MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and Backtesting

TraderJ

You might try adjusting the pre-built Custom Strategies (LE, LX, SE, SX), so that they use limit orders (...)

Hi Polly, thank you for your advice. I have re-created my workspace from scratch and now BID and ASK data is applied as expected. Thank you for your help.

TraderJ

Hi Polly, do you have an example of a BID and ASK based strategy which uses LIMIT orders?

TraderJ

We have tested the issue with the pre-built signals on Forex data, and the issue has not been reproduced.

Hi Polly, do you have a workspace for download, a video demonstration, or a wiki page describing your procedure so that I can reproduce it on my end?

TraderJ

The behavior is not reproduced on our end.

Hi Polly, can you please share a working example of the bid&ask based backtest? It would be great if that was a FOREX example for Interactive Brokers.

TraderJ

Before that I would however double check your symbol settings, as they might be incorrect. According to the IB website the minimum increment for EUR.USD is 0.00005. For a CFD it might be different as well. Your configuration is using a minimum move of 1 * 1 / 100000 and this could trigger the rejec...

TraderJ

SetProfitTarget expects a currency amount and you do not issue a stop loss with the code you posted. What you posted would translate to trying to issue a target for each unit of 0.0003 $. Yes, this is a take profit code - for stop loss it would be the same. I fixed the description. And this is exac...

TraderJ

Hi pfp, you are lucky. I had the same question and found the solution: you can simply trade FOREX CFD at Interactive Brokers. Except for the declaration (CFD) everything is the same - high liquidity, tight spreads etc. I checked the prices and found them to be identical. Happy trading :-) Kind regar...

TraderJ

BID and ASK based Backtest of a 1-min FOREX strategy does not calculate correctly. Although the BID price did not reach the entry limit of the SELL order, MultiCharts nevertheless indicates a SELL short entry as shown in the screenshot: SellOrderFilledButBidTooFarAway.png The backtest is configured ...

TraderJ

In automated trading mode, my orders defined via SetProfitTarget and SetStopLoss get rejected by IB's Trader Workstation (TWS). The error message reads "The Price Does Not Conform To The Minimum Price Variation For This Contract". I have read https://www.multicharts.com/trading-software/index.php/R...

TraderJ

I guess that you created the password protected studies on that computer. In that case, it is ok to store them in plain text on this computer in my opinion. If you export the study to xml and import it on another computer, I guess the plain text file will be empty. I think so because I have seen lot...

TraderJ

You are right. All studies are there in plain text.
That was an answer to my liking

Thank you rondot!

TraderJ

Hello everybody, I would like to export all studies, signals and functions as separate files. By doing this, I could search all files at once (grep) and edit them in my favorite editor. The current functionality only exports studies, signals and functions as an xml file. Additionally, that file is n...

TraderJ

Dear Dave, sorry, this was my mistake. Somehow I mixed that up. But it does not matter because I tried both settings and the gaps remain in both settings. This means when "Show empty periods" option is "off", new realtime bars still have gaps. I already described to you how to reproduce the bug so y...

TraderJ

Dear Dave, you wrote: If the "Show empty periods" option is disabled you should not have any gaps I guess you mean the opposite, "enabled" instead of "disabled". The gaps are there when there is only one data series in the chart while the "Show empty periods" option is enabled. To reproduce this, ju...

TraderJ

Dear Dave, you wrote: It is not a bug. MultiCharts simply does not draw bars, if data provider does not send any. It behaves as it is supposed to. I guess that this opinion is technically motivated - and from a software developer's point of view it may seem logical at first sight. But I doubt that t...

TraderJ

Dear Dave, We have analyzed the problem. Symbols are not ticking in those moments. You can see it in TWS application. This is what I already tried to describe to you. There are no CHANGES in BID or ASK quotes. But the old quotes still remain valid. Therefore it is not correct to leave out a bar for ...

TraderJ

Hi Tresor, my concern is purely technical. It is not related to trading. It also has nothing to do with rapid changes in BID and ASK. The problem I described is exactly the opposite. It only occurs when BID or ASK do not change at all. When for example ASK is unchanged for ten minutes, there should ...

TraderJ

Dear Dave, like I said above, the problem nearly always occurs under the following conditions: 1. Low Volume. Example: EUR/SEK during midday or asian session (or even nearly always?). 2. Fast timeframe, e.g. 1-second. It also occurs for 10-second and 1-min, but the larger the timeframe the less obvi...

