Fully Automated Stocks Trading
- Thread starter ValeryN
- Start date
- Status
Hi Val, for people without extensive programming knowledge like yours, can they still somehow automate the trading process?
Personally I use Amibroker for backtesting and scanning. After I generate my signals, I have to manually enter the orders in my broker's platform (I use IB). I'd like to minimize the time doing this and reduce manual errors. Are there any software solutions available?
Personally I use Amibroker for backtesting and scanning. After I generate my signals, I have to manually enter the orders in my broker's platform (I use IB). I'd like to minimize the time doing this and reduce manual errors. Are there any software solutions available?
IBController PlaceOrder function can be called from within afl, or via OLE with a scripting language such as JavaScript, ruby, etc.
What @markd01 mentioned is one way to do it. That let's you stay within AmiBroker and not to use any other software. Tomaz (AB developer) put lots of disclaimers around using integration with IB but it works well enough. About 6 years ago I used it to place and manage trades right from AB charts.
Another option would be to export your AB orders into CSV and import into TWS. I might be mistaken but I think IB has some orders import feature from CSV.
And yet another option would be to write a little program to do that. Probably best in Python. Something as simple as reading CSV file and sending to IB be just 1-2 pages of code.
Extensive programming is required when you want to do everything in a 100% automated way. Including data updates, scans, orders submissions, positions management, error handling, handling daily IB restarts, model vs live analysis, daily reports etc.
Val
Yes there apparently is. The other day an ET poster mentioned that he uses the Basket Trader in TWS to upload a csv file with orders, which then got executed.
Thanks Val, @markd01 and @HobbyTrading for your great feedback. That would be enough to get me started.
I am a novice in Python. My programming experience is mainly limited to writing AFL in Amibroker and VBA macros in Excel. The TWS csv import sounds pretty straightforward and I'll probably explore this option first.
I am a novice in Python. My programming experience is mainly limited to writing AFL in Amibroker and VBA macros in Excel. The TWS csv import sounds pretty straightforward and I'll probably explore this option first.
I have no first-hand experience with BasketTrader, but IB has an explanation (including video) on this page: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=579
Hi,
if you have experience with IB controller (let's say this straight, using IBC can quickly become a nightmare if you are not a programmer) there's this code by Joe Marwood:
https://decodingmarkets.com/semi-automated-trading-amibroker/
If you are not a programmer (as most traders), a really dumb but working way is to run an exploration calculating orders for next session, and then copy and paste in the DDE Excel file provided by IB, order page
Details in this video:
https://backtestwizard.com/use-ib-excel-api-amibroker-place-multiple-orders/
If you are not a programmer and need to send intraday automatic orders, my humble advise is to avoid AMB, as the time involved and the cost of an external programmer can easily exceed the cost of a turnkey solution, like MC (which is far from perfect if you need to work around limit orders, for example, but it's turn-key, you don't need to add any code, as AMB requires).
Pardon my ignorance, but what's "MC"?
Thanks for pointing me to the above reference materials. The Excel API solution seems to be another good one to explore.
Sorry, MC stands for Multicharts.
Problem with MC or other turnkey platforms (which in some way is shared by Amibroker too) : they don't allow a lot of orders handling, and this can eat a good slice of potential profits (the more frequent your trading, the worse).
MC.NET is more flexible, as it allows to handle order placement directly in the code, but - again - if you can program in a .NET framework.... more likely then not you are a good programmer and have not the problems of a "normal" retail trader.
This hidden cost compound over time end, as a consequence, difference between hypothetical and real time grows over time too.
That’s the reason I think a trader should first concern about execution and only after about finding some workable trading system.
Trade execution always has to comes first because normal edges available to retail traders are often small enough, and can be easily destroyed, if you feed HTF’s.
Unluckily, most of us understand this only after a number of years…
For completeness, to bridge AMB to IB one could also use:
- https://www.elitetrader.com/et/resources/alera-portfolio-manager.488/
- https://algoji.com/faqs-amibroker-algo-trading/
although I’ve no experience with these products, so I cannot really vouch for their effectiveness.
- Status