear with the same names and default values as the research settings, the source carried the parameters correctly.
3. Apply to a chart with the same symbol, bar size and session template. A daily bar built from a day-only session and one built from a full session close at different times and give different signals.
4. Set the same commission, slippage and order timing. In strategy properties, enter the per-trade commission and slippage the research run charged, and keep next-bar fills if the research run used them.
5. Read the Strategy Performance Report. Compare the trade count and the dates of the first and last trades with the research report. Small differences in fills are normal, because the two programs round and roll differently; a different trade count means a setting differs, usually the session or the contract series.

The research-side report is what you compare against, so it helps to know what one looks like. The run below is the research side of such a hand-over. AlphaPrime (Valynox) tested a stand-in rule on NQ daily bars from 2019-01-02 to 2025-06-30, long and short, one contract, with $20 commission and $10 slippage per trade. The stand-in was a Tail Heaviness Index rule used as the only entry and exit, with no stop, target or filter, because MultiCharts itself is a platform and not a rule that can be tested. The search kept this one candidate out of roughly a thousand it tried, for its return against its drawdown, and picking the kept one after the fact flatters it: the figures describe that one run on that history, not what the rule or a reader would earn.

What you carry from this report into MultiCharts is not the net profit but the conditions: daily bars, the same date range, one contract, $20 commission and $10 slippage per trade, next-bar execution, and the trade count of 153 as the first thing to compare. If MultiCharts reports a clearly different trade count on the same dates, stop and find the setting; the full procedure, including what to do about contract rolls, is in how to import a strategy into MultiCharts and match the backtest. Because every candidate in that search was already charged the commission, slippage and next-bar fills shown in the box, the source code AlphaPrime exports to MultiCharts and the other platforms on its export list arrives with the same cost assumptions the report was built on, which is what makes the trade-count check meaningful.

A good next step before you buy or import anything: open the research report of one strategy you trust, write down its session, bar size, per-trade costs, order timing and contract series on one line, and then open the MultiCharts strategy properties and chart settings and find where each of those five values lives. When you can point to all five in both places, the import will take minutes and the report comparison will tell you something.

Frequently asked questions

How much does MultiCharts cost and is there a free version?

MultiCharts is paid software sold as a lifetime licence or as a monthly or yearly subscription. There is no permanently free version; the free route is a time-limited trial of the full program. Prices change, so confirm the current figure on the vendor's price page, and budget the data feed separately because it is charged by the data vendor.

Does MultiCharts support TAIEX futures?

Yes. TAIEX futures, Mini-TAIEX and other TAIFEX contracts can be charted and traded in MultiCharts through Taiwan data sources and broker connections, and several Taiwan futures brokers distribute a MultiCharts connected to their own feed. The setting to check first is the session template, because a day-only chart and a full-session chart give different daily bars and different backtests.

What is the difference between MultiCharts, TradingView and TradeStation?

MultiCharts is a Windows program that uses PowerLanguage and lets you choose the data vendor and the broker separately. TradingView runs in the browser, uses Pine Script, supplies its own data and trades through brokers from its connected list. TradeStation is a Windows program that uses EasyLanguage and comes with its own brokerage and data. All three can backtest; they differ in language, data source and how the broker is chosen.

Is PowerLanguage the same as EasyLanguage?

PowerLanguage shares most of its syntax with EasyLanguage, so many strategies move between MultiCharts and TradeStation with small edits. The two differ in some reserved words, functions and execution details, so a moved strategy must be recompiled and its backtest compared before it is trusted. Pine Script, used by TradingView, is a different language and a strategy is rewritten rather than edited when it moves.

Can I run MultiCharts on a Mac?

MultiCharts is a Windows program. Mac users run it inside a Windows virtual machine or on a separate Windows computer. For live automated trading the machine running MultiCharts must stay on and connected for the whole session, so many traders use a dedicated Windows PC or a rented Windows server.

References

• Pardo, R. (2008). The Evaluation and Optimization of Trading Strategies (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
• Bailey, D. H., Borwein, J., López de Prado, M., & Zhu, Q. J. (2014). Pseudo-Mathematics and Financial Charlatanism: The Effects of Backtest Overfitting on Out-of-Sample Performance. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 61(5), 458–471.
• Taiwan Futures Exchange. Mini-TAIEX Futures. https://www.taifex.com.tw/enl/eng2/mTX