Automated, unattended Trading

D

David Cohn

I have a relatively simply trading strategy that I need to completely automate to run unattended. The strategy consists of buying 10 predetermined stocks near Monday close, setting negative, positive trigger and trailing stops, and then continuously monitoring the price to sell if a stop is encountered. The negative and positive stops can change on a daily basis - they are not calculated but are predefined - taken from a table. For those stocks that make it through the week without encountering a stop, they are sold near Monday close, and the next set of 10 stocks is then purchased and the process repeats.

I need to go to automated trading because my work hours and Internet environment prohibit me from accessing IB or any other sophisticated broker that sends real-time signals during trading hours.

I am new to automated trading, and am attempting to write an Excel-Visual Basic program using IB's TWS API's to automate this trading strategy. While I am a fairly experienced programmer, I am running into problems with Excel and VB and am seeking out off-the-shelf software. There is so much software out there that it is hard to know what to get, and what really works. It appears that some of the automated trading software is far more sophisticated than what I need. My trading strategy may evolve over time to become more sophisticated, but at this time appears to be quite simple versus what some of these software programs tout. I need software that allows me to quickly construct this simple trading strategy, that is very reliable in executing this strategy and running unattended during the day.

Any recommendations and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave
 
Dave,

Since you're an experienced programmer, I don't think you'll have problems with programming your trading logic and connectivity for IB API. However, when you start talking about unattended trading, I warn you that there are so many things that can go wrong during the trading day. How will your trading program handle losing internet connection, IB disconnecting, IB canceling stops etc...? Anyway, you might need some redundancy and extra safety measures. I'm sure there're people with plenty experience in this.

Chinook
 
Chinook,

I appreciate your reply. I agree that I need to have some redundancy in case of failures. Has it been your experience that IB frequently disconnects or cancels stops or cancels buy/sell orders? My trading strategy is not the kind that would generate lots of rapid fire stops or buy/sells - I am not trading second by second or minute by minute, but more day by day.

Thanks for your help,

Dave
 
Ninja,

I appreciate your reply that pointed me to a Yahoo forum that is 100% dedicated to Automated Trading, which I was unaware of. I have signed up to join this forum(I already belong to several Yahoo trading forums), but cannot get a response back.
Anything you can recommend to get accepted to this forum would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave
 
Completely unattended automation sounds a little dangerous. I've heard that there are firms out there that will trade a strategy for you. Some might even accept a locked/encrypted tradestation file or the like so you wouldn't have to expose the system. I don't know how the fee structure would work since I've never used one of these firms, but if you aren't daytrading, higher fees/commissions might not be detrimental. Just a thought...
 
Quote from David Cohn:

I have a relatively simply trading strategy that I need to completely automate to run unattended.

Dave
More...

I can sympathize with you, for years I had the same issue at work, I even looked into trading from my palm pilot to go around the internet issues at work.

However now I am a full time trader, I use Tradestation, 100% of my trading strategies have been automated. My job during the day is just to monitor the little green light to make sure the cable connection is up:)

With IB you have an extra layer, your charting software has to use the api can make a connection to IB.

In TS everything is all integrated. As one poster said there are many things that can go wrong, but it doesn't sound like your strategies are all that active. If I were you, I would still give it a try, but only start with 25% of your usual size...
 
We do unattended day and position trading. We use extended UPS systems. We also use software that allows the system to send messages if there is a problem to which we can monitor and respond to remotely.
 
Quote from David Cohn:

Chinook,

I appreciate your reply. I agree that I need to have some redundancy in case of failures. Has it been your experience that IB frequently disconnects or cancels stops or cancels buy/sell orders? My trading strategy is not the kind that would generate lots of rapid fire stops or buy/sells - I am not trading second by second or minute by minute, but more day by day.

Thanks for your help,

Dave
More...

I know the best broker in the business if you are interested in letting them trade your system for you. Also if you like they have about hundreds of in house systems designed by some of the best system writers in the world and you can trade those as well. You don't have to do a thing. They execute all the trades and you don't have to worry about their systems going down. All their brokers are salaried brokers as well so you don't have to worry about them frontrunning your orders. They are the only non conflicting brokers that do this in the industry. Let me know if you are interested in their contact info.
 
Quote from David Cohn:

Ninja,

I appreciate your reply that pointed me to a Yahoo forum that is 100% dedicated to Automated Trading, which I was unaware of. I have signed up to join this forum(I already belong to several Yahoo trading forums), but cannot get a response back.
Anything you can recommend to get accepted to this forum would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave
More...

Actually I can't remember if joining this group needs approval or if it happens automatically.
I have just written a mail to the moderator so that he can check. Let me know if nothing happens within the next 2-3 days.

The ATS group is a great place for people wo are developing their own ATS. We had a lot of really good discussions there last year. Its a bit quiter this year though.

Make sure that you also join the TWS group if you base your ATS on the TWS API.
 
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