Adjustable step values and speeds

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Khan
Posts: 137
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2023 10:21 am

Adjustable step values and speeds

Post by Khan »

Hi,

I backtest manually, usually on the 5M time frame these days. I set the Step value on the toolbar to M1 so I can see each bar on 5M forming as if I'm trading almost live, rather than stepping bar by bar. This is all good.

One problem I'm having is that whenever I change time frames, the Step value is automatically changed to match the newly chosen time frame. I can see why this is; when people change the time frame, they would expect the Step change accordingly so when they step forward, they step forward one bar on the new time frame.

The reason I'm changing time frames is, I'm looking at the bigger picture so to speak and get back to 5M to trade there, but I have to manually change the Step value back to M1 each time.

In addition to these woes, replay speed stepping setting has 5 levels. The lowest level is painfully slow and the 2nd level is too fast. On higher time frames this isn't that much of an issue because I can set the Step to M1 and trade on M15, but I can't do that on M5 because I can only have M1 as the smallest step.

In light of these issues, I have following suggestions:
  1. Adding a setting under Options where we can set "x number of steps per minute" for each of the 5 speed levels, so we can adjust them exactly to our preferences.

    Here, "per minute" is real time (our time), not backtest time.
  2. Step value increase/decrease shortcuts: These shortcuts would adjust the step value according to the values we have set in the Timeframes tab in Data Center. If we are currently on a M5 step, increasing the step value would change it to M15 (assuming M15 is the next step).

    Also adding an option to "keep step constant on time frame changes" would be useful, so we won't have to set step value again and again whenever we change time frames.
  3. Replay speed increase/decrease shortcuts: So we don't have to click on the slider on the toolbar.
  4. Time left to bar close: This is a very useful information to have and I use them on all my trading software.

    While I step forward, don't know how much time is left for that bar's close. Remaining time should be displayed somewhere. TradingView shows remaining time to bar close below Bid and Ask prices on the price axis. It uses 00:00 format (mins:secs) for remaining time that is less than 1 hour, 00:00:00 format (hours:mins:secs) for less than 1 day, and "0d 0h" format for values larger than that.

    For example, if we are looking at a 5M chart and step value is set to M1, and I already have skipped 3 steps (so only 2 steps left), remaining time to bar close should be 02:00 (2 minutes).
  5. Time frames below M1: This would give us more resolution and more fine grained control on M1 and M5 trading. Since this is already on the roadmap, consider this as a vote on that.

    As an added bonus, if we set Step value to 1 second and set "x number of steps per minute" to 60, it would be as if we are trading real time in a real market! I think that would be a great feature to have.
  6. Step value should be saved with the backtest. Currently it is not saved because it depends on the selected time frame.
Thank you for your attention. I hope you find these feature requests useful. I'm especially hyped for #5; trading markets real time like that is an immensely useful thing. This way people can trade markets on weekends as if the markets are still open.
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