TraderJ

Hello Dave, I guess the problem is a result from inconsistent data. The 10-second bars which are not shown on the chart do not have any ticks in MC's database. I have confirmed this by viewing the data in the QuoteManager and by looking at the exported tick data. Here is an example: "Date","Time","P...

TraderJ

In the meantime, I have found an elaborate workaround. It allows me to continue developing and backtesting of trading systems. This is what I did: 1. Export all tick data (BID and ASK) to two text files (one for BID and one for ASK). 2. Write a program which adds the missing ticks to the text files....

TraderJ

This Problem concerns: - MultiCharts Version 5.5 Release (Build 2723) - Interactive Brokers: FOREX on IDEALPRO - Timeframe 1-min and faster (e.g. 10-sec) - Workspace with BID and ASK based backtesting During trading times with low volatility (e.g. asian session), several times per hour no change in ...

TraderJ

When I am using a workspace with six months of 10-second Bars (three charts: BID, ASK and ASK of another symbol), I frequently get the error Message "Out of Memory". My environment: MC 5.5, Forex, IB IDEALPRO. I use Windows Vista 64 with 8 GB of RAM. I understand that this is a limitation of MC 5.5 ...

TraderJ

Here are the details: Datasource: Interactive Brokers Exchange: IDEALPRO Symbol: EUR.CHF Resolutions (4 Series, 4 Charts): 1-min ASK, 1-min BID, 1-Hour ASK, 1-Day ASK Date Range: 5000 Days Back (Starting from 30. June 2008) I pressed Ctrl+R to reload the data, but that erased all data older than a y...

TraderJ

Hello Anastassia, I pressed Ctrl+R to invoke a reload and after I did this, all data in the worksheet (1-min forex, bid and ask) was gone except for the last year. You say that this should not happen, so this is a bug in my opinion. I had to restore the database from a backup to get my data back. Re...

TraderJ

The "Reload Data" action (hotkey Ctrl+R) seems to erase all data for the timeframes and symbols in the worksheet. There is no confirmation dialog which asks whether to delete all existing data in the database. I think that "Reload Data" should be limited to LOAD only data which is available at the d...

TraderJ

@Mobiius: All of my data is stored locally because otherwise MC would need several days to load tick data of a whole year. I did not change any settings regarding database storage. @wegi: Of course I opened a chart with 1-min ASK data of eur/gbp. As I already said, there is ASK data missing for a wh...

TraderJ

One month of 1-min ASK data is gone for the forex symbol EUR/GBP at IB IdealPro. This is really strange because yesterday it still was there. The only thing I did was restarting MultiCharts. The BID data for the same period is still there, and so is the ASK data with Tick resolution. I am missing th...

TraderJ

I can load the data as you described, so my data is ok. I guess I have found the source of my problems. It seems that I must refer to all indicators and prices one bar back, e.g. by using "High[1]" instead of "High" in order to place a STOP BUY order for the current bar. The long version: BUY NEXT B...

TraderJ

I have a chart of EUR/USD 5-min ASK and BID for "Extended Backtesting", 120 days back. Data source is Interactive Brokers (IDEALPRO). With these settings, my strategy generates dozens of trades. It is a strategy which enters the market with a BUY NEXT BAR AT [price] STOP logic. The price level is de...

TraderJ

After quite some time I would like to report back with some new information. First of all, I would like to thank the MultiCharts team for creating such a powerful and easy to use software! MultiCharts is by far the most powerful backtesting platform I could find. Above all of its really strong featu...

TraderJ

It would be interesting to know about any other trading platform that you may know of which works on the principles you have just described. I do not know of anything better than MC, but as a professional programmer I am considering to write my own trading tool. Nothing nearly as powerful as MC but...

TraderJ

In addition to above you will still require replace to Market Partially filled orders, because at some point you will have to syncronise your chart and broker. No, never. The chart should show what is being traded at the broker, not the other way round. I do not want to lose money just because of a...

TraderJ

There is no guarantee for Limit order getting executed......so how would you propose to handle such a situation Straightforward: 1. The partially filled entry order remains in the market. 2. The newly acquired position is handled by the strategy, e.g. protected by PROFIT TARGET and STOP (i.e. a BRA...

TraderJ

Hallo Andrew,

I can not accept the risk of slippage.
Therefore a MARKET order is no option for me.

