MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and Backtesting

The strategy gave a signal, which appears on the chart, and automation is set up for the chart. However, the trade was NOT entered on FXCM. I waited 5 minutes, but no entry occured.

I finally entered manually. This is not the same issue as I had the other day with incorrect positions sizing (units vs. mini-contracts) as I've fixed that problem and verified that the fix is applied to this chart.

Once, again, trade not executed even though appears on chart and automation is on. Any suggestions on how to figure out the problem? This was on GBPJPY, short 10,000 units.

Kevin,

First, until I knew everything worked as it should - I would only trade a FXCM test account. With that in place, I would speed up a chart and make it more sensitive so that it trades a number of time per minute. Next I would take the decision making (buy or sell) portion and prove it functioned as you intended and release more signal generating code that places trades beyond a single position long or short. By doing so in short order and without financial risks, you can verify what works and what doesn't. Once proven out on the demo, I would run the same sensitive chart on a live account and write the check to verify that everything I confirmed as working properly in the demo, works the same way using the live account. Because there are so many pieces (data server, MCFX, Order2Go, FXCM platform and an order server) that could have an issue, I have found it important to approach it this way to narrow down the problem area(s) and determine if a work-a-round(s) can be figured out.

Good Luck,
Don

Don,
Your approach is sound and smart. I want to get as many scripts and WSP as possible to test new auto-trading.
I encourage all users send me your scripts for our quality assurance department.
Please see important information here:
http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.php?p=17456#17456

Don, you make excellent points about the testing process and I hope you continue testing and sharing your results. I do test things with a demo account, but also test live - I think there may be differences in how they are treated which may not show up until live testing. I'm not too concerned about losing a small amount of money trading minis live - I monitor closely so things don't go badly wrong, and even with the various issues, I'm still making a little money.

I won't be trading full lots until everything is working to my satisfaction - that is simply far too risky right now!

Kevin,

Just be careful as some of the issues point to uncontrolled/wrong position size. Financial and emotional hits from testing are relative to each.

I found a random bug in/at TS (lucky I was at the computer!) when a trade went off on a chart at 100k instead of 10k. I was running a portfolio of charts and I am sure that the problem would have hit them as well. The trade manager did zero to stop it (nor have they found the problem). I read a post where a fellow that was not on deck got hit with the same issue and turned into a $5k + problem by the time he got flat.

Potentially TS has a different liability (even with all the disclaimers) than TSS/FXCM because it was their trading client and servers that have a problem and therefore is writing the check for the problems. Unless the problem is found to be on the FXCM trading platform or in software they wrote, I don't think there is a reasonable path to financial recovery for a glitch.

I hope its fixed soon!
Don