MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and Backtesting

Hi, could I have some clarification please on how RT candles are built? In the Quote Manager fields to collect menu I see tick, minute and day. Are the minute and day open and closes determined locally, on my computer, or do they come from the data provider? I’m wondering why anything other than tick is offered if the candles are built locally.

Thanks for any help.

Hello Darob,

Each data feed supplies different types of data and works its own way, Which one are you interested in?

Hi Henry, I’m interested in whichever ones match how Portfolio Trader receives data and builds its candles. I have strategies running on 3 minute and 15 minute data series.

Darob,

Which data provider do you use?

I'm using IB via TWS (not Gateway) if that makes a difference. Thanks

Darob,

Quote Manager “Fields to collect” menu and how Portfolio Trader receives data and builds its candles are two different things.
“Fields to collect” menu is the configuration for “Collect RT Data w/o Plotting” feature. You can learn more about it here:
https://www.multicharts.com/trading-sof ... Collection

Portfolio Trader first loads historical data, then subscribes to realtime data:
https://www.multicharts.com/trading-sof ... s_Database

IB supplies realtime tick and daily data. Realtime minute bars are not provided, therefore they are built from ticks. They are not saved to the database because the bar can be different from the actual historical minute bar. Therefore MultiCharts requests the minute data from IB server next time you request this information.
The timestamps of the realtime bars can be assigned by the platform or received from IB servers – if you have "Use server timestamps" enabled under the Real-Time section then the Time for "Trade" quote field is taken from IB servers. This option does not apply to Ask and Bid data for Forex symbols which always use PC time:
https://www.multicharts.com/trading-sof ... ve_Brokers

Hi Henry, thanks for the explanations. So if I understand correctly there’s no point in collecting data in Quote Manager for symbols you want available for use in Portfolio Trader because it’ll get replaced by IB’s historical bars when they’re available? So how is data collected in Quote Manager meant to be used? Is it just for managing multiple charts?

I think an option to save local realtime bars would be helpful from a backtesting/optimization point of view precisely because historical bars can be different. No idea though how practical this is to implement esp across multiple resolutions.

Darob,

The bars you collect using this feature will not be replaced with historical data from your data provider (unless you Reload the chart).

As "Online Mode Data Collection" page I have mentioned below states:
“Collect RT Data w/o Plotting” option is useful if you are using a feed that provides only a short period of historical data or no historical at all. It also helps to save realtime bars into database to avoid backfilling historical bars (which can be different from RT bars) from the data vendor's servers. You can build up a local library of historical data by collecting RT data for the symbols you need, without needing to constantly open and maintain all charts every single day. Note: The option collects only real time data from the moment you enable it for the symbol, only while QuoteManager is up and running.

Thanks for your patience Henry. So if you run PT and QM concurrently, are you trading and backtesting on the same locally built bars (up to the start of data collection in QM)?

darob,

In case of IB data connection - realtime minute bars are built out of tick data.

Yes I got that. Henry, if you could please answer the following question yes or no we'll be good.

if you run PT and QM concurrently, are you trading and backtesting on the same locally built bars (up to the start of data collection in QM)?

Yes I got that. Henry, if you could please answer the following question yes or no we'll be good.

if you run PT and QM concurrently, are you trading and backtesting on the same locally built bars (up to the start of data collection in QM)?

Yes.