Regards,
TraderJ

TraderJ

Consider the following example: I have a LONG position of 10 lots, opened at price 1000 . In my strategy I have defined a PROFIT TARGET of 20 . MC now correctly issues a take profit order to SELL 10 lots with LIMIT 1020 . Suppose the price reaches this limit, but I get only a partial execution of 3 ...

TraderJ

Today I got a reply via e-mail from TSSupport with good news:

This functionality is ready and will be available in version 6.0
This version will be released this year; no ETA yet.
Dennis Globa
TS Support

TraderJ

Because there has been no response from TSSupport yet, I post some clarification. The "Overfill Protection" setting can be found under IB's TWS in the order dialog: Order->Misc.->"Overfill Protection". Here is a competent answer I got from IB's API support in order to avoid this setting: In this par...

TraderJ

Andrew, could you please specify when you are going to fix the "Overfill Protection" setting? MC 5.5 still has the same problem.

TraderJ

Broker: Interactive Brokers Exchange: IDEALPRO Trading Systems: 100% Automated I am currently flat. I would like to submit an opening LIMIT order with a BRACKET attached. A bracket consists of a take profit LIMIT order and a stop loss STOP order, tied together as an OCO group (One Cancels Other). Th...

TraderJ

Platform: MultiCharts Version 5.0 Release (Build 2369) Broker: Interactive Brokers Exchange: IDEALPRO Limit orders submitted by MC to IB's IDEALPRO exchange are being held, i.e. they are not transmitted to the exchange. These orders appear in TWS as having the status "Order is being held and monitor...

TraderJ

That's it! Thank you all!

TraderJ

As a professional programmer, I always refer to the documentation first. I did not find anything on this topic, so I posted my question here. I am afraid, but Data1, Data2 and Data3 tells me nothing. Searching the help file for "Data1" directs me to the section "Creating Portfolios" which is not wha...

TraderJ

That sounds good. But how do I do that?
Can you please provide an example?

TraderJ

It is correct that BID/ASK based backtesting is the ultimately coolest feature of MC. This single feature is the main reason why I bought a license. But I want more than backtesting. I want to use BID and ASK in my strategy. I fear it is not possible, but I want to be sure. In general, I am looking ...

TraderJ

Is it possible to access more than only one symbol in a strategy?
I would like to use BID and ASK at the same time in my strategy.
For example, I would like to calculate the current BID-ASK spread before placing a BUY or SELL order.

TraderJ

I am using Multicharts 5.0 Release 2369. I am autotrading FOREX with IB (Interactive Brokers) on a 1-min time frame for about a week now. The strategy uses LIMIT orders and allows for unlimited entries and exits per bar. The limits are readjusted up to several times within a minute, but usually less...

Search found 46 matches

Re: Bid&Ask based Backtest: Bid data is ignored

Re: Bid&Ask based Backtest: Bid data is ignored

Re: Bid&Ask based Backtest: Bid data is ignored

Re: Bid&Ask based Backtest: Bid data is ignored

Re: SetProfitTarget/SetStopLoss rejected in FOREX live trading at IB

Re: SetProfitTarget/SetStopLoss rejected in FOREX live trading at IB

Re: Trading Forex Spot - Alternative to Interactive Brokers

Bid&Ask based Backtest: Bid data is ignored

SetProfitTarget/SetStopLoss rejected in FOREX live trading at IB

Re: Export of all studies, signals and functions as plain fi

Re: Export of all studies, signals and functions as plain fi

Export of all studies, signals and functions as plain files

My mistake

Only one data series

Professional Trader's point of view

Unchanged quote does not mean no quote.

Unchanged BID or ASK is not handled correctly

Try EUR/SEK at 1-second

Inconsistent Data

Workaround

Missing bars on IDEALPRO, errorneous BID/ASK based backtest

64 Bit Version of MC

BUG: "Reload Data" ERASES ALL DATA

Really nasty bug

1-min data is gone

Data is Ok

Bar Magnifier does not work

A suggestion to fix the bug

Partial Execution Straightforward

Partial Execution: Unexpected Profit Target

Feature will be available with MC 6.0

More on "Overfill Protection"

MC 5.5 has the same problem

Feature Request: Enter Order with Bracket attached

IB (Forex): Limit Order being held

Multiple Symbols in the same Strategy

SEVERE BUG: Autotrading - Complete Breakdown