Can multicharts trade two instrument in one strategy?

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
brianhclo
Posts: 31
Joined: 31 Mar 2014
Has thanked: 8 times

Can multicharts trade two instrument in one strategy?

Postby brianhclo » 31 Mar 2014

hi,

i have a strategy that does the following, i would like to code it in multicharts but i am not sure if this is possible.

the strategy involves monitoring prices of A, B and C. And only trades on B and C simultaneously.

Does multicharts support using another instrument as indicator AND be able to trade on 2 instruments together?

Thanks,

User avatar
TJ
Posts: 7740
Joined: 29 Aug 2006
Location: Global Citizen
Has thanked: 1033 times
Been thanked: 2221 times

Re: Can multicharts trade two instrument in one strategy?

Postby TJ » 31 Mar 2014

hi,
i have a strategy that does the following, i would like to code it in multicharts but i am not sure if this is possible.
the strategy involves monitoring prices of A, B and C. And only trades on B and C simultaneously.
Does multicharts support using another instrument as indicator AND be able to trade on 2 instruments together?
Thanks,
MultiCharts is very flexible and powerful, it can do pretty well any analysis you can imagine.

What do you mean by "only trades on B and C"?
Do you mean a spread trade? or pairs?
MultiCharts does not support spreads at this moment.
But you can program it to trade any number of symbols you like.

I do need to let you know, the idea you described might require advanced level programming. I am saying "might" because it all depends on the details you required. For all I know, it could also be something very simple to code.


A good place to start:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=6929

brianhclo
Posts: 31
Joined: 31 Mar 2014
Has thanked: 8 times

Re: Can multicharts trade two instrument in one strategy?

Postby brianhclo » 31 Mar 2014

Thanks.

Say for example,

Strategy monitors spread of a cash index(A) and its front month(B) future as signal for entry. When entry, strategy shorts the front month future(B) and another future (C).

When you say MC does not support pair trading. Does that mean it cannot trade more than one asset at a time?

User avatar
TJ
Posts: 7740
Joined: 29 Aug 2006
Location: Global Citizen
Has thanked: 1033 times
Been thanked: 2221 times

Re: Can multicharts trade two instrument in one strategy?

Postby TJ » 31 Mar 2014

Thanks.
Say for example,
Strategy monitors spread of a cash index(A) and its front month(B) future as signal for entry. When entry, strategy shorts the front month future(B) and another future (C).
When you say MC does not support pair trading. Does that mean it cannot trade more than one asset at a time?
MultiCharts does not support spreads,
but you can program it to trade any number of symbols you like.

Spread trading means you are entering an order to BUY and SELL at the same time, and the fill is not price specific, but rather, spread specific.

e.g. you can BUY stk.A and SELL stk.B for the spread of $1.
You don't care if stk.A is filled at $10 or $11, so long as the stk.B is filled at the requested spread.

Some brokers take spread orders on certain instruments,
but MultiCharts cannot generate such an order.

MultiCharts can generate a buy order of stk.A for $10 and a sell order for stk.B for $11 at the same time, but it is not a spread order. You might encounter a situation where you are filled on the SHORT leg, but not the LONG leg, or vise versa.

brianhclo
Posts: 31
Joined: 31 Mar 2014
Has thanked: 8 times

Re: Can multicharts trade two instrument in one strategy?

Postby brianhclo » 01 Apr 2014

right, i get the idea now.

in my case its going to be market orders so that should be fine.

i am new to multicharts, when coding what is the syntax to differentiate between trading data1 and data 2?

also is it possible to reference the number of days to expiry for the futures contract in the code?

User avatar
TJ
Posts: 7740
Joined: 29 Aug 2006
Location: Global Citizen
Has thanked: 1033 times
Been thanked: 2221 times

Re: Can multicharts trade two instrument in one strategy?

Postby TJ » 01 Apr 2014

::
i am new to multicharts, when coding what is the syntax to differentiate between trading data1 and data 2?
::
EasyLanguage trades only on Data1 of each chart. You will need multiple charts to trade on multiple instruments.

Please see post #2 for the link to "A good place to start".

User avatar
Andrew MultiCharts
Posts: 1587
Joined: 11 Oct 2011
Has thanked: 931 times
Been thanked: 559 times

Re: Can multicharts trade two instrument in one strategy?

Postby Andrew MultiCharts » 01 Apr 2014

Hello brianhclo,

MultiCharts cannot trade more than 1 symbol from 1 chart at a time (it is possible only in .NET version by means of unmanaged orders). Please learn about how spread and pair trading is possible in current version of MC.


Return to “MultiCharts”