Hello everyone, I've recently developed an ATS that's trades soley the UDS/JPY. This system was tested on a 1 minute data, and on a one tick data, with the result of 3.1 pips per trade (before spreads) and 3-5 trades per day. First of all is this a good enough result to ever really work in real-time? Secondly i'm looking for a software to test this program in real time, the ATS is in C#, what's the best forex software and simplest to implent this ATS in C#? And, is there a demo account option there? TIA, Amit
Check out MB Trading's SDK. The actual commission costs are high for a scalping strategy. However, on the plus side, you can write in C# against their API. Their forum is helpful with plenty of examples and some documentation. You can open a demo account, or three..., and run against the data feed and let the system trade. Drop some of the MB's controls into your form, if that's how you've developed it, and take advantage of their built in trade stats (#of trades, commission amount, etc.) directly. Since you are calculating your trades sans slippage, spread, or commission, there are some things to keep in mind. Obviously, if you are entering against the market or with the market, you'll see either positive or negative slippage. If you are used to a centralized marketplace, as in futures, then forex will be a change. Yes, ECNs do offer benefits. However, based on my experience, as your size increases, you will more frequently get sent out of the ECN into the InterBank market on most executions. So you will pay the commissions, plus the spread. e.g. Let's say you are bidding x on the ECN as the market moves towards you. If no other ECN participant takes your bid, then the offer will have to go through you, at which point, your bid will be sent away for execution. So, you've paid both the spread and commission. Clearly, the bigger, busier ECN for your currency pair will be better choice. The point of all this is that you shouldn't be convinced that by using an ECN, you'll save paying the spread.
Yet another reason he can use Ninjatrader: MB trading is one of the many compatible brokers with the software.
scalping 3 pip trades when the spread with practically any broker is 2-3 at best is a no-win scenario Thats a losing proposition my friend!! You would end up losing money on accumulation of spread charges.... You're system would need to be able to capture at least 12 pips per trade to even have a chance of being consistently profitable. I trade the GBP/USD, EUR/USD, and USD/JPY thru Mb Trading, and even with their spreads, 3 pips per scalp trade is, as I said before, ...a BREAK EVEN - LOSE proposition. Thats why I now trade 4 hr to 1 hr time frames. scalping the forex spot market is like climbing a mountain with dress shoes... it can be done, but one big slip and........ sayonara!!
think about a roulette wheel with 2 green spaces representing the the spread. Vegas makes buildings off those. Even with a 20 point target your at at 10 percent disadvantage. Go for larger time frames.
What do you think of the following for the EURUSD trading 30 min bars for about 3 weeks ending in mid Jan. Ttades 27 W/L 86.49% Win 0.0464 Loss -0.0072 Net 0.0391 The average trade is about 14 pips. After a 3 pips spread it still 300 pips.