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Hi all, I've been reading the ninja forum but would like to get a few key concepts nailed.
1.(a) With respect to trading automated FX strategies on ninja, is it important to back test using the broker supplied feed in order to "sync" with the brokers data to increase accuracy?
(b)if so, vendors like IB only have 1 year of historical data that has been described as having "many gaps", what is the workaround?
(c)If I do backtesting with Kinetick data and trade live with IB, it is acknowledged that the broker is seeing different price action than I'm seeing on Kinetick, so is the solution to reduce profit targets and increase stops from the backtested data to compensate for the variations of price action? By how much, what seems to work?
2 Is there a broker with a business model that he makes more money the longer I trade, so my success is in his best interests?
Thanks
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
1. If you have instruments that are traded on a central exchange, such as futures, you can backtest with the data of any data supplier who has taken the data from that exchange.
FOREX is traded over different exchanges and interbank ECNs. Each of these ECNs has a different population of organizations and traders participating. So I would not think that you can substitute the data of one ECN with the data of another ECN. If you are not closing out your positions intraday, but if you are a swing or position trader another feed should be good enough.
For scalping the liquidity of the ECN is crucial. I noticed that FOREX prices of different ECNs can behave quite different at the time of a news release. This may result in lower lows and/or higher highs, depending on liquidity and retail participation.
2. Any broker who does not take the opposite side of your trade, makes more money the longer you trade. So you want to select an ECN or STP broker, who has no dealing desk. For more details see link below.
Thanks, that makes sense.
From what I understand from the ninja forum, there are 4 supported data feeds for NT;
- GAIN Capital/FOREX.com
- PFGBEST.com
- MB Trading
- Interactive Brokers
Am I limited to brokers that carry one of these 4 feeds?
If so, from what I've been reading, both the Gain and IB historical data have "gaps", and the IB historical goes back only 1 year, I'm wondering what the experience has been with MB and PFB as far as gaps in data are concerned and if these feeds have 3 years of historical data.
If there are threads already covering this subject, please point me in the right direction.
Thanks
(1) As a beginner it is a great endeavour to start with automated trading. I believe that well spent screen time is indispensable to udnerstand the markets. Also, do you think that NinjaTrader is reliable enough for automated trading? I do not think so.
(2) The choice of the data feed for backtesting depends on the time frame you intend to trade. A scalper would need different data to validate any ideas than a swing trader. You have not communicated this so far.
and answers;
1.I am a beginner but I also have spent the last 15 months full time studying trading FX on ninja with Gain, lots of chart time, lots of programming, lots of running strategies live in demo etc.
The question of ninja reliability has me worried, as it seems to do as expected in my testing and demo (I haven;t gone to live trading yet), but I don't know what I don't know, so now I'm interested in exactly how ninja is unreliable.
2. I'm finding the most consistency using the hourly timeframe, sometimes dropping to 15m for some resolution over price levels, and using 4hr, daily and weekly as filters. Most strategies are in for hours up to 4 or 5 days.
The free Gain demo feed ended this weekend, but I am ready to start trading live with micro or mini lots and calibrate the strategies, so I need to understand the subtleties of broker/feed combinations to take the next step.
In my personal opinion, NinjaTrader is not reliable enough for automated trading, but you can dig through the thread NinjaTrader - The Truth to get the full picture.
If you trade 15min to 4h timeframes, which is quite a reasonable timeframe for FOREX, you can certainly use a feed such as Kinetick FOREX for backtesting, even if you execute through another broker.
Have a look as well at the thread Factor of N started by @Eric j.