Suggestion on Platform for Coding Basic FX System (non Execution)

[robertm 10]

Hi Guys,

 

After years of working out an FX system that suits how I want to trade I'm looking for a platform that can help identify the trades and hoping for some (experienced) suggestions.

 

I am NOT looking to build a robot.

 

What I want to do is simply place an arrow on the confirmation candle and have an audible sound play to alert me to a trade opportunity, on various time frames and pairs.

 

Code wise it'll be pretty simple. X period close above MA with macro MA filter on another time frame, maybe a few indicator filters as well.

 

I had a quick look around on google but mostly found advanced EA robot builders. I use E-signal for data but haven't delved into it's other features (and it's a bit of a dog to program I heard?). I use Dealbook to execute but haven't looked at coding it directly (anybody tried?) and as I'm not planning on trading the signal generation directly I'm happy to look anywhere.

 

Suggestions? MT? NT? SR??

 

I have enough understanding to manipulate code, or my other half is a programmer and can talk geek if required :-D

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited September 16, 2010 by robertm
continuance

[emg 12]

Hi Guys,

 

After years of working out an FX system that suits how I want to trade I'm looking for a platform that can help identify the trades and hoping for some (experienced) suggestions.

 

I am NOT looking to build a robot.

 

What I want to do is simply place an arrow on the confirmation candle and have an audible sound play to alert me to a trade opportunity, on various time frames and pairs.

 

Code wise it'll be pretty simple. X period close above MA with macro MA filter on another time frame, maybe a few indicator filters as well.

 

I had a quick look around on google but mostly found advanced EA robot builders. I use E-signal for data but haven't delved into it's other features (and it's a bit of a dog to program I heard?). I use Dealbook to execute but haven't looked at coding it directly (anybody tried?) and as I'm not planning on trading the signal generation directly I'm happy to look anywhere.

 

Suggestions? MT? NT? SR??

 

I have enough understanding to manipulate code, or my other half is a programmer and can talk geek if required :-D

 

Thanks in advance.

 

the best would be MT4. NT and SR are mainly for futures market.

[BlowFish 10]

If you want quick results with the minimum fuss you could do worse than Tradestion or Multicharts (Id go with the latter). The hurdles you will face are learning the structure, api and conventions of the platform you choose. I have programmed MT4 the obvious choice (to a lesser extent admittedly), Ninja, NeoTicker, Ensign, Metastock and probably a whole bunch more that I have forgotten. Easy Language (used by Multicharts & Tradestation) is hands down the quickest and easiest for having something running quickly. What might take hours to days in some environments can be done in minutes to hours in EL. Not only that there is a vast amount of code in the public domain to draw upon.

 

Of course if you want to develop skills you want to leverage elsewhere then that's probabbly not the best choice. If you want to do high frequency stuff or order book analysis (or other tricky stuff) again I would probably give different advice. If you just want to get the job done without much fuss (you want to concentrate on trading right?) then you could do much worse than EL.

[robertm 10]

the best would be MT4. NT and SR are mainly for futures market.

 

FX can be traded as futures or spot. Also I know people using NT via IB and GFT offer SR solutions, so they can be used if that is what the solution calls for.

[robertm 10]

If you want quick results with the minimum fuss you could do worse than Tradestion or Multicharts (Id go with the latter). The hurdles you will face are learning the structure, api and conventions of the platform you choose. I have programmed MT4 the obvious choice (to a lesser extent admittedly), Ninja, NeoTicker, Ensign, Metastock and probably a whole bunch more that I have forgotten. Easy Language (used by Multicharts & Tradestation) is hands down the quickest and easiest for having something running quickly. What might take hours to days in some environments can be done in minutes to hours in EL. Not only that there is a vast amount of code in the public domain to draw upon.

 

Of course if you want to develop skills you want to leverage elsewhere then that's probabbly not the best choice. If you want to do high frequency stuff or order book analysis (or other tricky stuff) again I would probably give different advice. If you just want to get the job done without much fuss (you want to concentrate on trading right?) then you could do much worse than EL.

