Questions-on-WL8-from-pre-Fidelity-days-user

Hey Darp, welcome back!!

>>1. The WL founders rebot WL from Fid? When?<<
It's been about 2 years ago now.

>>2. See vid that it works with IB to autotrade, how about Fidelity which has much better commisions? Is there a list of which brokers it can link into?<<
Fidelity doesn't offer any API, so sadly it's not possible to build a connection to them until they do.

>>3. In old days there was the next bar issue, that if a signal happens during a 1 day ar it would not buy or sell untill next day, is that still the case?<<
Yes, generally you need a bar to close in order to make any trading decisions based on closing price, which most WL systems do. You can always use limit and/or stop orders to achieve intra-bar trading, and if you have some specific situation you're concerned about let us know and maybe there's already a solution.

>>4. What would be the biggest changes since it went independant from Fid?<<
It's a ground-up re-write, the biggest changes are:
1. The backtester now operates in truly portfolio-level synchronized mode, instead of older WL versions running simulations symbol by symbol and then aggregating the results. This allows more dynamic strategies to be realized.
2. The Building Block concept has been changed to focus on a much smaller number of Blocks, but each Block having much more flexibility.
3. Many things are now expressed as Indicators, which were not before. This makes them easier to use in the Building Block designer without requiring a clutter of more customized Blocks.
4. Exciting new tools, in particular the Strategy Genetic Evolver.
5. Currently running on a more modern .NET6 framework, and we'll update to .NET7 at some point too.

Thanks Glitch, remember you.

1. Outside of IB what other brokers can be used for automation without programing? On IB it is not just a commisions issue, they do not get as good of fills as say Fidelity or ETrade. Hope there are more brokers it can work on.

2. On last bar if you can backtest say 3 years back with 5 min bars, then pretty much you can do anything you want to. Can I backtest that far with 5 min bars?
2B. Another example of same bar trades, say once a strat achieves at target of say 3% gain it, could the exit see the prior bar low -.02 so if it is cruising upward that the stop keeps geting racheted up, so maybe I end up with a 5% gain, and it can exit midbar as it is a stop? Am I correct in assuming that?

3. Glitch just about when Jim Simmons started I got the same idea but did not have his resources, but designed such a system. After watching several of your videos it seems much of what I wanted to do has been done in the latest version. Thanks for doing this. The genetic stuff, self optimization, breeding, etc.

4. Hope it can do options, I tend to do option spreads, especially on short side to reduce risk. Can WL place an option trade (and a 2 leg spread?) with a signal?

5. Lastly say I get something working well on IB, can I do a macro to something to send to Fidelity, even though they do not have an API? Anyone ever create their own interface?

Cheers

Edit, see Alpaca too now, no commisions, is that it for other brokers?

1. Alpaca, Tradier, and TDAmeritrade. TDA is transitioning to Schwab, so they're not onboarding new customers for API use (that's why we took down the Extension). When the transition is complete, we'll have a solution for Schwab.

2. If you have the data and memory for it, you can backtest to the beginning of time.

2B. Of course, that's very standard logic.

4. You can Auto-Trade options with IB. Keep in mind that no provider that we're aware of supplies the oodles of historical option price data that would be required for backtest, but you can get (and save) data for current contracts.

Tradier has options, but I'm not certain of the status of Auto-Trade options there. Also note that Tradier has EOD and Streaming data, but not intraday historical, so you'd need another source for that with Tradier.

More about data -
https://wealth-lab.com/blog/wealthlab-data-providers

5. It's not possible to autheticate third-party apps with Fidelity.

Thanks Cone. I just found Tradier and was about to post here.

They are .35 on options, they say. If true very good.

1. On Schwab I hope so, that would be nice.

2. Got you. From past I know you have a bunch of data. Roughly how far back can you go back on 5 min data on stocks with WL data?

4. Cool. I do not need option data, I would backtest on stock/etf to get results, then substitute an option spread for stock in actual autotrading. I know how it will act.

Realize options is more complicated, as instead of buy stock at market, it would be buy call that is 3 weeks out that is nearest strike to current shareprice. And if spread, do the same and sell a 2 week call that is 2 strikes up from first one, as a spread at market. That is complicated, but you say it does trade options, so guessing you have something like that?
Thanks for link. I am looking at all sorts of things on and off your site now, about WL. Wish you guys the best of success. Think you are an insider as remember you from old days, but maybe an old customer like me.

5. I am an inventor with many patents, am thinking of maybe creating somthing to talk to Fidelity thru user interface, as in move mouse to buy stock, fill in symbol, etc. Maybe never do, but that was the thought, reverse data scrapping.

Thanks for info again. See all sorts of good things. The idea of puting your own data in such as snowfall, etc., That is Jim Simmons type stuff.

Cheers

2. We don't provide any intraday data ourselves. See link above for info about other intraday data providers.

4. You'll need a BarHistory for a strategy to fire off a trade, but if it's for placing a live trade only, the strategy could just generate it's own dummy price history.

4a. The option chain is built for IB, so you can identify specific contracts in strategies. A more general solution is still pending feature request: https://wealth-lab.com/Discussion/Option-chains-and-Greeks-9397

Thanks! On option data, I do have IB accts. That would be nice.