Order2Go issue

Questions about MCFX and MCFX Data Feed.
beck donald
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Order2Go issue

Postby beck donald » 25 Jan 2008

The trades go through and appear on the FXCM platform, however, it continues to open new positions rather than close and open. Meaning...

If I am long 100k EURUSD and I get a sell signal, it does not sell the long and close that trade, but rather opens a new 200k short position.

Thank you
Don

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 29 Jan 2008

Hi Don,

Have you tried it with hedging turned off?

Regards.

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Postby beck donald » 29 Jan 2008

Hello Marina,

Unfortunately it is not a user selectable option. I have asked FXCM to turn off hedging and am waiting for them to do it.

Thank you
Don

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Postby beck donald » 31 Jan 2008

With the hedging featured turned off at FXCM, the open trade closes.

kevin kolodzy
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Postby kevin kolodzy » 31 Jan 2008

I think I read somewhere in these forums that hedging will be a selection from within MCFX in a later release - is that correct?

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Postby beck donald » 31 Jan 2008

No idea... It seems that both trading size and hedging are controlled by FXCM.

I think there is more than one order2go flying around. I am getting one from FXCM. It has some parameters and a window with deal rates (if I got the info right).

Don

kevin kolodzy
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Postby kevin kolodzy » 31 Jan 2008

Do post more about the alternate version of order2go and how to get it - sounds like something I'd be interested in downloading soon.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 08 Feb 2008

Hello guys,

Regarding the earlier question about the hedging status influencing the way postions are closed/open.

In future versions of MCFX hedging won't affect the way positions are closed. Instead of opening positions in both directions, MCFX will first close the existing position and then open a position in the opposite direction if necessary.

But we've got a question for you: would you like to have the current MCFX behavior as an option as well?

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Postby kevin kolodzy » 08 Feb 2008

Marina, I'm always in favor of having additional options available. However, the default behavior should be to close existing positions and then opening new positions in the opposite direction. That is the usual and normal situation, I believe, and is the safer default.

In the future, when more than one chart can trade the same symbol (I expect you'll have some way to identify the position by ticket number or some such, which will be known to the strategy code), it would be useful then to allow hedging as an option, so that another strategy (e.g. for short-term positions) could go short to take advantage of a pullback while a longer term Long position remains open.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 08 Feb 2008

Thank you for responding Kevin! We take all our customers' opinions into consideration.

Regards.

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Postby beck donald » 08 Feb 2008

The only true value of this option is to double the P/L for the broker. There is nothing that I have read about even conceptually that makes sense. Unless a write-off is what your interested in.

Take care,
Don

kevin kolodzy
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Postby kevin kolodzy » 08 Feb 2008

Don, I have to respectfully disagree. Many times I have profitably opened a short-term countrary position to my longer-term position. If my short-term position closes my longer-term position, then I'd have to reopen the longer-term position once the shorter one is concluded. If the price is better, perhaps I'd save a bit, but there is always the problem of coordinating trades across multiple strategies and time-frames - I'd have to do manual overrides of my code to accomplish this.

If the strategies test out in back and forward testing, then I'm inclined to trust them even if they take opposing positions for short periods. I'm not a good discretionary trader, but I can write profitable automated strategies!

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Postby beck donald » 08 Feb 2008

Don, I have to respectfully disagree. Many times I have profitably opened a short-term countrary position to my longer-term position. If my short-term position closes my longer-term position, then I'd have to reopen the longer-term position once the shorter one is concluded. If the price is better, perhaps I'd save a bit, but there is always the problem of coordinating trades across multiple strategies and time-frames - I'd have to do manual overrides of my code to accomplish this.

If the strategies test out in back and forward testing, then I'm inclined to trust them even if they take opposing positions for short periods. I'm not a good discretionary trader, but I can write profitable automated strategies!
I believe in 100% computerized trading. I also believe that trading more than 1 time frame is important to reduce overall account P/L volatility.

I am hoping to be able to trade more than one chart per pair (I prefer 4 to 6 charts per instrument) soon and at times expect that they will cancel each other out and I will be flat. Being flat is different than being both long and short.

Meaning if I was trading 2 charts and if I am long my long term chart and trading around with a fast chart and get a sell signal, I sell one and am out of the market or if I get a buy signal, I buy 2.

What FXCM has in place will have you long 1 position and short 1 position.
If implemented by TSS as it is now, you can't close out the position mechanically, you can only add more and more positions (per chart and only on one chart) that will require human intervention to close. It will not allow you to go long on one chart and short on another.

Being long and short on a single chart has no value that I can see. But I am willing to learn!

Regards,
Don

kevin kolodzy
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Postby kevin kolodzy » 08 Feb 2008

On a single chart - I agree. No point in being both long and short. I've asked FXCM to turn off hedging on my account for now, so I can (soon, hopefully) test live without the complexities of multiple contrary positions. My strats worked well on TS, except for the problems with data interruptions and trade server outages, so I expect they'll work fine here. Of course, while MCFX is in beta, I'll severely restrict how I trade, but there's nothing like live trading to identify the bugs with both platform and strategy code!

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 12 Feb 2008

Most probably in the nearest future we'll modify the implementation in such a way that the existing position will be closed and then a new one opened. Later on we'll add hedging as well. This functionality will make it possible to open several positions from different charts for the same symbol.

This seemingly simple idea is extremely difficult to implement - especially to work reliably, which is extremely important for automated trading. This is why we are completely changing the existing connection to Order2Go which will allow us to make the platform more reliable, add Stop/Limit orders and ignore Hedging.

kevin kolodzy
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Postby kevin kolodzy » 12 Feb 2008

That all sounds promising, Marina. As I posted earlier today in another thread, automation reliability is absolutely essential, at least for me. If you can achieve that, you'll have something very few other platforms can offer. Anyone can put together a platform with decent charts and indicators that will even generate trades, but few have done so in a way that can be relied on for serious trading. I can do without the fancy interface stuff if I can create reliable automated strategies that don't required constant monitoring. I do need to sleep sometimes!


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