Jforex - why Jforex ?

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bodleytunes
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Re: Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by bodleytunes »

I've been dabbling in Jforex. It seems good.

Only thing is that you are tied to dukascopy and also the fact that their demo accounts run out after only two weeks. Tis a shame they don't do an unlimited demo like Gprime or FXCM.
Jeuro
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Re: Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by Jeuro »

Hi all.
For us jforex was the solution to develop our multi-symbol strategies and being able to back-test them. Hedging, HFT algorithms, Math and statistical system that use more then 1 pair.

Meaning, without going into spending a lot of money for a commercial algorithms trading platform.

Now, almost at the end of having at least one system fully functional, I started thinking that a few of us still have ECN Empty4 accounts with Brokers that are quite decent and coding what is already tested in jforex could be a challenge to code in mql4. Perhaps some of the functions can not be reproduce or translate.

A solution to re-code would be to copy trades from Jforex to Empty4, but today I goggle it and did not find anything. Everything is the other way.. copy or bridge from Empty4 to jforex.

Has anyone seen a copier/bridge From Jforex to Empty4?? Probably save us a lot of time and headaches.

Thanks,
J.

PS. Bodleytunes.. a couple years back, Dukascopy granted me an unlimited Demo just by asking the rep. But if not, getting an account with Dukascopy EU and depositing the minimum $100 guarantee one.
jb68
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Re: Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by jb68 »

Jeuro wrote:Hi all.
For us jforex was the solution to develop our multi-symbol strategies and being able to back-test them. Hedging, HFT algorithms, Math and statistical system that use more then 1 pair.

Meaning, without going into spending a lot of money for a commercial algorithms trading platform.

Now, almost at the end of having at least one system fully functional, I started thinking that a few of us still have ECN Empty4 accounts with Brokers that are quite decent and coding what is already tested in jforex could be a challenge to code in mql4. Perhaps some of the functions can not be reproduce or translate.

A solution to re-code would be to copy trades from Jforex to Empty4, but today I goggle it and did not find anything. Everything is the other way.. copy or bridge from Empty4 to jforex.

Has anyone seen a copier/bridge From Jforex to Empty4?? Probably save us a lot of time and headaches.

Thanks,
J.

PS. Bodleytunes.. a couple years back, Dukascopy granted me an unlimited Demo just by asking the rep. But if not, getting an account with Dukascopy EU and depositing the minimum $100 guarantee one.
Hi, don't know what will stop you to develop your own simple semaphore way.
http://codebase.mql4.com/6831
I am looking at jforex myself but my java is not as good as my other bunch of languages comming from c so mql4 seem way much easy for me.
scotpip
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 11:47 pm

Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by scotpip »

EDIT

On reflection, I think I was a bit unbalanced in the review below. While I'd still argue that JForex is a poor environment for developing and testing ideas, I've returned to it as a platform for trade execution.

Our first issue is that costs are important for our active intra-day style, and for small independent traders Dukas offer the best combination of spread and commissions on the majors, particularly if you're hitting their volume discounts and using their rebate scheme. Trading anywhere else is going to eat a lot of our profits.

And our second issue is that our most reliable strategies work off price-based charts such as Kagi and Renko, and these are either missing or fundamentally bugged on most retail FX platforms. I've tried to hack this in Zorro and Seer but it's proved a total pain - you're working against the way they are engineered. With JForex the features are there and at least it's proved possible to work around the bugs till they are finally fixed in the upcoming JForex 4 release.

So it seems as though Dukas/JForex is the only platform with the right combination of pricing and features.

And when it comes to execution, the flexibility and deep feature set comes into their own.

Our manual trading system requires fast and accurate entry of complex orders, and then hands over to automatic trailing stop management. With JForex it's possible to make a Swing GUI panel that sits over the chart to manage the trade entries, and to run a Strategy in the Dukascopy data centre to detect the orders and manage the exits.

For our algo trading, another strength of JForex kicks in - the native API. We've ended up using the Asirikuy algo platform, and they have implemented a native integration with Dukas which can be run on a small, headless Linux VPS.

Finally, compared to FIX and many native APIs, JForex offers very fine-grained control over trade and account management. For example with Zorro, it's possible for trades to become orphaned after dropped connections: quite a big deal if you're managing your stops client-side. This should never happen with a properly designed JForex strategy.

So from a single account we can run a sophisticated partially-automated manual system in JForex itself, and also run our algos over the API using an affordable platform that handles priced based bars correctly and offers solid backtesting, optimisation, data visualisation and trade execution.

After a good deal of research, we haven't found a better solution to our particular requirements. So although it's a pretty painful platform to code, we're back with JForex for trade execution.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I dug quite deeply into JForex until I learned better.

It's free, and has integrated hosting in the Dukascopy data center, which is initially attractive.

But it's cumbersome - particularly the indicator engine, which is a nightmare. One simple indicator required 180 lines of arcane code for something that can be achieved in literally 5 or 6 lines on a better designed platform.

Backtesting is very slow, with no optimisation. There is some talk that this may improve with the next release.

It's buggy. For example I reported a huge bug in the Renko feed - they had misunderstood the basics of how to form a Renko bar. They finally conceded my point, but months later it's still not fixed. There are a quite a few issues like this.

To be fair, its well featured and flexible, and the docs and tutorials are pretty good. But it feels more like a platform kit than a platform - you spend a lot of time doing low-level stuff.

Despite all that, its better than Empty4, though that's not saying much.

But now I've found Zorro and Seer Trading I'm a much happier bunny. Seer Trading in particular is an underrated gem, with very strong optimisation features and full integration with R if you want to get fancy.

Zorro's direct broker connections are currently limited to FXCM, but for fairly affordable donation you can run Zorro strategies in Empty4. With Seer you sacrifice broker independence: you are currently restricted to FXCM and IB. But it's a price I'm prepared to pay for quicker development and much more powerful backtesting and optimisation.
Last edited by scotpip on Sun Nov 09, 2014 11:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
dudest
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Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 2:37 pm

Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by dudest »

Hi Scot,

I've never heard of Seer Trading before, but definitely looks worth looking into!, thanks!

Zorro has always had a special part in my algorithmic chest.
Currently I make more from manual trading than from algorithmic, + I haven't had the blocks of time I need to delve into Zorro as I'd like, but when I do, it'll take over from my Empty4 bots (it also really appeals to the geeky side of me :)

Cheers
garyfritz

Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by garyfritz »

I never looked at Jforex because they wouldn't take US clients. Thanks for the info that it's not worth bothering with.

Seer looks interesting. Let us know, if you decide to dig into it.
rod178
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Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:16 am

Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by rod178 »

One thing that JForex has over alternatives is the ability to initiate Buy on the Bid and Sell on the Ask

https://www.dukascopy.com/fxcomm/fx-art ... anguage=en
maflip
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:13 pm

Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by maflip »

When it comes to crap platform I would say JForex is king. They have an Empty4 to Jforex converter which can only convert maybe .0001% of Empty4 programs out there. :lol: I'm like why bother making a converter public when it doesn't work. Also, Jforex platform is so slow it hangs sometimes so better keep a watch at that memory heap and occasionally manually memory heap collect to clear it. Also, delete cache files everyday as this thing can grow and affect platform performance. However, even with all the crappiness of their platform unbelievably I still trade with them due to their good liquidity and deposit guarantee. If only they would offer another platform and they would be the perfect broker for me. sigh* :cry:
scottmiller
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Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 11:05 am

Jforex - why Jforex ?

Post by scottmiller »

can anyone tell me if other brokers, beside Dukascopy offer Jforex?
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