What is WealthSignals?
WealthSignals (WS) is the Wealth-Lab.com community's new Trading System Subscriber Network. It also includes a sandbox area where you can do your paper trading (virtual trading) and hone your trading system development skills for free. WS provides up to the minute hypothetical performance reporting from quality data streams.
Right now, developers can easily upload End Of Day trading alerts and start establishing a public record of forward trading from their licensed Wealth-Lab Developer/Pro software with our WealthSignals Publisher extension. Then subscribers can pay you a monthly fee to get your published WealthSignals.
What is a WealthSignals Trading System?
WealthSignals participation begins with registering to WealthSignals.com and submitting our Post-a-system form in order to create your WealthSignals Trading System (WSTS). You then upload data from a Strategy that you've developed on your Wealth-Lab client software thus making your WSTS an outward reflection of that strategy.
If you make your WSTS public, then all WealthSignals.com users will have the ability to view a restricted set of its performance data and description information but
not its alerts or open positions. The daily alerts and opens position data is reserved for subscribers only.
Your WealthSignals Trading System becomes a public record of forward trading, while you maintain complete control and privacy of the code which never leaves your desktop.
There are two main benefits:
- The potential to earn monthly subscription fees from subscribers
- Making a name for yourself as a trading system developer
What is the WealthSignals Publisher?
The
WealthSignals Publisher (WSP) is a tool that
system authors can use to upload backtest performance data and Alerts to WealthSignals accounts. With the WSP, any Strategy that generates Alerts...
- Code-based WealthScript Strategy,
- Created with Strategy Builder,
- Combination Strategy,
- Compiled Strategy residing in a DLL library
...can submit them from Wealth-Lab Pro/Developer to your WealthSignals account in a convenient way. Placing discretionary signals is supported too.
Besides uploading backtests and daily Alerts to WealthSignals, the WSP provides feedback on hypothetical order execution and cautions against your Wealth-Lab system getting out of sync with the WealthSignals account.
Setting up
First and foremost, installing the
WealthSignal Publisher library (or update to its most-recent version if exists) is a prerequisite to using the WSP. After restarting Wealth-Lab, open the Preferences dialog (hit F12) and check “WealthSignals” in Performance Visualizers:
| To configure the WS Publisher, open a Strategy window, perform a backtest, switch to "WealthSignals" tab, and click on “Setup...” to display this dropdown menu. |
| In the first place, enter your WealthSignals.com username and password in the respective fields. Once entered, your credentials will be used for authentication until you change the password on the website. They are required at all times to communicate with the WealthSignals website. Your password is securely stored in a disk file (see Technical Background below). |
| Another required one-time action is requesting (or re-requesting, if it has been changed) the list of WS accounts which you created on our website. Clicking “Refresh” will populate the dropdown list below with your existing accounts, allowing to link Strategies with WS accounts (read on below). These settings will apply to all Strategy windows that you open. |
| "Flatten Alerts" combines the multiple orders into one. "Sync Exit Size" modifies the 'Synchronize Positions' behavior. See "Out of sync positions" below. |
| "Auto-Place" globally enables automatic placement of signals. See dedicated section below. |
- Note: to avoid potential errors, it's advised to keep from using the WealthSignals Setup dialog in multiple open Strategy windows.
Link Strategy to WealthSignals TS
It's necessary to log in to
WealthSignals.com and use the Post-a-System page before linking to it:
Before Alerts can be transmitted to an existing WealthSignals TS, a Strategy must be linked to it. This is done from the already familiar Setup menu.
If you changed your mind for some reason, don't worry: any WSTS previously assigned to a Strategy can be linked with a different Strategy. To attach to a different account, follow these steps:
- Close all open Strategy windows (recommended)
- Open a new window for the Strategy you want to assign to a different WSTS
- Pick up the new TS and confirm the dialog message box:
Upload Historical Results
Now that a WSTS has been associated with the Strategy, you might want to upload its historical backtest results. By showcasing a system's historical results to your potential subscribers, you as the author demonstrate that you have performed system testing. Additionally, the system’s description is enhanced with the equity curve, trade history and performance metrics without the need for you to provide information “off site”.
