Unattended Automated Trading

I let it run unattended but I do monitor it from work on and off all day. So if there were a significant problem it might be an hour or two before I noticed....potentially there's some risk there but I have redundant ISPs, two routers, RAID disks, etc....not that windows couldn't crash but so far the only problem I've had was when I accidentally closed down my API connection....
 
I have looked at StrategyRunner. You basically run your system
on their servers in Chicago and they supposedly have direct
connectivity to the futures exchanges.

This seems like potentially a good way to go. Has anyone had any experience with them?

Also, I am currently building a stock trading system that I would
like to get to run automatically. I don't think StrategyRunner supports the stock exchanges. Does
anyone know of a similar service for stocks?
 
The Holy Grail of Automation...
Is a long-term ** working hedging strategy **...
Strict and sound hedging ** position by position **...
Making "stop loss" orders unnecessary.

Over the course of 300,000 trades...
I have never used a "stop loss" order.

I make 150 trades/day through IB and use the API...
But have never entered a "stop loss" order.

"Stop loss" orders are not legally binding.
In reality, your broker can say anything...
And you have the right to fire up your expensive law firm.

I get cheated by NYSE Specialists on about 10% of my trades/orders minimum.
They are a law unto themselves.

The equities I trade are somewhat illiquid...
So "stop loss" orders would just be a "license to steal" for the NYSE Specialists.

As was my main point...
It all comes down to what you trade and how you trade it.
Automation ONLY increases productivity by some amount...
Potentially by a large amount.

People cobbling together ATS...
Without a long track record to automate...
Are basically clueless.

It's a ZERO SUM game less fees...
That ** always ** means 10% winners and 90% losers...
Whether its financials or Party Poker.

Just keep plugging away...
Perseverance is everything in this game.

rm+
 
how are all these automation system's working? are you guys really making aliving doing this? i see one guy monitors from work so he's not amking aliving. i've always thought an automated system can't measure human emotion which is 90% of short term trading
 
Norm. I have two pieces of advice for you. Number 1 is to get a dual wan router which is a device which allows two different internet connection to function as 1 which means if one disconnects the other picks up the slack and you dont lose your connection. Linksys do good versions of these. Also buy a UPS uninterrupted power supply for 100 bucks which will kick in battery backup if the power should fail. These are 2 of the most common pitfalls that you can avoid and should be compulsory in any auto system.
 
StephenCrowley, could you elaborate on how you can get the system to page you if your away from the house to inform you that the quote feed has disconnected for more than one second. This is a failsafe I would like to look into but I am unsure about exactly how to monitor the connection and even less sure about how to get it to page me if the connection drops out. I like the idea behind this since if you use a dual wan router more often than not the connection should not drop. This means that if the brokers server crashes and THIS is the cause then I can get home in a hurry and since I prefer longer time frames I can fix the problem quickly without affecting trading. Any help you can provide regarding any of the other redundancies you mentioned would also be really appreciated.
 
Quote from joeyata1:
i've always thought an automated system can't measure human emotion which is 90% of short term trading
More...
If a strategy can be conceived, it can be automated.

A thorough and reasonable knowledge of available information, mathematics, and of course programming. Not to mention creativity.

IMO,
kt
 
I trust my automation for the following reasons:
1)i watch my entries for the ist hour of the day.
2)all my stops are held on the cme exchange servers.
3)i do have 2 different broad band connections
4)i do have a ups that gi es me over 8 hours of run time if my power goes out.
5)i do not trust TS8 automation but my own api
 
Quote from Big Game Hunter:

StephenCrowley, could you elaborate on how you can get the system to page you if your away from the house to inform you that the quote feed has disconnected for more than one second. This is a failsafe I would like to look into but I am unsure about exactly how to monitor the connection and even less sure about how to get it to page me if the connection drops out. I like the idea behind this since if you use a dual wan router more often than not the connection should not drop. This means that if the brokers server crashes and THIS is the cause then I can get home in a hurry and since I prefer longer time frames I can fix the problem quickly without affecting trading. Any help you can provide regarding any of the other redundancies you mentioned would also be really appreciated.
More...

I run a similar setup as Stephen's (this was covered in another thread). First of all, my systems are colo-ed in a data center (Savvis) right next door to the exchanges (and yes, I pay for colo charges through the nose, I pay >$9k a month altogether). All the colo-ed data centers are naturally dual routed, dual powered, almost by definition (I am paying for them!). I have oversaw build-out of data centers in a previous life (although I am not that technical with ops, I had a great director of ops, the data center cost > $8M), so I am keenly aware of the complexity involved. In my current case, it is better to pay up for the professional co-lo services.

As for paging myself when the system encounters problems, I wrote a simple Jabber layer that relays the system status to the IM network, so whenever I am travelling (even overseas), I can just pullout my trusty CE device, fire up Jabber, and all the status messages would come in. I like CE devices since in the worse case I can just remote access my server and start an expect script to send in commands.

This being said, I have only ran my system unattended 2-3 days tops.
 
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