I can provide more detail but let me start by asking, Is there a limit to the number of Alerts that the Quotes (Paper Trading) tool can handle?

I'm running WL Pro 5.6, on Windows 7 (32bit), with a Pentium Core 2 Quad, 4GB Ram, 500G HDD, Cable Modem, 20Mbit download, Fidelity Data Provider, ~3000 sysmbols in the Data Set.

I'm using an end of day strategy. The Strategy Monitor came up with 1600 limit-order Alerts. I selected all of them and clicked "Monitor in Quotes Window". In the Orders Window, I selected "Auto-Trading Paper Accounts". In the Quotes (paper Trading) Tool > Alerts Pane, I set "Auto Place". Then I closed all tools except Quotes Tool and Orders Tool.

At first everything is running fine. Some orders were filled. Then in about an hour, the application hung.
I ended the application from Windows Task Manager, then re-booted, my PC, and tried 2 more times. It hung after about an hour each time.

One time I removed ~1200 quotes, but WL Pro still hung afer about an hour. My system was still active, it was just WL Pro that hung (would not respond).

One time I got an error message, something like "FidelityServer.exe not responding". The other times, no error message, just an application hang.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Best regards,
Robert

Currently, subscribing and unsubscribing to Fidelity quotes are very inefficient and time-consuming processes. Hopefully this can be improved (a lot) with the integration of the new Fidelity streaming provider for the mid-year release. Until then, keep your quote requests minimal; I'd suggest 100 or 200 at the most.

Also, don't go crazy with overloading Paper trading, which is designed to really just to familiarize you with the automated trading processes before going live. There are a few limitations and gotchas to Paper trading as described in the User Guide that won't happen with real trading, and you could go crazy with all of that gotchas that will occur when trying to trade thousands of orders.

Thank you very much. This is very helpful. I will try some strategy changes/tweeks to get the number of alerts way down. - Best regards, Robert

Just to close this issue, I ran an EOD strategy last night, it came up with ~100 limit-order alerts, I Monitored them in a Quotes Window all day from market-open to market-close. No problems, No errors, No hangs. Thanks for the very helpful information. I anxiously await the next release of the Fidelity Streaming Provider so that I can monitor more limit orders. Best regards.

Good news, thanks.

Can I ask another question?

Is there any way for me to monitor more Limit-Order Alerts in a Quotes Window now? Such as, if I got a Yahoo Real-Time account until the Fidelity update? Is there such a thing as a Yahoo Real-Time Data Provider?

I would still want to place real orders with Fidelity.

QUOTE:
Is there such a thing as a Yahoo Real-Time Data Provider?

There is no such thing as Y! intraday RT data provider. Yahoo doesn't offer historical intraday quotes for backfill.

Thank you.

QUOTE:
There is no such thing as Y! RT data provider.

... but there is for streaming quotes!

So, sure, you should be able to use a premium Y! account for streaming quotes. I've never tested it, and I'm not sure if Y! has limitations to the number of streaming symbols.

The disadvantage of this is that Version 5 allows you to specify only one streaming provider. With Y! selected, you get support only for Quotes, not for charts. If you don't need streaming charts, then it's worth investigating - Y! Premium may offer a free trial period.

Of course you're right formally. It's just when asked about RT data, first thing that comes to mind is high-granularity intraday data which is not supported here (only RT daily bars).

Thanks for the additional Info. I'll have to look into this further (medium priority). I think I'd have to switch back and forth between these two data providers depending on if I was running strategy monitor at night, monitoring the quotes window during the day, or possibly placing an order during the day. (may be too cumbersome, if even possible??). And I'd only want to do this until Fidelity's new release ~June 2010.

Yahoo does offer a 30-day free trial period. I did not see any info on the max number of quotes that they can handle. If it could handle ~1000 to ~2000 quotes, even if it only updated every minute or two (or 5), it might be worth pursuing.

thanks & best regards.