Why TradingBlox is so Awesome

TradingBlox is a relatively expensive piece of software that you've (probably) never heard of. You may never use it. But I still think you should know about it.

I've been passionate about the financial markets for years. Later I'll explain this month why you should at least know something about them. I had the pleasure of working at Carmichael and Company LLC and learned a great deal about trading from Ralph Carmichael. It excited a passion in me. This passion was fueled by books like: Market Wizards, Reminisces of a Stock Operator and The Way of the Turtle. Also this little PDF about the original Turtle trading rules really helped.

After trying to program my own recreation of the Turtle rules, I stumbled upon TradingBox. It did everything I wanted and more. It has an amazing community. It supports trading & optimizing multiple markets with the same system (which was a pain -- if not impossible -- using TradeStation).

TradingBlox lets you program trading rules to buy & sell Futures (or Forex / Stocks). Below is my own brief outline on the TradingBlox structure.

"Blox" are simply snippets of code that are broken into various categories, including:


  • Entry and Exit -- signals when to enter or exit
  • Entry Only -- signals when to enter
  • Exit Only -- signals when to exit
  • Entry, Exit and Money [Manager] -- signals when to enter, exit & how much to trade
  • Money Manager -- determines how much to trade
  • Portfolio Manager -- determines which markets you should trade
  • Risk Manager -- adjusts / monitors your overall risk of existing positions
  • Auxiliary -- for miscellaneous & reusable code


Right now, I want to just focus on an Entry & Exit Block. Let's take a look at a very simple one that uses 2 Moving Averages to determine when to buy & sell. We buy at the exact day that short moving average crosses over the long moving average.


VARIABLES: currentclose, stopPrice TYPE: Price

' Get the current close.
currentClose = instrument.close

' If we are not long and the faster moving averages are above the slower one.
IF instrument.position <> LONG AND
 shortMovingAverage > longMovingAverage THEN

  ' Enter a long on the open with no stop.
  broker.EnterLongOnOpen
ENDIF

' If we are not short and the faster moving averages are below the slower one.
IF instrument.position <> SHORT AND
 shortMovingAverage < longMovingAverage THEN

  ' Enter a short on the open with no stop.
  broker.EnterShortOnOpen
ENDIF



Makes sense, right? TradingBlox is extremely powerful & I'm going to be sharing more about Trading, Mechanical Systems & the Markets in general in the near future. It's what I really get excited about & its what I really love.

In the meantime, check out: TradingBlox

Comments

jt715 said…
TradingBlox looks awesome, I will have to check it out. I recently started a more in depth financial self education. I look forward to hearing what you have to say about the markets.
May 3, 2010 at 5:38 PM
Shane Wisdom said…
Trading Blox is an excellent platform for system trading. If you need Trading Blox consultation or execution support visit www.wisdomfinancialinc.com. We are a Trading Blox Support Broker.
March 19, 2012 at 10:23 AM
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