Ask HN: Is anybody doing algo Forex trading? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is anybody doing algo Forex trading?

1 pointjetti2 comments

I'm looking into doing some algo forex trading and am curious if there is anybody here who also participates in specifically forex algo trading.

For those who do, I have a few questions that aren't going to give away your algorithm.

  1. How did you get your data to backtest? I'm using Oanda and they have historical data but it doesn't seem to work right (probably an issue on my side) but a csv dump would be ideal.

  2. How long are your periods? I was thinking of going 5 to 15 minutes but don't know if that is too short.

I'm sorry you're not getting much of a response. May I suggest consulting the forums at https://forum.wilmott.com ? The participants there are extremely knowledgeable financial industry professionals. It sounds like your just starting out so maybe it's not too late to give you my two cents. FX trading is unsuitable for outsiders because unlike the securities markets which are heavily regulated and somewhat centralized, FX brokers are difficult to catch in the act of deliberately giving you a bad price or execution because no one can verify the conditions that prevailed at the moment of your trade. If you find the perfect algorithm, your outsize returns will come to the attention of intermediaries with sticky fingers.

Thank you for your response. Forex was appealing to me because of the lower amount needed to start, lower commissions (the broker I am looking at uses the spread) and no day trading regulations. Perhaps I will start doing securities instead of forex.

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