Hi there,

Can I use Wealth-Lab Pro to pick several symbols from an Auto Trader Pro filter and place buy orders?

Thanks.

If you can create a Watchlist at Fidelity.com with your filters, then you can import it as a DataSet in WLP.

But, if you're using an ATP filter and already know that you want to place buy orders for the results, then you should just use ATP for that type of discretionary trading.

I take it the importing has to be done manually? One of the reasons I'd like to automate this is that ATP does not let you place $ amount orders. You have to calculate the number of shares you want each time.

Ah, thanks for that insight. The import of a DataSet that you have out on Fidelity.com is a manual action. You just have to create a new Fidelity DataSet, select the option to Import from Fidelity.com, and name the DataSet. It only takes about 10 seconds.

Hi Cone

Bob here, how are things? I have updated my systems and the handcuffs are off, been using WLP but only from a visual perspective, don't think I will ever be an automated trader. I have a new appreciation for WLP that I did not have with the handcuffs on.

Please say hello to all.

Best regards,

Bob

Hi Bob. I'm trying to put a face with the name, but it's not coming to me. Did we meet at a Traders Expo?

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Oh it's that Bob. Now I'm with you and understand the handcuffs. Will say hello. Good luck out there!

Hello Cone, Eugene

Is there any way to send options trades to Active Trader Pro from Wealth Lab Pro? I have asked the Fidelity rep and they refereed me back to the forum. It will be great to be able to dynamically price options in WLP and send orders to Active Trader Pro from execution.

A year ago, I met with a Fidelity representative to discuss WLP and Active Trader Pro. I gave him a document having my view of WLP's strengths and weaknesses. The document ended with the following idea...

3) Consider marrying Wealth-Lab Pro and Active Trader Pro?
a) Make Wealth-Lab Pro a component of Active Trader Pro
b) Considerable design and implementation effort, but…
c) This could be the most powerful consumer trading tool on the planet!

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

What was Fidelity's response? Based on my discussions with their support stuff they seem to be a bit light on knowledge regarding WL Pro

There's been no response. i agree with light on knowledge. The rep seemed surprised by some of what we discussed. He's a field tech expert but I think he learned more from me than I did from him.

Guys, this isn't going to happen. They're different tools for different purposes. Am I wrong?

It's been a long time since I've looked at ATP (maybe I'll do it today!), but for the sake of the argument, where do you see ATP discretionary tools complementing WLP's programmatic trading and backtesting? Or vice-versa?

Cone

When I spoke to the fidelity folks, I asked them if there was an automatized way via scripting to place an options trade in ATP if the underlying moves a certain way or volatility changes in some manner...they said no..and the best you can do is place a limit order on the options...limit order on options is not the most efficient way as options prices are most closely affected by volatility and delta changes...in WLP you get streaming quotes of price (thereby delta) you can use this info to price an option using some options pricing model which can be coded up win WLP ....and decisions to buy or sell an option can be coded up in WLP and sent to ATP as a limit order for execution

Cone,

QUOTE:
Consider marrying Wealth-Lab Pro and Active Trader Pro?

... because they have much common functionality such as charting, ordering, account view, access to both EOD and streaming data. In the combination, WL strategies would get data from ATP, feed ATP's charts, and send orders to ATP.

ATP benefits from gaining strategy functionality. WL benefits from ATP's more modern user interface.

I would use the opportunity to fix WL's upside down Multi Symbol Backtest design. Rather than process a symbol at a time followed by the PosSizer, process all symbols together, bar by bar,running the PosSizer at each bar.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

I think it would be more productive to pursue the ability to trade options in Wealth-Lab Pro.

Now this is just me talking as 3rd-party support for a Fidelity product, but given that we can already backtest options in Wealth-Lab Pro, it doesn't seem like a huge stretch to add "live options trading" to the mix. The devil is always in the details, cost, business need, etc. but it's probably a better tack to follow than attempting to integrate Wealth-Lab with AT Pro. I'll see what I can find out.

I think having "limited" integration between Wealth-Lab Pro and Active Trader Pro is the best trade off. Simply have WL publish the stocks that are over 100% threshold in the WL Quotes window to ATP so trades can be placed from there.

I partially feel this way because the Fidelity phone consultants tell me most WL users already place their trades from ATP instead of WL now. In other words, they are already running both products side-by-side today.

The lesser reason to do this would be to employ ATP as an entry point into introducing WL to existing ATP users. From a marketing prospective, let your entry product (ATP) introduce and sell your more advanced product (WLP), which is a common and successful marketing practice.

The really lesser, third reason is to keep the two as independent applications to simplify future development. Supporting development on one giant application instead of two simpler applications is much more complex. Gee, Fidelity is struggling to fix existing bugs in WL today; imagine if WLP and ATP were combined what the backlog of bug fixes would be. Unix development/design was based on keeping OS apps simple and powerful and piping their results to each other to achieve the final integrated solution. This was the right choice.

QUOTE:
most WL users already place their trades from ATP instead of WL now

With the history of order placement issues, I can understand why this might be the case - but I hope we can change that. Many bug fixes are coming very soon, as is standard Fidelity authentication (same as ATP's authentication dialog), and a rewrite of WL's Fidelity broker provider is nearly complete. The proof will be in the pudding, but I'm very hopeful that the next build will bring back confidence in order automation.

Assuming that confidence is restored, is there another reason why you'd want to place orders from WLP quote triggers using ATP instead of from the source (Wealth-Lab)?

Cone

Having the ability to ability to trade options in Wealth-Lab Pro would be awsome... From the business standpoint, options is a fast growing area...MS123 should definitely look into this if it makes business sense for you all to add features which makes it easier for option trades

options is very mathematical and should be a natural fit for WL pro system....I have been looking to build my own system where I can run multiple random walk sample based on historical movements of a stock to correctly price options ( Fidelity does have something on the website called probability estimator but I do not think it does a Monte Carlo) ...to the best of my knowledge, no broker provides such tools out of the box....

QUOTE:
Assuming that confidence is restored,...

Yes, in talking with phone support, it sounds like there has been a WL confidence issue with placing orders via WL. But I exclusively place orders with WL, and I don't have any major gripes.

QUOTE:
is there another reason why you'd want to place orders from WLP quote triggers using ATP instead of from the source (Wealth-Lab)?

An interesting question. If you're a day trader and want to squeeze every penny out of each trade, then you may want to know the spread between the "bid" and "ask" price so you can determine what a market order would go for. ATP gives you that information. As a momentum trader, I don't need the bid and ask price when placing a market order.

ATP's "Time and Sales" and "Level 2 Quotes" might be useful inputs to intraday strategies. Hmmm

Hey, I can dream, can't I?