ATM

This release essentially finishes everything other than automated trading. Admittedly this is kind of funny due to the fact that this is automated trading software :-) But think of it like a pyramid, where everything builds up and feeds into the auto-trading part at the tip.

There are some things you should do after upgrading:

• The messaging area has all changed, so you should check the messaging options (Admin > Options) and broadcast settings (Admin > Broadcast Settings).
• FXCM has changed their timestamps from EST to GMT. Backtesting results will not change, but if you plan on making synthetic bars then I recommend to redownload price history for 2-Hourly to 12-Hourly bars, and also Daily, Weekly, Monthly.

Here is the full list of changes:

Added in v3.0.3

• FXCM - recurring price history and account info downloads.
• Indicator-based alerts, price alerts.
• Helper fields on Indicator window (just like Column window).
• More search criteria on Data Managers - checkboxes for the 4 gathering methods.
• Can be smarter with the Holiday search.
• Change New File wizard so it checks to see if the chosen settings file or any of its associated price history files need upgrading.
• Option on Indicator Test window to only get the smallest number of bars.
• Completed tasks (file load, interval creation, backtest) context menu - "recreate task". Especially useful if a task errors.
• Have checkboxes on Alerts, Systems, Backtest Config entries, so that price data actually used is the same, regardless of the ones chosen on each rule.
• Backtest result window - error message appears if choose not to chart all of the icons, as the max value of the progress bar is set by the visible ones, while the counter is updated for all.
• Interval of price data selected in Auto-Trading section and Backtest Config entry needs to be equal to or smaller than the minimum interval used for all the rules/values.
• New broadcast centre. Ways to be notified of new messages:
  • Email
  • SMS
  • Twitter
  • Growl
  • Snarl
  • Notify.io
  • Notifo
  • Popup-notifier
  • Icon in the system tray

Fixed in v3.0.3

• 399 - creation of synthetic price bars does not work.
• 401 - each rule of a trading system should be able to check different price data.
• 403 - alerting does not work
• 413 - Indicators list on Chart window doesn't include Volume panel.
• Other miscellaneous bug fixes.

The next release of ATM will have enhanced messaging capabilities. There used to be just email and SMS as ways to be notified when trading systems and alerts did stuff. And a popup-notifier and/or system tray for when there were unread messages.

v3.0.3 will see messages being sent by any combination of your choosing from:

• email
• SMS
• Twitter
• Growl
• Snarl
• Notify.io
• Notifo

And of course the popup-notifier and system tray icon.

Growl, Snarl, and Notify.io are all "notification handlers", which receive messages from a variety of different sources and pass them on to you via whatever method you choose - be that just an alert on your computer, or they forward via email, SMS or whatever. So if there's a way to be notified, I'm pretty sure ATM can now handle it - if not directly then certainly indirectly through these notification handlers.

I know what you're saying. "That's cool Sharky, but enough already with the ancillary stuff! Give us automated trading!". And you're right, Mr Shouty. Dead right.

The truth is, FXCM is all connected. But then I found out about a pesky thing known as NFA Compliance Rule 2-43(b).

This rule was enacted in the U.S. quite a few months ago. But stoopid Sharky had his nose buried too deep in programming to bother reading forums anymore. So one day he updates the files that FXCM gave him, and suddenly there's all this stuff about Rule 2-43(b).

It threw us a little.

This rule changed the game a little with respect to currency trading. It says that trades opened in a currency must be closed in the order that they were opened. Open trade #1, open trade #2, open trade #3, and they must be closed first trade #1, then trade #2, then trade #3.

This is a big deal because of stop losses and take profits. Let's say trade #1 had a stop loss that was 500 pips away from the entry price. And let's say trade #3 had a stop loss just 10 pips away. There's a very real chance that trade #3 would be closed first. Which is not allowed.

Some brokers have rejiggered their backends (ahem) so that traders don't have to worry about that. Although the trader might be closing trade #3 first, the brokers work behind the scenes and do some mathematical/accounting magic to ensure that actually it was trade #1 that gets closed and the trader is none the wiser.

FXCM took a different approach. Basically they took the approach of them not doing anything differently, removed the ability for traders to place stop losses and take profits on individual trades, and said that if you want to keep trading as before then you can always use FXCM Australia or FXCM UK (both countries having solid financial regulatory bodies but not the first-open-first-close rule).

Being able to attach a stop loss and/or take profit to a particular trade is 100% necessary for ATM's style of trading. You might have 3 trading systems, all with different rules, all backtested separately, but all trading in EUR/USD. One trading system might have a longer-term outlook and put the stop loss 500 pips away. Another might be very short-term and put the stop loss 10 pips away. There is no way to group these trades together as being a single "position", as FXCM in the U.S. wants us to.

