AmiBroker Review 2026: The Fastest Backtesting Engine in Retail Trading

AmiBroker is a technical analysis and portfolio backtesting platform developed by Tomasz Janeczko, a Polish software engineer, since 1995. At first glance, AmiBroker looks like software from the Windows 98 era — its interface is utilitarian, its icons are pixelated, and it doesn't support point-and-click trading out of the box. But underneath this unassuming exterior lies what many quantitative traders consider the fastest, most efficient backtesting engine available to retail traders at any price.

AmiBroker's secret weapon is its AFL (AmiBroker Formula Language), which uses vector/array processing similar to Python's NumPy or MATLAB. This architectural choice means that operations that take minutes in other platforms complete in seconds — or even milliseconds — in AmiBroker. For traders who need to test thousands of parameter combinations across hundreds of symbols, this speed advantage is transformative.

History & Development Philosophy

Tomasz Janeczko began developing AmiBroker in 1995 as a personal project. Unlike most trading platforms that are built by large teams, AmiBroker has been primarily the work of a single developer — a fact that explains both its strengths (laser-focused optimization, no bloat, incredible performance) and its weaknesses (dated UI, limited documentation, slow feature additions).

The platform has been continuously updated for nearly three decades, with the current version (6.40+) representing a mature, highly optimized codebase. AmiBroker has a devoted following among quantitative traders, particularly in the systematic equity and futures trading communities. It's used by individual traders, prop firms, and even some small hedge funds for strategy research and development.

AFL: AmiBroker Formula Language

AFL is the heart of AmiBroker. It's a C-like language that operates on arrays (vectors) rather than individual values. This means that when you write a simple statement like "MA = MA(Close, 20);", AmiBroker doesn't loop through each bar one at a time — it processes the entire array of closing prices in a single operation, leveraging CPU SIMD instructions for maximum throughput.

// Portfolio Rotation Strategy in AFL
// Rotates into the top N stocks by 12-month momentum

SetBacktestMode(backtestRotational);

SetOption("MaxOpenPositions", 10);
SetOption("WorstRankHeld", 20);

// Calculate 12-month momentum (Rate of Change)
momentum = ROC(Close, 252);

// Only consider liquid stocks
liquid = MA(Volume, 50) * Close > 1000000;

// Assign position score (higher = better)
PositionScore = IIf(liquid, momentum, 0);

The code above implements a complete portfolio rotation strategy that ranks all stocks by 12-month momentum and rotates into the top 10. In AmiBroker, this strategy can be backtested across the entire S&P 500 universe (500 symbols × 20 years of daily data) in under 2 seconds. The same test in most other platforms would take minutes.

Portfolio-Level Backtesting

While most retail platforms backtest one symbol at a time, AmiBroker was designed from the ground up for portfolio-level backtesting. This means it can:

• Test a strategy across hundreds or thousands of symbols simultaneously, factoring in true portfolio equity, available capital, and position sizing.
• Handle realistic portfolio constraints — maximum number of open positions, sector exposure limits, and correlation-based position sizing.
• Model margin requirements accurately, including portfolio margin and Reg-T margin rules.
• Simulate realistic execution — including slippage, commissions, and the impact of position sizing on available capital.
• Generate comprehensive portfolio-level statistics — Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, maximum drawdown, Calmar ratio, profit factor, and dozens more.

Optimization Engines

AmiBroker offers multiple optimization methods, from brute-force exhaustive search to sophisticated evolutionary algorithms:

AmiBroker also includes Walk-Forward Optimization (WFO), which automatically divides data into in-sample and out-of-sample periods, re-optimizes at each step, and produces a composite equity curve from out-of-sample results only. This is the gold standard for strategy validation and helps identify strategies that are genuinely robust versus those that are merely curve-fit.

Exploration & Scanning

AmiBroker's Exploration feature is a powerful scanning tool that allows you to run custom AFL code across your entire database and output results in a spreadsheet-like format. This is commonly used for:

• End-of-day stock screening — Find stocks matching specific technical or fundamental criteria.
• Generating trade signals — Output buy/sell signals for manual execution.
• Data analysis — Calculate custom statistics across your universe.
• Exporting data — Generate CSV files for further analysis in Python, R, or Excel.

Data Sources & Connectivity

AmiBroker supports a wide range of data sources through its plugin architecture:

Automated Trading

AmiBroker is primarily an analysis and backtesting tool, not a trading platform. However, it can be connected to Interactive Brokers for automated execution through the IBController plugin or third-party tools like AmiBroker-IB Controller. This requires significant technical setup and is not as seamless as the automated trading in platforms like MultiCharts or NinjaTrader.

Pricing

AmiBroker's pricing is remarkably affordable for what it offers. Both editions are one-time purchases with free updates for the current major version. There are no monthly fees, no subscriptions, and no recurring costs (though data feed subscriptions are separate). At $369 for the Professional edition, it's a fraction of the cost of MultiCharts ($1,497) or MotiveWave Ultimate ($1,499).

Pros and Cons

Who Should Use AmiBroker?

AmiBroker is the platform of choice for quantitative traders who prioritize backtesting speed, portfolio-level analysis, and advanced optimization above all else. If you're developing systematic equity strategies, testing them across large universes of stocks, and need results in seconds rather than minutes, nothing else comes close.

It's also ideal for traders who are comfortable with code and don't need a pretty interface. If you come from a Python/MATLAB background and think in terms of arrays and vectorized operations, AFL will feel natural. However, if you need a modern UI, built-in trading, or a large community of shared resources, platforms like TradingView, NinjaTrader, or MetaTrader 5 would be more appropriate.

Final Verdict

AmiBroker is a hidden gem in the trading software world. Its dated appearance belies extraordinary capability — it's the fastest, most efficient backtesting engine available to retail traders, period. At $369 for a lifetime license, it offers arguably the best value in professional trading software. For quantitative traders who can look past the UI, AmiBroker is an indispensable tool.