The "best" way to work with Amibroker and IBKR?

AmiBroker
1

I'm new to Amibroker and new to Algo-type trading. I've been trading Options on IBKR and using Trading View (with Pine Script) for my charting and analysis work.
My plan is to move to Amibroker to be able to do more automated trading. I live in Australia and trade the US market - in our winter the market closes at 6am .
My experience using Amibroker with the data feed from TWS has been confusing (after 1 week). I thought I'd be able to stop using Trading View and I'd be able to use Amibroker instead. However the interface between Amibroker and TWS seems to be restrictive ie my access to daily, weekly etc charts is limited.
I could use an alternate data source to TWS. However I do pay quite a lot for real-time data from TWS. So, my questions:

  1. If I use an alternate data source will that give me the charting flexibility I'm looking for?
  2. Could I then stop paying for data from TWS and effectively do my trading from Amibroker? (I would have delayed data from IBKR making placing trades directly a hassle).
  3. Would this work for Options?

I hope this all makes sense. Thanks in advance.

2

Welcome, @bunkerBill
I don't know what data feed you had on Trading View, so I won't compare. But you should know that IBKR has implemented many limits to access data. It's a broker first, and a data provider second (actually data is provided by GFIS, a subsidiary). Read this for a better understanding:
Why do I receive a message stating market data is over the limit? | IB Knowledge Base.
Market Data | Interactive Brokers LLC
TWS API v9.72+: Historical Data Limitations
IBKR data feed is limited but cheap, actually. For a true data feed, see IQFeed or eSignal. Here's a comparison of the 3 services:
The Best Amibroker Datafeed Services in the USA - Features, Pros & Cons
I use IQFeed + IBKR.
Here are my answers:

  1. Yes, I think so, at least you can have a try

  2. Yes, but why, it's cheap. You don't need IBKR data feed for placing orders, you can have quotes and snapshots.

  3. Sure. But for trading options you don't need historical data, only last quotes and a good pricer.

Cheers.
PS: re your problem with weekly data, if you use IBKR data only it's better to create another database with End-Of-Day base time interval (possibly in a second instance of Amibroker)

4 Likes
3

Thanks mate - very helpful.

4

I've taken a trial of IQFeed and it works well. Fast to load and gives me weeklys and monthlys.

Thanks for your help.

5

Quick question @alligator - what version of TWS are you using?

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Thanks Andrew -version 981 is a bit clunky - but I'm happy to stick with it for the sake of stability.

8

I don't see any reason why you would call 981 clunky.