FXCM

This tutorial starts from a brand new settings file and goes through to downloading historical prices from FXCM.

It assumes:

1. You installed the FXCM bits when you installed ATM.
2. You started ATM, created a new settings file, opened it, and ATM is sitting there ready to go.
3. You used this information to go and open an FXCM demo account, and also you logged in to that account using the FXCM trading platform and got your account number.

In this tutorial:

1. Try to download prices, but realise you need to create a Data Manager entry first.
2. Try to create a Data Manager entry, but realise you need to create a User first.
3. Enter the FXCM demo user and account details.
4. Create the Data Manager entry for EUR/USD, Daily, FXCM.
5. Start the download.

This is the opposite order to that demonstrated in this video tutorial. But actually the method on this current page is more intuitive and also works out to be a bit quicker.

Anyway... let's download some EUR/USD Daily bars...

Click here to watch the video, and use the browser's back button to come back. Or click here to open in a new window.
 

See also:

• Video: Backtesting

This tutorial starts from a brand new settings file and goes through to downloading historical prices from FXCM.

It assumes:

1. You installed the FXCM bits when you installed ATM.
2. You started ATM, created a new settings file, opened it, and ATM is sitting there ready to go.
3. You used this information to go and open an FXCM demo account, and also you logged in to that account using the FXCM trading platform and got your account number.

This tutorial does these things:

1. Enters the FXCM demo user and account details.
2. Creates the Data Manager entry for EUR/USD, Daily, FXCM.
3. Starts the download.

We, as creators of the software, know the pre-requisites and create them first. However, a normal person just knows that they want to download prices, so they might try that first without entering any of the pre-requisite information. There's a sister video tutorial doing it that way as well.

Ok, so... let's download some EUR/USD Daily bars...

Click here to watch the video, and use the browser's back button to come back. Or click here to open in a new window.
 

See also:

• Video: Backtesting

ATM can only log in to one FXCM account at any one time.

If you've setup ATM to run in many FXCM accounts, then ATM will have to log out from one, then log in to another, before it can place any trades.

Logging in to the FXCM trading platform, you can notice a distinct pause after you click the "login" button, while all your account information is downloaded and displayed. ATM has to download that same information and will have the same pause while it does so.

For example, when ATM downloads the account information for all FXCM accounts you have set up, here's what happens:

1. Log in to account #1 (with the noticeable pause)
2. Log out from account 1
3. Log in to account #2 (with the noticeable pause)
4. etc.

Logging out doesn't take long. So ATM will stay logged in wherever possible, in the hope that the next action it has to perform is for the same FXCM user that it's already logged in with.

But how to get around this restriction? Is there a way to setup ATM to trade in multiple FXCM accounts on a single login? Here's what the FXCM forum says:

You can request to set up a PAMM account, which allows you to login to a manager account and trade for all accounts mapped under the manager account.

It is possible to have more than one account in the accounts window. Additional accounts would be set up through our sales and support team along with the necessary paperwork, whether they are additional accounts for you, or accounts of others' that you are managing. Contact admin@fxcm.com to start the process.

One note is that if the accounts are on different servers, they would require separate logins, even if they are both your accounts, or the account owners have assigned you power of attorney to trade their account.

(Noting that you would only be able to find out if your accounts are on different servers by contacting FXCM).

I imagine it would be almost impossible to include a demo account and a live account under the same login. It is recommended, if you want to auto-trade in both a live account and a demo account at the same time, that you install ATM twice in two different directories. Then run both 'instances' of ATM - one for the live FXCM account, and one for the demo account. You would not need to worry about doing this though, if you do not care about the lag time required when logging in/logging out.

It would be appreciated if you have gone through the steps to make this work, that you contact us and let us know the steps you took to get it all sorted.
 

When Downloading Prices

This restriction should not have a large effect if you are just downloading prices.

If a user is currently logged in to FXCM, ATM will simply use that current connection to get the streaming price downloads. If nobody is logged in at the present time, FXCM streaming prices logs in with the "best" FXCM user:

1. The first 'real' user it comes across
2. The first 'demo' user it comes across if there are no real ones.
    

When you create an account in ATM you have to enter an account number. Read below for what to enter, as it differs by broker.
 

FXCM

To find the account number, first log in to the FXCM trading platform. You should be able to see an "Accounts" section, with all your accounts listed there. For a demo account, there's probably only one account listed. Anyway, in that "Accounts" section, there should be an "Account" column. The value in that field is close to, but not the value you want to type into ATM.

First, if the account number has letters at the start, don't type them.

Second, if the account number has zeroes at the start, don't type them.

Third, if the number is longer than 8 digits, only type the last 8 digits.

So an account number like:

• 0012346 would be entered into ATM as 123456
• ABC000123456789 would be entered as 23456789
   

Oanda

To find the account number, first log in to the Oanda trading platform. Then from the main menu of that trading platform, click "Account", then choose "Change Account". You should now be able to see a list of your accounts. The number to enter in this field is the number in brackets. E.g. if it says something like "Primary (1234567)", then enter 1234567 in this field in ATM.
 

Gain Capital

Doesn't give out account numbers, so just enter 0 (zero).
 

Here's the page for their demo account:
http://www.fxcm.com/open-free-100k.jsp

And to open a live account:
http://www.fxcm.com/open-an-account.jsp

After you have created your live account, send an email to admin@fxcm.com and ask that hedging be switch on. Also ask that your live account be given Multi Session User Access. This lets you log in to both the FXCM trading platform and ATM at the same time. (Both are switched on by default for demo accounts).

But, here's what they say about Multi Session Access on a Micro account:

From a technical stand point, it is possible to connect to a micro account. We recommend multiple session access to API users since they normally log in more than once. The restriction of not allowing multiple session on micro accounts is due to the manually intensive process of doing the switch - not a technical restriction.

Thus you can still use the API on micro, just consider that if you log into the same API twice, one session will be kicked out. If you do not want this restriction, you would need to upgrade to a standard account.

For the one micro account, I believe you will be able to log in at the same to both the FXCM trading platform and ATM. But not two 'instances' of the FXCM platform at the same time, or two instances of ATM at the same time. It's probably not an issue.

See also:

• The FXCM API has a big restriction