# Automated trading



## Mr J (25 October 2009)

I'm curious to whether anyone here leaves their automated systems unattentended, and if so, what precautions would you advise? Ideally I'd want it to be hands off so I could run it while I'm out, asleep etc. 

First of all, what could go wrong? 

- If the internet, power, computer, program go down, it should just mean that's it until I'm there to fix it. Exit orders would already be transmitted, so unless the broker has problems, I should be okay.

- What if the broker goes down and I'm in a position? I remember earlier this year there was a blackout in the city, and IB went down. Much of my trading is on a timeframe where if that happened and the market moved decently, I would be facing a large loss. Possibly 10-20%. I don't think I can get around this.

- News? Seems to me that I would have to have the system sit out at specified times (news releases).

- Keep a small balance, so when margin is used during big moves, the position is closed. Kind of like a stop loss against disasters (and this would require the inital stop not to trigger).

Is it just a bad idea for an unsophisticated retail trader to have intraday systems running overnight?


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## nulla nulla (25 October 2009)

Mr J said:


> I'm curious to whether anyone here leaves their automated systems unattentended, and if so, what precautions would you advise? Ideally I'd want it to be hands off so I could run it while I'm out, asleep etc.
> 
> First of all, what could go wrong?
> 
> ...




You might consider asking "Storming Norman" who designs his own automated systems, the last one i heard of was code named "Bunyip". I'm not sure he has it set up for paper traders though.


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## nulla nulla (25 October 2009)

Correction: "Storman Norman" is the one to contact in repsect of automated trading programs.


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