My obeservations on Ver.3 Beta 3

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
autotrade
Posts: 15
Joined: 04 Apr 2008

My obeservations on Ver.3 Beta 3

Postby autotrade » 11 Apr 2008

Well. After 8-10 hours of coding and watching execution this morning, I guess I have the answers to the questions I was asking.

Intrabar still far from ready for reliable trading.

Breakeven not working
Trailing stop not working
Backtesting not accurate on 144 tick bars. Places market short order at top of bar, which produces beautiful backtest but horrible trading results.

I prefer Limit orders anyway, but they run off the chart in multichart so you cannot tell what happened/is happening where w/out consulting IB.

I will be discontinuing trying intrabar as I don't have any more time to waste on what should be obvious programming features that could be announced when the new beta comes out that they don't work at present.

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Andrew Kirillov
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Postby Andrew Kirillov » 12 Apr 2008

Breakeven not working
Trailing stop not working
What exactly doesn't work? According to QA tests it works. Maybe you have some specific case?
If you give better illustration we can see what could be done.

Backtesting not accurate on 144 tick bars. Places market short order at top of bar, which produces beautiful backtest but horrible trading results.
Backtesting is identical on any N tick bar. I can write a strategy that will do millions on history and will constantly lose in real-time, because I will use assumptions limitations.
So we need your strategy to make conclusions. It is possible it is our problem, but it is more likely it is your wrong logic. Please send a script.

I prefer Limit orders anyway, but they run off the chart
Could you specify what do you mean by “run off the chart”
I will be discontinuing trying intrabar as I don't have any more time to waste on what should be obvious programming features that could be announced when the new beta comes out that they don't work at present.
Obvious? It is a very complex mechanism consisting of thousands of lines of code and it does have problems as any other. If you want to get it fixed let us know the problem in detail.

autotrade
Posts: 15
Joined: 04 Apr 2008

Postby autotrade » 13 Apr 2008

Andrew:

It's the same code I sent originally, still not does not work.

I haven't had success with breakeven or trailing stop with an intrabar strat. I'll send the exit portion of the code again. Please have someone respond with specifics this time so I can clearly know if it's a coding error or a function error and make most efficient use of my late evening time... (have a young son, married and fulltime job).

When is the official release due?

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Marina Pashkova
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Joined: 27 Jul 2007

Postby Marina Pashkova » 14 Apr 2008

Hi autotrade,

You are right. The changes you are talking about haven't been implemented in the latest beta. We are almost sure that they will be included into the upcoming release.

autotrade
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Joined: 04 Apr 2008

Postby autotrade » 14 Apr 2008

Marina:

when will that be (official release)?

I am still having issues too with orders launching in IB and no sign of it on the chart.

Also, I cannot get Jun contracts for Yen and CHF to load correctly... Very large bars on the chart for GLOBEX exchange. Anyone else have that issue and can recommend a fix?

Thomas Mann
Posts: 173
Joined: 25 Aug 2007

alternative to MC Autotrader

Postby Thomas Mann » 16 Apr 2008

I use TWSLINK.DLL which is a free DLL add-on. This allows me to send orders to IB intrabar. It also has some issues but is workable. You can search the net for it and you will find the home page. I can not post links in messages any more.

autotrade
Posts: 15
Joined: 04 Apr 2008

Postby autotrade » 16 Apr 2008

thanks Thomas..

How do you work through the issues part? Here is my dillemma.

I work full time so that's why i've explored the option of autotrading. I cannot be there to watch each and every trade.

In intrabar, it does not send across profit targets when scaling. Scaling is, to me, critical for a successful trader for long term viability in this game. A critical component and it's simply not sending them. I am also noticing stop limit orders being placed in IB with no entry order.

I just wish I could get consistent execution, good or bad, so I could go from a solid foundation.

What seems to work from my tests on about 8 different contracts and forex pairs is non intrabar single profit target orders, when you just have one profit target as a value on your strat. this however is generally not as profitable a concept as scaling out. What I wish we had was an option to enter a trade non intrabar at a specific price target, and exit intrabar when price targets are hit. If there is a way to do that, can someone please advise. Again, I know a single set profit target (and stoploss) exit intrabar, but I haven't been able to seperate 2 contracts and have them both exit intrabar at different profit targets... which to me is sorely needed. Enter when you want to, exit in a scaled approach with a trailing stop. Seems so simple.

Another problem too is random execution. I have a non intrabar Gold strat. Sometimes it posts the scalable PT's, sometimes it doesnt. How does one document that? It happens so often I would think it should show up in testing prior to the release, but I don't know if I have the nerve to turn any of this on in a real trading account not knowing if it will execute or not and cause a loss.

Stoploss, like a single profit target (setprofittarget), always has worked for me under a variety of circumstances, but I don't want to stoploss the day away and end up with a cumulative sizeable stop loss.

It would be nice to just have consistent reliable execution on a scalable exit intrabar, and a set entry point with trailing stop loss.

or

Have consistent reliable execution on intrabar entry, and scalabe exit points intrabar with trailing stop loss.

or

Have consistent reliable execution on non intrabar entry and scalable exit points non intrabar with trailing stops on futures.

back to the drawing board I guess.

If someone from Multicharts is reading this (or any user willing to help), can you advise if you have an option to enter a bar non intrabar limit and scalable exit intrabar and if so what is that coding logic. In other words can you setprofittarget for more than one contract.

thanks guys and sorry for rambling, just pretty frustrated right now.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 21 Apr 2008

Hi autotrade,

Have you tested autotrading in the latest release together with the hot fix posted on this forum? If you have could you please let us know if it fixed your problems?


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