[seaneking]

Ok so I've been recently (very recently) teaching myself easylanguage so I can code a system to make my trading efforts a bit more efficient, and I've run into a few simple hurdles. I'm not coding with tradestation (using a small australian broker with easylanguage compatibility), so can't debug anything properly or ask for official help from tradestation.

I know I'm asking a lot here, and I don't expect anyone to answer everything, but any help at all to point me in the right direction would be really appreciated.


1. Would I need to be constantly connected for my exit orders to be applied? For instance, in my strategy I've set marketorders to scale off my position automatically with moving average crossovers when things go sour. Will those orders still trigger if I'm not physically connected and my code is not running in front of me or should I place stop orders the old way when I enter a position?

2. Ideally I'd like to make this a stock scanner of sorts, where it reads all the instruments in a market and shows candidates that have triggered buy signals any time in the past day (last and current bar) for further analysis. Is there some way to achieve that or something similar?

3. Lastly, I'm having a bit of trouble with the actual code of my exit strategy. I need to reference a past event and I'm not quite sure how. To make things clearer here's some sample code from my exit, triggering the second scaling off of a position only if the first sell-off has occurred:

condition5
= marketorder("1stsell") = -1

where this was the order for the first sell-off:
marketorder("1stsell","on ce","account#"...etc.)

I'd then set the second exit as: if condition5 and...etc.

Can I do that??

4. Along the same lines I want to set another condition that scales off another portion of of my position (triggered after condition5 above is met) when the value reaches 1.3 times the value at the time of the 1st sale (“1stsell”). So I'd need to somehow reference the price of the shares at the time 1stsell occurred? If that makes any sense...


Thanks for the help!
Sean

[EasyTrader_I]

HI Sean,

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Would I need to be constantly connected for my exit orders to be applied? For instance, in my strategy I've set marketorders to scale off my position automatically with moving average crossovers when things go sour. Will those orders still trigger if I'm not physically connected and my code is not running in front of me or should I place stop orders the old way when I enter a position? 


If you are disconnected from the tradestation , then your Market Orders will never be triggered as your code would never run....
If you are using a Stop order, then using advanced Programming (OSO/OCO) you can place the orders directly in the Tradestaiton Server, So no more worry once you have placed, it will trigger for sure.

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2. Ideally Id like to make this a stock scanner of sorts, where it reads all the instruments in a market and shows candidates that have triggered buy signals any time in the past day (last and current bar) for further analysis. Is there some way to achieve that or something similar? 


Yes, This is possible in tradestation using Scanner.

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3. Lastly, I'm having a bit of trouble with the actual code of my exit strategy. I need to reference a past event and I'm not quite sure how. To make things clearer here's some sample code from my exit, triggering the second scaling off of a position only if the first sell-off has occurred:

condition5
= marketorder("1stsell") = -1

where this was the order for the first sell-off:
marketorder("1stsell","on ce","account#"...etc.)

I'd then set the second exit as: if condition5 and...etc.

Can I do that?? 


It's not clear from your language... However TS takes many exits and will trigger the first one that the Price Hits.
And you can have as many condition as you like for a single Exit.

4. Along the same lines I want to set another condition that scales off another portion of of my position (triggered after condition5 above is met) when the value reaches 1.3 times the value at the time of the 1st sale (“1stsell”). So I'd need to somehow reference the price of the shares at the time 1stsell occurred? If that makes any sense...

Sorry, Can you bit more clear..
Please PM me if you need any further assistance..

Good Luck,
EasyTrader_I

[seaneking]

Thanks for the prompt reply EasyTrader! To clarify some points...

1) Okay so I'd essentially have to ditch the moving average crossovers and just set stops at predetermined profit points when I enter the position with my broker as per normal, not really needing to use easylanguage?

2) Since I'm not using tradestation, can that functionality be utilized directly through easylanguage, or is it a feature of the tradestation platform?

3 & 4) Don't worry, seems these points are irrelevant now since I can't have my exits executed in real time when offline (I'll be offline quite a bit, traveling at the moment) through easylanguage (at least not the 'dynamic' ones I had in mind, using moving averages and such).