If you click on “Upload”, the Strategy's equity curve data and trade history will be sent to your WSTS. You would do it only once per Strategy, if results have not already been uploaded before. When trades in this WSTS have been filled, you won't be allowed to overwrite prior results: the system has just started its forward trading track!
Note: As Raw Profit mode isn't supported, you will be prompted to switch to Portfolio Simulation mode before uploading.
Working with Signals (Alerts)
Through its multi-select list view, the WSP provides the ability to display and edit Alerts generated by your Strategy, enter and edit discretionary Signals, and submit them to your WealthSignals trading system:
After running a Strategy, all trading Alerts to be placed for the next bar will appear in the WealthSignals view. In addition, the WSP requests the actual Cash value of the trading system. The list is automatically refreshed each time the Strategy is executed, clearing all existing WealthSignals: original Strategy's Alerts, manually entered (discretionary) Signals, and edited Alerts alike.
If the respective option is enabled in the right-click context menu, the menu bar will show estimated buying power in the account after staging selected signals (exception: manually added AtMarket signals).
As the list of
symbols supported by WealthSignals changes over time, the WSP highlights signals in now unsupported symbols in gray. This should give author a heads-up on that he has to make adjustments to his WS DataSet.
How-To: Add a Discretionary Signal
Users can add discretionary Signals if they choose “Add WealthSignal...” from the context menu or on the toolbar:
How-To: Edit a Signal
Your TS's existing WealthSignals can be edited, if you want to tweak them for whatever reason or attach an extra condition. This is accomplished by choosing “Edit WealthSignal...” from the context menu or on the toolbar, or by double-clicking on a Signal in the list view.
A dialog will be launched to allow you to change the Signal's properties.
For both added (discretionary) and edited Signals, these properties are editable: Symbol, Shares, Order Type, Price (except AtMarket and AtClose Signals), Action. The Strategy, Scale and Date columns are provided for indicative purposes only.
Conditions
The WS Publisher supports all order types available within Wealth-Lab: Buy, Sell, Short, and Cover. Each order can be either AtMarket, AtLimit, or AtStop. AtClose orders are currently not supported. If your system generated an AtClose order, it will be displayed and highlighted in orange, but before being able to transmit it into your WealthSignals Trading System, you should convert it into a supported order type first (see
How-To: Edit a Signal).
The following extra conditions can be attached to any WealthSignal via manual modification:
- OCA – One Cancels All: When editing an existing or adding a new Alert, specifying a non-empty string in the OCA Group field will automatically cancel all other open orders in the same account that belong to the same OCA group. OCA is supported for all order types except AtMarket.
- GTC – Good Til Canceled: An Alert with active GTC status remains in play until the user decides to cancel it or the trade is executed. If the GTC checkbox wasn't enabled, the Signal will expire at the end of the trading day when it was placed. Currently, all GTC signals that did not execute during closest trading session will be converted into Staging signals and will require that you Publush them again each day from the WealthSignals.com website.
Submitting Signals through the WSP
Signals must be manually selected before staging, placing or deleting them. Use the Ctrl and Shift combinations with the mouse for multiple selections. Multiple Signals can be selected by highlighting them. Additionally, from the Select... dropdown on the Toolbar you can select all Signals or invert an existing selection.
When you select signals and click
Publish, by default they will be staged and auto-published 15 minutes later. This intends to provide the author 15 minutes to catch errors before they are sent to the subscribers. Starting from v2019.04, it's possible to skip the grace period altogether. Once activated, the new global option "Auto-Place" in the Setup dropdown will publish signals for
all your Strategies immediately.