 

Thanks BF, waited to see if any others chipped in before replying.

 

I think I'll have a look at EL via MT for starters due to the popularity & therefore ease finding info/assistance. Is there any difference if I start on MT5 given it's the newer? (ie, will all the public domain info still be applicable or were there major changes between the two code wise?). I realize it's not offered by as many brokers for the moment though, or just use MT4 then migrate later?

 

After proving it it's useful I'll consider any changes in my eSig preference for main charting package.

[statsign 10]

AmiBroker - Technical Analysis Software. Charting, Backtesting, Scanning of stocks, futures, mutual funds, forex (currencies). Alerts. Free quotes. works with esignal too

[robertm 10]

AmiBroker - Technical Analysis Software. Charting, Backtesting, Scanning of stocks, futures, mutual funds, forex (currencies). Alerts. Free quotes. works with esignal too

 

It does, and I love it for end of day work, but I don't like it for multi chart handling. I'm still on 4.8 though so I should check out 5.5 featuring "automatic Walk-Forward Testing, Multi-monitor floating charts, symbol and interval linking", according to their pitch.

[dam5h 10]

sierra chart would be perfect for this. code in C++, alert can sound or even send you an email. FX data is included in the basic package, which is very reasonable.

[Kiwi 16]

I'll second Sierra Chart as I use it for exactly this.

 

You didn't say who your broker is? I use Interactive Brokers who've run and ECN and have got half tick spreads on EU and during peak time, some of the other majors, but do have commissions.

 

As well as visual/audio/email etc signal generation you can deal with order generation.

On chart; on dom; electronically.

 

For example, with M5 forex I always enter with a trailing stop limit so I have an autohotkey pull down menu for each of the pairs I trade on short term to buy or sell (and single buttons to cancel all orders or close and cancel if things go wrong). Then a module on SC tracks price down until the stop limit gets hit. Bracket stop and targets are handled automatically.

 

I believe you can deal with NT in a similar way but I understand its a bit buggy at times and I'm sure it's more expensive (if you're actually trading).

[Kiwi 16]

FYI, this is a a replay showing my trade setup on a trade from yesterday afternoon Aus time (chart times are GMT+2 as matches globex opens).

 

 

.

[SIUYA 11]

I have an autohotkey pull down menu for each of the pairs I trade on short term to buy or sell (and single buttons to cancel all orders or close and cancel if things go wrong). Then a module on SC tracks price down until the stop limit gets hit.

 

Hi Kiwi - I have heard good things about SC but never really used it - is the autohotkey you show in the pictures something that comes with SC or an an additional extra program that was written?

 

I thought I might look at SC for a little project I am working on, thats related to this thread.

I plan to use an automated intraday entry method via a simple script of some sort (eg; MA cross over) , and then a discretionary method for exits - so that any stops get manually adjusted either intraday on an end of day basis. The remaining positions that are open might be held for days/weeks/months. It will be linked to IB TWS.

currently I am thinking MultiCharts might be best for this - except it does not have a DOM and manual trading off the chart - but Sierra charts could also be worth a look. Given you are a heavy user of SC do you have any thoughts on how easy this might be implemented via SC?

thanks.

Edited September 24, 2010 by SIUYA

[Kiwi 16]

Autohotkey (and Autoit) are free macro scripting languages/tools widely used in the IT ops community. The thing you see in the picture is a script (below) and it writes a text file with 4 numbers. I then parse that in my order management to extract the current commands.

 

On two of the charts you can see some grey numbers. The first number is time till bar closes (which I havent bothered to make work in sim mode so the numbers are "funny" on the picture). The second shows the 4 digits in the text file. 1=do nothing, 2=buy, 3=sell, 9=flatten and cancel.

