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Autotrading systems - do you trust them while you sleep?
I am in the process of building a trading system which I would like to run by itself, without having to keep watch of it.
I am building it in NT 6.5, but I am wondering; can I trust it to execute accurately. I would hate to wake up to find it entered a trade during the night, had some type of error where my stops or profit targets were not executed correctly, and I have an open position at a massive loss.
So I am just wondering, how many people use automated systems, and do they trust them to run during periods they will be unable to check up on them?
I run ATS during RTH, not at night. My systems are tested and bug-free; they run flawlessly. However, I can't control power supplies and the Internet connection. If there is a problem and the ATS is compromised, the losses, if any, are mine and no one elses.
If you want to trade while you sleep, I'd recommend using a dedicated third party server provider in Chicago, although you probably have to indemnify them against losses.
The opportunity of automatic trading is also the hazards of electronic trading. I have read the Ninja warning of electronic trading: have you?
Yes, I want to automate for all the benefits. No, I wont trust it to initiate and exit trades while I sleep. I have gone to the point of setting up ATM and having it active while I had to go out for an appointment: it has gone as intented, but doesnt make me want to use it more.
And if you are tired when you setup the autotrader, what is expected to happen? Code and fills are not perfect. Set it up on a SIM for a few months total auto and see what you think. Decision is all yours, as is the reward and risk.
I have been running 5 strategies around the clock since earlier this year. Using IB and NT 6.5. Also have a battery backup for power loss. I prefer to to have as many strats running with smaller bets 0.25%- 1% of equity that do not correlate too much with each other. Also, I prefer to keep frequency low during sleeping hours. Most important is that all strategies have a working stop with IB, which of course does not guarantee
anything. But on the few occasions, 3 so far this year, where Internet went down, each strategy that had a position had it's stop and/or target still active w/ broker. So new signals are not going to fire and certain event
based exits will not execute. My latest outage happened last week where 1 position missed it's "event" exit
but made more money by holding. 2 other positions were ignored and they would have caused losses. The net dollar figure was even(luck). Pay good attention to the PC your using, turn off automatic updates and screensaver and sleep stuff.
