ShilohCat:
I am using Windows NT for this application.
<<The system decided the amount of shares to buy and in what form to place the trade, too?>>
Yes, I guess you could say that. Actually the system did exactly what it was programmed to do. The system can be programmed to trade any specific number of shares, or choose a round lot number of shares based on the total desired cost of the trade, or choose the highest round lot number of shares based on the outstanding buying power of the account.
Essentially, you just enter into the computer HOW you want to trade, and it follows your instructions precisely when the opportunity arises. I must admit that I was a bit nervous for the first entirely automated trade, but that was because it was the FIRST automated trade. You never know if you may run across a programming error on your first test of something...
<<What, if any, fail-safe system are you using?>>
I'll mention just a few:
1) I have an ON/OFF selector for when I want to turn off the "real" trading and continue to papertrade.
2) It keeps a list of all open orders and open positions. It will not initiate a new trade in a stock if there is an outstanding open position or order in the same stock.
3) There are many features to monitor for communications errors with the broker and notify the trader if such a problem were to arise.
These are a few of the highlights. In short, we program in a new safety feature every time we think of a new one that would be useful. That's the great part about developing something yourself, the sky is the limit on what you get.
Happy Trading,
-Eric |