 

Autohotkey scripts are pretty simple once you've played with them for a bit. Here's the box (my stuff is never commented and it may have stuff in a script left over from an earlier one I modified to get from point A to point B )

 

I use autohotkey scripts to convert keys into macros (application sensitive) and also to do stuff like autoboot tws + various sierra chart instances (you can run as many scs on one pc as you want and (i think) 3 on separate pcs).

 

 

#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetBatchLines,100ms
#SingleInstance force

SetEnv, Kill, 
SetEnv, Active, 
SetEnv, Retrace, 9
OnExit, ExitSub


Gui +AlwaysOnTop 
Gui +Resize MinSize90x30 +MaxSize900x400
Gui +ToolWindow 

;Gui, Add, Checkbox, vOnOff gCBox
Gui, Add, Button, vOnOff gCBox
Gui, Add, DropDownList, vEU x+5 AltSubmit gEURUSD, EURUSD||Buy Euro|Sell Euro
Gui, Add, DropDownList, vAU x+5 AltSubmit gAUDUSD, AUDUSD||Buy Aussie|Sell Aussie
Gui, Add, DropDownList, vGU x+5 AltSubmit gGBPUSD, GBPUSD||Buy Cable|Sell Cable
Gui, Add, DropDownList, vEJ x+5 AltSubmit gEURJPY, EURJPY||Buy E J|Sell E J
Gui, Add, Button, vKill x+5 gKill
Gui, Show, X-700 Y-19, Order Management
Gui,Submit,NoHide
GoTo Text   ; 

ButtonCloseGui: 
ExitApp



Cbox:
GuiControl,Choose,EU,1
GuiControl,Choose,GU,1
GuiControl,Choose,AU,1
GuiControl,Choose,EJ,1
GuiControl,Choose,OnOff,0
GuiControl,Choose,Kill,0
GoSub Colour
GoTo Text



EURUSD:
GBPUSD:
AUDUSD:
EURJPY:
GoSub Colour
GoTo Text

Text:
; if OnOff=1 
{
FileDelete,S:\SierraChart\Commands.txt
FileAppend,%EU%%AU%%GU%%EJ%   , S:\SierraChart\Commands.txt
}
GoSub Colour
Gui,Submit,NoHide
return


Colour:
if (EU=1 and GU=1 and AU=1 and EJ=1)
{ 
 Gui, Color, C0C0C0 ; standard
} else 
if (EU=2 OR GU=2 OR AU=2 OR EJ=2)
{ 
if(EU=3 OR GU=3 OR AU=3 OR EJ=3)
{
	Gui, Color, E0E000
} else
{
	Gui, Color, D0F0FF
}
}  else 
if (EU=3 OR GU=3 OR AU=3 OR EJ=3)
{ 
if(EU=2 OR GU=2 OR AU=2 OR EJ=2)
{
	Gui, Color, E0E000
} else
{
	Gui, Color, FF8080
}
} else
{ 
 Gui, Color, E0E000
}
Gui,Submit,NoHide
Return


ExitSub:
FileDelete,S:\SierraChart\Commands.txt
FileAppend,1111   , S:\SierraChart\Commands.txt
ExitApp




Kill:
FileDelete,S:\SierraChart\Commands.txt
FileAppend,9999 , S:\SierraChart\Commands.txt
sleep,30
Gui, Color, C0C0C0 ; standard
Gui,Submit,NoHide
sleep,10000
GuiControl,Choose,EU,1
GuiControl,Choose,GU,1
GuiControl,Choose,AU,1
GuiControl,Choose,EJ,1
GuiControl,Choose,OnOff,0
GuiControl,Choose,Kill,0
GoSub Colour
GoTo Text



Gui, Add, Checkbox, vOnOff gCBox
Gui, Add, DropDownList, vEU x+5 AltSubmit Choose1 gEURUSD, EURUSD||Buy Euro|Sell Euro
Gui, Add, DropDownList, vAU x+5 AltSubmit Choose1 gAUDUSD, AUDUSD||Buy Aussie|Sell Aussie
Gui, Add, DropDownList, vGU x+5 AltSubmit Choose1 gGBPUSD, GBPUSD||Buy Cable|Sell Cable
Gui, Add, DropDownList, vEJ x+5 AltSubmit Choose1 gEURJPY, EURJPY||Buy E J|Sell E J
Gui, Show, X-640 Y-19, Order Management
Gui,Submit,NoHide

[robertm 10]

I'll second Sierra Chart as I use it for exactly this.

