Getting Started

“All Beginings are Hard”

nobody ever

Step 1

First, lets get you up to speed with the constructs & terminology. The following diagram outlines the main constructs which are detailed in the Concepts section of this documentation.

liu concepts

In a nutshell: * An Account holds cash-balance for Portfolio(s), * A Portfolio tracks trades over time (=batches), * A Batch is an execution of liu Framework during a specific trading day, * During an execution of the framework, strategies trade securities as part of a daily batch.

Step 1.5

Digging deeper, your trading day is made of two parts:

  1. Stock Selection, a.k.a Scanners,
  2. Executing Strategies on picked stocks.

Scanners feed Strategies a list of securities for them to act (or not act) upon. The list of stocks returned by Scanners can either be fixed or dynamic over time. You can define execution Windows for scanners, as well as their execution frequency within the selected windows.

Step 1.75

Once you understand these basics, the next step is to understand the mechanics of running an execution (either trading, or back-testing). LiuAlgoTrader uses JSON-like TOML file format to specify Scanners and Strategies for execution.

Don’t Panic!

Do you already have liu installed and configured? That’s Awesome! If you haven’t done so yet, jump to the Quickstart section to get the platform up and running, then get back here with us cool cats.

When you are ready, below is a recommended order for reading the rest of the documentation:

  1. Read the Configuration section to understand more on the structure of tradeplan.toml,
  2. Concepts section is detailed-packed, recommended to skim through it in your first read,
  3. Scanners section comes next, followed by Strategies
  4. When ready read the back-testing section (note it’s marked in Bold)

As a next step, it’s time to start writing your first strategy/scanner and take liu for a test-drive.

Resources

If you hit a road-block, or something is not clear, check out:

  • The issues section on GitHub
  • You can always message me on the liu Glitter chat room, and I’ll do my best to help.

Using Tradier

Finding Tradier tokens

Tradier is integrated as both a data provider and a brokerage for trading.

To use Tradier, an account number and access token are required.

It is possible to use Tradier for trading while using other providers for data (Polygon, Alpaca).

Read more about Tradier data capabilities.

Tradier Brokerage customers can get their access tokens from here.

Tradier support writes:

“You can enable API access for your accounts within the Tradier Dash application. If you’re already logged in, you can find the “API Access” section under “Settings,” or you may click the following link to log in: https://dash.tradier.com/login?redirect=settings.api and be redirected.

You will be able to create a production developer token for all your accounts and a single paper-trading account that can be used for development and testing. If you have any questions or issues with the API, please email us at techsupport@tradier.com.”

How to find Tradier token

Configure Tradier for trading

To use Tradier for trading, make sure to set the following environment variables:

  • TRADIER_BASE_URL : Brokerage base URL. The default value is sandbox (”https://sandbox.tradier.com/v1/”).
  • TRADIER_WS_URL: Websocket base URL. The default value is “wss://ws.tradier.com/v1/”.
  • TRADIER_ACCOUNT_NUMBER: The unique Tradier account id.
  • TRADIER_ACCESS_TOKEN: The API access token. See details about how to obtain.
  • LIU_BROKER: Set to “tradier” for Tradier to be considered the default broker.

Configure Tradier for data

  • TRADIER_BASE_URL : Brokerage base URL. The default value sandbox (”https://sandbox.tradier.com/v1/”).
  • TRADIER_WS_URL: Websocket base URL. The default value is “wss://ws.tradier.com/v1/”.
  • TRADIER_ACCOUNT_NUMBER: The unique Tradier account id.
  • TRADIER_ACCESS_TOKEN: The API access token. See details about how to obtain.
  • DATA_CONNECTOR: Set to “tradier” to make it the default data provider.