Publishing additional signals or submitting NST during the 15-minute grace period restarts the grace period. One
exception: after 09:00 AM ET time (and prior to the cutoff time at 09:30 AM ET), signals will be auto-published to subscribers immediately.
When you publish Signal(s), the Publisher will attempt send them to the website:
The message displayed next to the "Publish" button indicates the general operation status i.e. successful, login failed, exception etc.
The Result column shows
individual signal upload status – i.e. was the Signal successfully sent or there was an error of some sort (network issue, login failed due to incorrect password, signal rejected by server etc.) As instances of same Strategy in different windows are independent, be careful not to submit a duplicate order unintentionally.
Once signals are submitted they can can be tracked on the WealthSignals website and in the WSP itself. During market hours it periodically updates the Result column with fill quantity and price if symbol and shares match:
Duplicate signal check
To err is human, and authors sometimes can post duplicate signals on the same day without realizing it. The WSP will warn you on posting a set of exactly duplicate signals with a dialog prompt and by highlighting the duplicates in orange:
It's either embarrassing to click Publish the second time inadvertently and publish a duplicate set of signals. Don't worry: the WSP will pop up a warning message to make you reconsider.
No Signals Today
When their system has not produced an Alert for the next trading session (before 9:30 EST: today, after: next trading day), authors must post a
No Signals Today notice (NST). The WSP allows to claim NST status for the next trading day for the system by clicking on the "NST" icon (pause icon) on the toolbar. Posting a NST notice cancels all placed
and staged orders. Note that placing signals will not succeed if author has already declared NST for next trading session.
Violation of the 2-Day Rule (i.e. failure to post signals for 2 days in 10 business days) sends your system back to Sandbox mode. Until probation period is over again it cannot accept subscribers.
Flatten Alerts
When trading systems that take multiple positions in the same symbol, you might want to avoid placing multiple orders and combine the position shares manually. When activated, "Flatten Alerts" does just that: combines Positions (independently for entries or exits) that have the same Strategy, Symbol, Action (Buy, Sell, Short...), Order Type (Market, Limit...), Price, Scale, and Signal Date. You should click Synchronize if suggested by the WSP or you may get mixed up statuses in the WSP signal list.
Since this is a
global preference, it applies to
every Strategy. If just enabled, reopen the Strategy window to apply.
WealthSignals Publisher for Strategy Monitor
Starting from v2019.06, authors with multiple systems are encouraged to try out
WealthSignals Publisher for Strategy Monitor from the
Tools menu! This is an all-new tool that reads daily Alerts for strategies running in the Strategy Monitor. A the WSP is configured (or this tool won't work), all you have to do is click "Place Signals + NST" every day. If no Alerts were found for a system that participates in WealthSignals, No Signals Today will be claimed automatically. Signal synchronization is
not supported in the WSP for SM (use regular WSP if required).
Notes
- AtClose and Good After Time orders are currently not supported by WealthSignals.
- Currently, all GTC signals that did not execute during closest trading session will be converted into Staging signals and will require that you Place them again each day from the WealthSignals website. Note: Posting a "No Signals Today" will cancel existing GTC signals.
- Stock splits. Because stock splits not always occur on the announcement date and the system could be selling a partial position, WealthSignals will not auto adjust position sizing due to a stock split. In other words, splits occur on the ex-date but Alerts are generated the day before. As signal sizes for exits will not match, you as the system author must manually adjust trade size for exits based on actual shares held in an account.
