Indicator or Robot

[ianj]

What are the ESSENTIAL differences between a Robot and an Indicator

Yes i know an Indicator is intended to be visual - more so than a Robot

But what can a Robot do that an Indicators cannot and vice versa

In Empty4 the differences are:

• 1. Indicator are setup to visualise their output
• 2. Indicators have a different THREAD model - they are supposed to be lightweight

What are the equivalent limits with a Robot/Indicator

I am looking at building something that has a SIMPLE interface requirement, yet communicates with processes OUTSIDE of cTrader (DLL or sockets). It will attempt to trade - and the THREADING model may be critical

Is it better as an indicator, or a robot, or both (one for visualisation, one for behaviour - somehow linked together ?

I have also posted this question on the spotware forum - ill post any answers here

[ianj]

Ill answer this myself with a reply i just got from spotware

The major differences are:

• Robot can trade, indicator can not
• Indicators can be used in cTrader, robots can be run in cAlgo only (we will add an ability to run robots in cTrader in future)
• Robots can reference and use indicators
• Indicator is reinitialized (recreated) every time you change timeframe or refresh a chart. But you can not do this with robot, you must stop it first
• Indicator can not access Account properties (positions, balance, etc) - we will implement this ability in future