So, the question that we have struggled with, and the reason for the delay, is what do we do? :-)

I'm thinking we'll probably release a version that can trade with FXCM Australia or FXCM UK. But I'm also thinking we'd still need to add another broker which can trade in U.S. accounts.

Anyway, I delayed having to make a decision by focusing on the new messaging stuff. But that's almost finished so we'll have to devise a plan fairly shortly. Stay tuned.

By the way, how's the backtesting going? If you need help, advice, want to brag about your results or ask "can this be right?" then use the forums.
 

So-called because all work and no play made Sharky a little bit crazy(ier).

Fixed are a whole slew of bugs present in the initial release. A few people in particular started to understand the full meaning of an "alpha release" :-) One guy told me about a bug so I directed him down a different path, only for there to be a bug there as well... It's kind of funny, as long as you're not him. But all the bugs reported to me by customers, plus more, are now fixed.

Here is the full list of changes:

Added in v3.0.1

• New custom indicator - Chandelier Stops.
• The ordering of fields in Gain Capital text files of historical prices changed. The change was that they moved the seemingly superfluous "D" (I know what it's for but I've never seen it not be "D") from the end of the line to the second field. Thanks guys. We added another option to choose from in the File Loader window.
• Gain Capital now offers text files of historical prices for these spot commodities: XAU/AUD, XAU/CHF, XAU/EUR, XAU/GBP (also XAG/USD and XAU/USD, but we already included these).
• ATM can be started via the command-line, with a few possible command-line arguments.
• Once the settings file has finished loading, you can get ATM to run an executable or batch file of your choosing, passing it optional command-line arguments.
• All documentation on this website is now up-to-date (except screenshots).

Fixed in v3.0.1

• 400 - does not handle XAU/USD (Gold) properly
• 405 - link on Price History tab of Options window does not go anywhere
• 406 - checks for FXCM files in ATM installation directory
• 407 - can delete a custom indicator even if it's being used
• 408 - too many options in Indicator's corresponding column setting
• 551 - date range is empty error when downloading from FXCM
• 552 - MACD doesn't need a signal period
• 553 - creating price bars is ridiculously slow
• 554 - editing trading rule both fails and succeeds
• 555 - creating price bars from other price bars doesn't work
• 556 - number of bars required field not used
• 557 - loading Gain Capital text files doesn't work
• 558 - reverse the result option not being utilised
• 559 - creating custom indicators
• 560 - enter and exit at market
• 561 - bunch of backtesting bugs
• Other miscellaneous bug fixes.

So ummm... v3 is out :-)

10 months in the making, v3 is a complete rewrite of v2. For all intensive purposes they are completely different applications.

To put it succinctly, v3 is automated trading software done right. We took all our experience from making v1 and v2, added that to most of the customer suggestions over 3 or 4 years, and also got rid of all the weird / nasty / annoying bits.

This is just an alpha release though, so don't expect a finished product. Having said that, it should be completely usable. And if you get in on the ground floor, you can have a say in the direction the software goes from here.

Of course, there is bound to be that 1 bug which will take about 30 seconds to fix but which prevents everyone from using it... Just the nature of making software. In that case we'll have a fix out almost immediately.

New releases are always available on the downloads page.

Note:

• There is no upgrade path from v2 to v3. They are too different to have made that worthwhile. However, you can export your price history to text files using v2, and import those text files using v3. Users, accounts, trading systems, etc, all need to be re-entered manually.
• Use the forum for help. If you send us an email for technical support, our answer helps only you. Ask it in the forum and our answer helps everyone. Therefore, starting right now, all technical support questions via email will be answered with a canned response of "please use the forum".

Added in v3.0.0

• Not going to list it all because seriously everything changed.

We hope you all had a good 2009 and have an even better 2010.

Back in April or so we decided to tear down our software and start again. The rebuild has been a long journey. However at the end we are left with better code, better features, and a better product. Moreover, adding new features, new indicators, and new brokers to trade with from here on in will be much simpler.

But none of that really means much because you are yet to have anything to play with. And that's pretty much because when we near completion, I say "hey, you know what we should do is..." The most recent end to that sentence was "have it so dates show up in any timezone the customer wants, rather than just GMT". And one-sentence changes like that sometimes take a really long time. Like that one-sentence change did :-)

So I'm going to stop trying to make v3.0.0 "perfect", because it is just going to be an alpha release after all, and instead pump it out, use it as a base, and build on it incrementally.

Also in 2009 we got a new website, with forums. But of course everyone's scared to be the first to post in a shiny new forum :-)

Best wishes for the new year.