1. There are plenty of high volume S&P 500 stocks that still have wide spreads in the morning. Depending on news, if there's a huge gap up or down, etc. I would give a similar answer to point 2. 3. Full time, meaning this is what I do for a living. edit: the main point of the thread and issue I'm having is to be able to enter multiple preselected stocks if they meet the criteria of a running calculation. I can't run this calculation in my head and enter orders for 5+ different stocks and monitor them at the same time.
Thanks. Any pros and cons vs. Python? Of the research I've done lately, it looks like Python is fairly popular to use for making algos. Looks a bit overwhelming at first for a noobie such as myself though.
Multicharts utilizes Powerlanguage (Easylanguage) which is specifically made for trading. Unless you're trying to scalp with low latency requirements, Powerlanguage should be able to execute your orders with less lines of code than Python.
The strategy doesn't depend on speed and I wouldn't consider it scalping. Just need automated bracket orders to go off if the criteria is met. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be checking MultiCharts out tonight.
Because if you update any component (IB TWS, IB API, Excel), it's likely to break. It always gave me errors after even minor updates. Also, it sometimes fails to submit orders for reasons I never could figure out. ActiveX Excel sheet is better but still not as good as the real thing (C++, java, python etc).
You're a FT trader for 5 years. If that means you make money and value you're time just hire someone to write it.
If it was just the money, I wouldn't think twice. The main issue is "after-sale support" - how do I know the dev will be around if there are bugs or it doesn't work anymore as a result of an update. There are other issues as well that have been discussed at length on the forums. Not out of the question though. Thanks for the imput.
Wondering how much discretion goes into your trading decision, are you mechanically following your own rules or are there room for interpretation beyond spread, volatility, etc? Point is a trading bot will take all the signals, even "stupid ones", thus applying murphys law to the nth power, not reduce risk. This unless your backtesting includes everything for execution, avoids hindsight biases and can be followed 100% mechanically. Making such systems takes alot of experience both with programming and trading the market. One will go through eureka moments thinking youve cracked it, then discover the parts that doesnt work. This can go on for years. Id recommend to start simple and build from there. Excel is as simple as you can get it, but still very flexible. When your needs exceed excel, maybe python is achievable after experience with excel. Best to do it yourself if you can, otherwise need a partner that wont abandon you.