Thinking Stuff's ATM

Automated Trading Machine (ATM) makes it simple to remove fear and greed from your trading. Automated trading is no longer just for the rich or nerdy. Our revolutionary software runs on your computer, using your trading rules, but none of your emotions. There's just one requirement - you know how to use a mouse.  Learn more...

Thinking Stuff's ATE

Automated Trading Execution (ATE) is where we run your trading systems for you on our servers. Your system can be exported from ATM, or written in plain English and we'll make it for you. We'll even backtest and suggest improvements if you want us to. This service essentially automates your automated trading.  Learn more...

Thinking Stuff's Groups

Join a group of like-minded individuals, and help each other to trading success. Once you join a group, you will have access to that group's trading systems, ideas, and feedback. And please contribute your own knowledge as much as possible. Or contact us to start your own group.  Learn more...

# Bars To Load

When you add or edit a rule or value, sometimes you will be asked to fill in the "# Bars To Load" field. This value is used to determine how many price bars should be retrieved.

Less bars means faster processing, and so ATM tries to retrieve the minimum possible. When something like a simple moving average (SMA) is used, it's pretty easy to work out how many bars are required - if it's SMA(20) then ATM retrieves 20 bars.

But for other rules, e.g. those involving "previous SMA swing low", it's not possible to mathematically calculate the number of bars that will be required. Maybe the previous SMA swing low occurred 30 bars ago. Maybe 40. It's in these situations that you'll need to enter the value yourself. Choose a value big enough so that enough bars are going to be retrieved to do the calculation, but small enough so as not to slow ATM down.
 

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