Instruments not available in demo account

[Guest Stef]

Hi,

 

I've developed a couple of trading strategies in ProRealTime that I would like to forward test for a period before taking them live.
To do this, I was planning on setting them up in ProOrder to run on my demo account.

 

Problem is that the data feeds that I pay for on my live account are not available on my demo account??

 

I'm not willing to run these strategies live without an incubation period first. So how do I do this?

 

Like I said, I already pay for the feed, so it does not make sense that it should not be available.

Regards
Stef

[Guest Stef]

anyone?

[Guest Stef]

Why is ProRealTime's PaperTrading module not available in the version supplied by IG? This would have solved (prevented) the "problem." This is exactly why the PaperTrading module exists!

 

https://www.prorealtime.com/en/papertrading-trading-simulation

https://trading.prorealtime.com/en/automatic-trading

 

 

[Guest Stef]

The solution from IG at the moment is that the feed can be made available on my demo account, but:

- for a limited time (two months) only 

- and I have two pay for the two months in advance

 

Wow, great solution!

 

Not only will I have to pay for the data feed twice (and in advance in the case of the demo account), I also have no way going forward after two months should I want to develop and test more strategies.

 

I honestly feel that if you want to remove the paper trading functionality from ProRealTime, then you have to provide an alternative way of doing this.

 

 At the moment,

 

IG PROVIDES NO FEASIBLE WAY TO TEST DEVELOPED STRATEGIES!

 

This is a huge hole in your offering.

[Guest Stef]

Even more confusing...

 

On my live account, I can get 15 min delayed data at no charge. But, one my demo account I can get NO DATA unless I pay for the L1 feed... in advance... for a limited period...

 

Again, please let me know how I can forward test my strategies in a demo environment, if you have decided not to include PRT's PaperTrading module, and are unwilling/unable to make any data available for testing without wanting to charge for data for which I have already paid?

 

I don't see that IG is very forthcoming with any solutions on this!

 

Regards

Stef

 



 

 

[Guest Stef]

 Can someone from IG respond please?

[Guest DanC]

Hi ,

 

Apologies for the delay on this one. 

 

Currently we are only able to display equity data on CFD demo accounts for two weeks, and after this time we have to disable access. I'm afraid the charge you pay to enable the feeds only extends to your Live accounts, not your demo account at present. 

 

In regards to the paper trading module on ProRealTime, this is not something that is available through the version offered via IG, nor are there any current plans to offer this this in the near future.

 

To test your strategies on equities, you can always make use of the ProBacktest module available through the ProRealTime charts. I do understand the points you have raised however, and will pass these onto our exchange team for future consideration.

 

Thanks,
Dan

[Guest Stef]

Hi . You know as well as I that PRT's backtester has some severe limitations (like lack of look-inside-bar testing) and cannot be relied upon without live testing a strategy first. ProOrder and ProBacktest do not behave the same way and do not produce the same results currently.

 

More than that though... This is not the proper way to develop automated strategies.

 

After backtesting, and optimising (and unfortunately likely overoptimising and curve-fitting) your strategy, the next step is to forward test the system on live market data (preferably in a demo environment) for a period before taking it live.

 

Please answer the following questions:

1) How do I do the above using IG?

2) Why does IG not provide or plan on providing the paper trading module?

 

Regards

Stef

[Guest Stef]

Hi ,

 

Will you please also respond to the following?

 

Why can one not have 15min delayed and/or end-of-day equity data in your demo account?

 

This would solve the problem and there should not be any issue with providing this.

 

You can already get this for free on most other trading platforms, and web sites; Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, Standard Bank Online, and many many others.

 

For forward testing a strategy you do not need an L1 or L2 feed.

 

Why not make delayed or end of day data available in demo?

 

Regards
Stef

 

[Guest DanC]

Hi ,

 

The agreements we have in place at present only allow us to display equity data on demo CFD accounts for a maximum two weeks. We do provide a large range of instruments to test in our demo environment, it's just equities where we are limited at present.

 

I do understand you points regarding the backesting functionality, and ProRealTime are currently working to improve this feature. Nonetheless, I'll check with our team in regards to your queries on paper trading.

 

Thanks,
Dan

 

 

 

 

[Guest Stef]

. At the moment (for these strategies) I am specifically interested in equities.

[Guest Stef]

Hi ,

 

Can you give me some feedback on this?

 

I do not see any way (paid or otherwise) that I can forward test automated (equities-based) trading strategies making use of the IG PRT combo. And not many ideas are forthcoming from IG. Is my only solution to look elsewhere - PRT-direct or other broker/platform providers?

 

Regards

Stef

[Guest DanC]

Hi ,

 

We're going to discuss with IT-Finance whether it will be feasible to add paper trading to the IG ProRealTime offering. At present  there are no other alternatives to forward test strategies on CFD equities once these have expired on demo accounts I'm afraid.

 

Dan