Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB  [SOLVED]

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syswizard
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Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB

Postby syswizard » 05 Mar 2013

I saw a nasty post about MC on the www.elitetrader.com forums....and it had me wondering whether or not anyone is doing realtime, algo trading using regular MC with an Interactive Brokers account for ES, YM or other futures ?
I'd like to know what the problems and issues are before jumping on one release or the other.
A few years ago I was really good in Easy Language, but I recognize that dot-net is vastly more powerful and likely the better way to go if I had the time to learn it.

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Andrew MultiCharts
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Re: Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB

Postby Andrew MultiCharts » 06 Mar 2013

Hello Syswizard,

I believe you asked for feedback from our customer, but i just wanted to say that MultiCharts/MultiCharts .NET + Interactive Brokers (in particular: ES, YM, CL and so on) is one of the most popular choice among our users. There are some limitations coming from IB end, but they are not significant (they are more data-related, not trading-related) and all known issues are fixed at the moment in terms of MC+IB connection. IB supports native OCO group and works with all types of orders that can be used in MultiCharts.

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Re: Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB

Postby syswizard » 06 Mar 2013

Thanks Andrew...that's good to hear.
My question also relates to building-out the trading strategy....and allowing it to be configured via GUI.Are there any forms within regular MC ? IOW how do I drive my strategy and set it's options, parameters, etc ?
Of course with the dot-net version, I could do this with winforms.

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Re: Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB

Postby Andrew MultiCharts » 07 Mar 2013

Are there any forms within regular MC ?
Unfortunately not.
IOW how do I drive my strategy and set it's options, parameters, etc ?
By changing strategy's inputs.

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Re: Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB  [SOLVED]

Postby seandean » 07 Mar 2013

I saw a nasty post about MC on the http://www.elitetrader.com forums....and it had me wondering whether or not anyone is doing realtime, algo trading using regular MC with an Interactive Brokers account for ES, YM or other futures ?
I'd like to know what the problems and issues are before jumping on one release or the other.
A few years ago I was really good in Easy Language, but I recognize that dot-net is vastly more powerful and likely the better way to go if I had the time to learn it.
I consistently trade the SGXNK future using the “regular” MC + IB without issues. I also sporadically trade the ES, K200 and XINA50 futures without issues. I’ve also traded the K200 options under MC, however the dynamic tick size will cause issues with some potential strategies – I’m sure this can be worked out with some good EL coding though.

This is a list of things you need to keep in mind;

1. IB TWS vs. Gateway – You’re going to want to use IB Gateway since it doesn’t force a shutdown each day. Free tools exist that can work around that limit, however using those same tools with IB Gateway just further extends its strong points.

2. IB Daily Server Resets – You need to know when these are (publicly published) and if it is during open market hours. I believe the ES will be affected using any of the three IB servers (US, HK and Europe).

3. IB Tick Data – You hear that it’s not “true” tick data and that’s correct. However, I use tick charts sometimes and the difference (if any) is not affecting my trading. If you don’t use tick charts this becomes completely irrelevant.

4. Vendor Software Releases – Choose your IB and MC software release and test it out thoroughly. I would wait out any vendors release 1-2 weeks to see public feedback, using this forum is good. I would also stay away from both vendors “beta” versions unless absolutely necessary for real trading, though I’m not saying they wouldn’t be completely stable.

5. ET website – I would take most things on that website with a grain of salt. The vast majority don’t trade, others trade only demo accounts and the “good ones” are usually not posting much as they are busy trading. You can get a much better feeling for things on IB’s official forum or this one for MC. It’s not as active as ET, mainly because you’re on it because you’re using it and that’s a good thing.

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Re: Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB

Postby SUPER » 08 Mar 2013

1. IB TWS vs. Gateway – You’re going to want to use IB Gateway since it doesn’t force a shutdown each day. Free tools exist that can work around that limit, however using those same tools with IB Gateway just further extends its strong points.
seandean,

Please can you give us some information about the tools you are refeering, it can be useful to many users out here.

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Re: Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB

Postby syswizard » 08 Mar 2013

Thanks much both to SeanDean and Andrew.
I have a tremendous amount of Easy Language code....that I could port to MC...that I am sure of.
I do plan on using both tick (200 to 400) and range bars for futures trading.
You've convinced me that with the IB Gateway, standard MC is now a viable professional trading platform.
I was really get hung-up on the need for the dot-net version, but in reality, I'm not a dot-net programmer at all. I'd have to learn C# and more dauntingly, the entire dot-net framework before I could trade one contract.
So now, I plan to defer the dot-net version, make some money with the regular version, learn dot-net, then get the dot-net version (which in a year should be stable and more robust), and finally port my strategies to that platform.

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Re: Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB

Postby seandean » 08 Mar 2013

1. IB TWS vs. Gateway – You’re going to want to use IB Gateway since it doesn’t force a shutdown each day. Free tools exist that can work around that limit, however using those same tools with IB Gateway just further extends its strong points.
seandean,

Please can you give us some information about the tools you are refeering, it can be useful to many users out here.
The tool that I use and was referring to is called TWSStart: http://twsstart.free.fr/index.html

It monitors IB Gateway (or TWS) to make sure it’s not only running, but connected to IBs servers and allowing incoming API connections. It can also restart IB Gateway upon any crash (I’ve never had IB Gateway crash) and auto-start it when the system reboots.

It can also do more, but I will let you read up on that yourself.

Note: Security Code by Token – You might want to strongly consider opting-out of this program with IB since it prevents some (though not all) of TWSStart’s functionality from working in an automated fashion. You might not be around when it restarts, so you wouldn’t be able to type your two codes matching the numbers on login, know what I mean?

I would set an amazing password if you do this, make it very hard since in reality you will hardly ever need to actually type it. I guess only for account management and non-system logins. You can find more tips here: http://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/node/1198

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Re: Regular MC vs. Dot-Net For Autotrading Futures with IB

Postby waveslider » 13 Mar 2013



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