One more thing, along the same lines as 1), does the trailingstoporder function require the code to be running 24/7 to be a real trailing stop, as the marketorder function does? If not, and this is a long shot, but is there any way to make it more complex, perhaps using variables for the tailing amount inputs?
Ideally I'd like to have a trailing stop determined by the ATR of the instrument. ie: average(close,20) - (avgtruerange(14) * 3).


Thanks again,
Sean.

[statsign]

Code has to run to do calculations for auto trade.
There are brokers that will run your code if you are comfortable with it.
MovAvg xovers are not so good but entries are not so important.
Exits are important and ATR is not good at all for making money.
Anyways, I won't give anything away which I know is frustrating.
But I am a master statistician and a whole lot of things the rags and gurus tell you to chase are losers.
I will tell you that price is everything - and I understand that ATR is based on price, but it already happened and has zero predictive usefulness.
One thing I've heard so many preach over the decades is to keep it simple.
I'll tell you - keep it as simple as is profitable, and there is absolutely nothing simple about it.

[seaneking]

Thanks for the advice statsign. While the points you raise are interesting, I'm of the mind that price is not necessarily everything, the people behind the price that make up the market are everything. And like it or not simple tools like moving averages are followed by hordes of traders, making them important things to follow none the less.

And I'd also have to agree with the 'keep it simple' moniker to some extent. In my opinion as long as you have an edge of some sort, be it a simple system, a single indicator, even stock picks that are followed by a large enough majority, then you have the makings of a profitable venture as long as you manage your trades well, play the odds, etc. It takes nothing to put on a successful trade, it takes a lot to be consistent. (a fantastic book on the topic is Mark Douglas's 'Trading In The Zone', even though it can get a bit wishy washy at times).

Of course all this is just a matter of opinion.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, thanks for the help and I'll look into whether my broker supports running code 24/7.

Anyone got any pointers on the issues in my previous post??


Thanks,
Sean

[seaneking]

Anyone at all?

Thanks,
Sean

[Tams]

Originally Posted by seaneking »

Anyone at all?

Thanks,
Sean

Originally Posted by EasyTrader_I »

HI Sean,
...

It's not clear from your language... ...?

.......... ..........

Sorry, Can you bit more clear..

.......... ..........

EasyTrader_I

........ ......... see above.

[seaneking]

Sorry, I'll try reclarify as best as I can...

1) Okay so I'd essentially have to ditch the moving average crossovers and just set stops at predetermined profit points when I enter the position with my broker as per normal, not really needing to use easylanguage?

Basically I'm just checking if there's any way to code exits in easylanguage that will execute (and place orders with my broker) a) by themselves (figure I can use the .placeorder functions for this) and b) without me having to be physically online.

2. Ideally I'd like to make this a stock scanner of sorts, where it reads all the instruments in a market and shows candidates that have triggered buy signals any time in the past day (last and current bar) for further analysis. Is there some way to achieve that or something similar?

Yes, This is possible in tradestation using Scanner.

2) Since I'm not using tradestation, can that functionality be utilized directly through easylanguage, or is it a feature of the tradestation platform?

Perhaps this is more a question for my broker, as it may be platform specific, but I wanted to use easylanguage to filter stocks, by way of looping through for every instrument in a market and presenting all the buy orders triggered. I'm not using tradestation, so I was just wondering if this could be achieved in code, and if so, how? (In EasyTrader's reply it sounded like the scanner was a tool of the tradestation platform, separate from EasyLanguage)

One more thing, along the same lines as 1), does the trailingstoporder function require the code to be running 24/7 to be a real trailing stop, as the marketorder function does? If not, and this is a long shot, but is there any way to make it more complex, perhaps using variables for the tailing amount inputs?
Ideally I'd like to have a trailing stop determined by the ATR of the instrument. ie: average(close,20) - (avgtruerange(14) * 3).

This still pins on exits executing broker orders without me always being online. So, a) would the trailingstoporder function work as a normal trailing stop placed directly with my broker and b) is there any way of using functions like avgtruerange and variables to determine the trailing amount.


I've tried to make things as clear as I can, if there's anything that still doesn't make sense (more than likely, I have trouble understanding myself at times), then please point out which bits need clarifying and I'll try my best to be more succinct.

Sorry for all the confusion, and thankyou so much for taking the time to help me out