 

You didn't say who your broker is? I use Interactive Brokers who've run and ECN and have got half tick spreads on EU and during peak time, some of the other majors, but do have commissions.

 

As well as visual/audio/email etc signal generation you can deal with order generation.

On chart; on dom; electronically.

 

For example, with M5 forex I always enter with a trailing stop limit so I have an autohotkey pull down menu for each of the pairs I trade on short term to buy or sell (and single buttons to cancel all orders or close and cancel if things go wrong). Then a module on SC tracks price down until the stop limit gets hit. Bracket stop and targets are handled automatically.

 

I believe you can deal with NT in a similar way but I understand its a bit buggy at times and I'm sure it's more expensive (if you're actually trading).

 

Thanks Kiwi. Yes I've heard a lot of good things about Sierra, downloaded it a few times, but never seem to get around to playing with it.

 

Broker wise I have a few, I don't tie myself to a specific broker, most of the best ones will offer the same tools to get the job done.

 

I noticed Amibroker has a feed plugin for IB data from TWS, and has a plugin for executing with IB from the platform now. Having just explored the latest version I LOVE the Interval linking feature, I've wanted this on previous charting packages like eSignal for years now. I also like Ami's ability to switch layers on/of to keep charts free of clutter. Some things are still a bit clunky like not being able to "edge out" charts by getting rid of the title bar in the chart frame (which eSig does for me).

 

Topping it all off I know several die hard Amibroker users with extensive coding/testing experience so I'm leaning that direction for my explorations at this point before going down an all new path like Metatrader.

 

I'm pulling some bits of code together now and will be back to bug some coders when I hit the roadblocks.

[Kiwi 16]

Yeah, I have a copy of Amibroker too (older now) and really liked the backtesting approach they use, one of the best - Sierra still haven't caught up there yet.

 

The things I didn't like were:

- lack of "deep" control of the gui so charts were a bit 1 dimensional

- lack of good multitimeframe control

- the plug in for ib wasn't ready for real time reliable usage (this was about a year ago)

 

The nice thing was that you could write your code as C++ (seems they copied the structure) if you didn't use the coding short cuts. Which meant I was planning to write and test with AB then translate to SC for real time usage. As it was I resolved backtesting sufficiently to meet my needs so dropped AB for now.

 

Let us know how you go though. It seems a great package for the price.

[UrmaBlume 10]

One inportant consideration is which paris to trade. While we take volume and balance of trade information from the futures we do a radar screen scan on local price volatilities that shows us out of sequence price action.

 

If you have a method that transfers between instruments then it is always better to trade what's hot and not trade what's not.

 

The scan below shows 60 and 21 minute volatilities for the various pairs and is updated every minute. This scan was taken at 1352 PST Friday.

 

 

cheers

 

UB

[SIUYA 11]

just s some feedback.....

I have downloaded sierra chart - so far i love it.

The display was a little tough to follow as there are a lot of menus and thats just a matter of getting used to it. This would normally turn me off as normally if i dont like the vibe, I am unlikely to persist, but in this case it seems to have enough flexibilty to suit me, and the Kiwi inspired autohotkeys make it even more flexible. (thanks.)

On a quick look it looks great. I love the ideas of trading from the excel type spreadsheet without needing to learn C++ if you dont need to. the charts look fine and seems straightforward and also the forum seems to have plenty of info on it.

Given it can feed into different brokers and also pick up different feeds it is definitely something I will persist with.

plus while not a major factor - the price is good.