Out of sync positions
As time goes by it's possible that you have an occasional "orphaned Position", which is either a Position that you're holding in a WealthSignals account that your Strategy is not aware of, or vice versa:
- Stale exit order is a Wealth-Lab exit order not backed by position(s) in the symbol in WealthSignals
- Orphaned position is a position in a WealthSignals account not backed by open position(s) in the symbol in Wealth-Lab Strategy
- The size of an exit order being staged by Wealth-Lab Strategy does not match the size in corresponding WealthSignals account
The most popular reasons are:
- Limit and stop order rounding vs. setting used in Wealth-Lab
- Failure to assign a Position priority in your Strategy:
- Data
- Signal entered using stale data (symbol missed an update, or user forgot to update DataSet)
- Modifying the DataSet composition
- A dividend adjustment applied to data while holding a live position. The condition to enter a trade may exist prior to a diviend adjustment in the data, but the same condition may not trigger after the adjustment. More: Orphaned Positions: Dividend -adjustment effects
- Loading "Fixed N bars" might alter historical trades, making old trades disappear and hence affect more recent trades (depends on system logic)
- Buying power (margin) / TOS execution order. More: Margin Exhaustion Behavior
- Operator error: mistakenly sending some signal(s) twice
It's advised that authors assign a priority to positions, pay attention to divivends in dividend-adjusted data, and preferably
use Raw Profit mode for keeping in sync with WSTS.
The WealthSignals Publisher detects all types of orphaned positions and notifies author, displaying a warning label on its toolbar
and highlighting "stale" exit orders in red. The number of orphaned positions in WealthSignals and/or Wealth-Lab Strategy is provided in tooltip message that appears after mousing over the "broken link" icon. Clicking on it will result in the following actions:
- Stale exit orders (highlighted in red) will be removed from the queue.
- For orphaned positions, new exit orders will be inserted to liquidate the entire position in the symbol. Each one is highlighted in blue and marked as "Closeout".
The idea is that authors review the proposed changes
before sending their daily signals (or claiming NST). Before liquidating orphaned positions, authors should understand/investigate why they have an orphaned position to begin with.
There's a special case that authors should be aware of: different position size between a WealthSignals position and its counterpart in Wealth-Lab Strategy. Enable 'Sync Exit Size' in the Setup dropdown, click 'Save' abd
reopen the Strategy window to make the WSP detect it as well when you click
Synchronize positions... Detection will work only when the entry dates match. You should not enable the option if your system makes partial exits as you will get the wrong results. Since this is a
global preference, it applies to
every Strategy.
Technical background
Your trading system code
never leaves your PC. The WSP does not upload a Strategy's code anywhere.
The WSP stores its preferences in two XML files located in user's AppData directory (see the Wealth-Lab User Guide > Data > “Where data are stored?” for the exact placement):
- WealthSignalsConfig.xml: your wealthsignals.com username (in plain text) and password (as a string strongly encrypted with AES-256 algorithm), and a cache of WealthSignals Trading Systems that were associated with your website account last time you performed “Refresh” in WSP Setup dialog (to minimize interaction with the WebService).
- WealthSignalsLinkedAccounts.xml: the relationships between your WSTS and the Strategies. Strategies are uniquely identified with WSTS by their GUID sequence.
The username and password are required for any WealthSignals task such as requesting the list of WealthSignals Trading Systems you have created on the website, uploading backtest performance results to a W-S account, and every time you publish or place Signals.
Although the XML files are editable, it is not recommended to mangle with them in an editor unless you have a good reason. Should something go wrong, you can start from scratch by closing all open Strategy windows and deleting the XML files, even while Wealth-Lab is running.
Issues and limitations
Limitations:
- Before assigning a WealthSignals Trading System to a Strategy after performing "Save As", re-run the Strategy by hitting F5, clicking "Go" or "Backtest on all symbols".
Issues:
If after uploading backtest results only the performance statistics window contains data but the equity curve, monthly results, and drawdown windows are not populated, this is most likely an issue related to the corrupt historical price data on author's machine. Suggestion: truncate and reload all of the price data for the selected DataSet in Wealth-Lab, then choose "Reset system data" from the Admin dropdown list on the website, and re-upload. Issue fixed in v2019.05
Credits
Portions © Luis Alonso Ramos -
MultiColumnSortManager and Eddie Velasquez -
ListViewSortManagerMultiColumnSortManager was modified to suit Wealth-Lab's
SystemPerformance output on open trades.