PTL Trader

PTL Trader is a lightweight, cross-platform software which makes automated (or semi-automated) trading of complex U.S. equity pair strategy portfolios possible. It currently supports the Interactive Brokers as data & execution backend.

This software is tightly coupled with Pair Trading Lab, which allows you to assemble, analyze and backtest equity pairs and pair trading strategy portfolios. It also features a pre-screened searchable database of pairs.

You need a valid Pair Trading Lab account to use this software. It won't work without the PTL account (premium subscription is not needed though). However, feel free to fork this repository and alter the software to (for example) load the strategy portfolio from CSV files, if you wish. You are free to do that as long you don't violate the GNU GPL v3 license.

First proprietary version of PTL Trader was released already in 2013 and got gradually field tested in hundreds of instances trading live accounts of PTL's clients. It is already considered mature and well-tested. Since 2021 and version 1.6.0 it is now a free, open source software.

More Information About PTL Trader

Support

This software comes with no guaranteed support whatsoever. If you have troubles with the software, you can use the Pair Trading Lab Forum to get the community help. You can also use the Helpdesk (part of the forum mentioned above), but please note that support is not guaranteed and not part of any paid subscription.

Please read the FAQ before reporting anything.

If you have issues with the build, it is better to fill an issue here on GitHub.

Pull Requests are welcome but prepare for a strict review process, as this software trades other people's money.

Documentation

See the PTL Trader Manual.

Building PTL Trader

PTL Trader is written in Java using the Gradle Build Tool. It is based on Standard Widget Toolkit to allow running on multiple platforms: Microsoft Windows (x64), Linux (GTK, x64) and macOS (x64). You still need to build a specific binary (JAR) for each platform though. 32bit Windows is not supported anymore.

Prerequisites

• Java Development Kit 11 - yes, for building you need this older JDK, the application then of course runs on newer Java versions as well

Building the App

First you have to build a patched version of PicoContainer. Please place the library jar (picocontainer-2.15.1-SNAPSHOT.jar) to bundled folder.

Then to build fat application JARs for all platforms just use the provided script build_all_architectures.sh or just use ./gradlew shadowJar -PforceArch=<your_arch> to build for just a single platform of your choice.

./gradlew run will just build the software and run it for your current platform.

Application JARs will be generated in build/libs folder.

This software is covered with a bunch of unit tests. These are build and executed using ./gradlew build command:

> Configure project : 
> Task :compileJava 
Note: /home/carloss/Projects/ptltrader/src/main/java/com/pairtradinglab/ptltrader/Application.java uses or overrides a deprecated API.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details.


BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 21s
12 actionable tasks: 10 executed, 2 up-to-date

Running PTL Trader

You need to have 64bit Java JRE/JDK installed first, at least version 11. Then you can use:

java --add-opens java.base/java.net=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/sun.security.util=ALL-UNNAMED -jar <your generated application JAR.jar>

Under macOS you need to provide extra parameter:

java --add-opens java.base/java.net=ALL-UNNAMED --add-opens=java.base/sun.security.util=ALL-UNNAMED -XstartOnFirstThread -jar <your generated application JAR.jar>

Please note the section Windows Extras for more information about running PTL Trader under Windows.

You will need a running instance of IB Trader Workstation (TWS) or IB Gateway so PTL Trader can receive market data and submit orders to your IB account.

Market data subscriptions are required as well.

Windows Extras

You need to have either Java JDK 11+ or JRE 11+ installed to be able to run PTL Trader under Windows. We recommend to install the Eclipse Temurin JRE from Adoptium.

Wrapping Application to Single EXE File

You can optionally use launch4j to wrap the generated JAR (win64 arch) to a single EXE if you want. Use the launch configuration in the launch4j folder.

Note: launch4j is a cross-platform application, running also under Linux and macOS.

We supply prebuilt EXE launcher for the application in our Release page.

Building MSI Installer

If you have used the launch4j wrapper above to generate a single EXE file, you can also build a proper MSI installer, so the application can be installed/uninstalled properly under Microsoft Windows. You will need WiX Toolset to accomplish that.

Unfortunately WiX Toolset requires Microsoft Windows to run (you may test your luck with Wine / Mono though).

How to build the MSI installer:

• install the WiX Toolset if you did not already
• copy the EXE file you got from launch4j to the wix folder
• cd to your wix folder
• run build_installer.bat or execute these commands manually:

candle installer_win64.wxs
light -ext WixUIExtension -ext WixUtilExtension installer_win64.wixobj -out ptltrader_win64.msi

ptltrader_win64.msi will be built in your current directory.

Please note for installing this container you need the JRE installed! JDK will not work.

License

PTL Trader is released under the GNU GPL v3 license. See the included COPYING file for a full copy.