Can any of you linux gurus that are traders as well help a

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Pipster

Can any of you linux gurus that are traders as well help a

Post by Pipster »

wannabe linux user? I actively day/swing/position trade FX and NYSE, and was wondering how hard it is to get MT4 and Thinkorswim to run on linux? I also use MS Office for trade stats along with a journal to track the "other" side of trading, and a few screen capture tools. I would love to learn to do all this within linux if possible.
The last time I used linux was when I tried Mandrake's version (before it was Mandriva). I really liked linux way back then but most of the software I run/ran back then just wasn't easily ran on linux. But I'm not that tech savvy in the linux department but would love to learn more about and I like the stability of it as well.

So can/are any of you gurus willing to help me out?

Pip
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xenopeek
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Re: Can any of you linux gurus that are traders as well help

Post by xenopeek »

Welcome to the Linux Mint forums.

Google assumes you mean MetaTrader 4 with MT4. There are various tutorials to be found on how to use the Windows software on Linux. I can't attest to how well it will work. Linux Mint is fully compatible with Ubuntu so you can use tutorials for it. Here is a somewhat recent tutorial: https://support.fxopen.com/Knowledgebas ... nux-ubuntu. It uses Wine which is a compatibility layer that makes it possible to run some Windows programs on Linux. It doesn't work (well) for all programs but given the existence of tutorials for MT4 on Wine it may work well for that. You can also look at reports of other users of this program on the Wine website: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager. ... ngId=85514. That looks to have some problems but try it out for yourself.

Thinkorswim have a Linux installer you can download from their website. Apparently it's a bit confusing to install according to this post, but doable: http://www.strategic-options.com/insigh ... ntu-14-04/

Using the Wine website again you can find that all recent versions of Microsoft Office are garbage, which means that you won't be able to use it with Wine: https://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?appId=31. Linux Mint 17.2 comes with LibreOffice 4.4.3 as office suite, which may not be 100% compatible with existing spreadsheets if they are very complex but it is worth a try. You may find that what you need can be done in LibreOffice but it may need to be done a little differently. LibreOffice runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

What kind of features do you need from your screen capture tools? In most editions of Linux Mint the Print Screen is set to take screenshots. There are screenshot tools with more features you can install.

In short everything you would want to use a computer for is possible with Linux but if you need specific Windows-only programs (and those don't run with Wine) and you can accept no alternatives then Windows is the best platform for you.

As for learning more about Linux I'd say take a step :wink: Most users start out installing it either alongside Windows (so when you switch on your computer you can choose between using Windows and Linux) or installing it in a virtual machine with a program such as VirtualBox (free) or VMWare. With a virtual machine the only requirement is your computer has enough memory to run Windows and Linux at the same time. I'd say you'd need at least 4 GB RAM but more will be more comfortable. With a virtual machine installation you can start Linux while using Windows and it runs in a window.
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Pipster

Re: Can any of you linux gurus that are traders as well help

Post by Pipster »

Thank you for the response xenopeek! Sounds like a good place to start with your suggestions. I read about using a usb drive to install linux to and using it to boot with also. Would you recommend starting by doing this ?
The screen capture tool is just to capture a chart and annotate trades on it so it doesn't have to be extremely robust. I've used openoffice before as well. All my spread sheets would work in OO with minor formula tweeks. And i believe there is a linux version also.
I'm looking to make that step and not look back. I'm tired of being a pawn in the microsh#t game they play with our privacy and personal data. Once again thank you for your valuable input.

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xenopeek
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Re: Can any of you linux gurus that are traders as well help

Post by xenopeek »

You could install Linux to a USB drive. That's no different from installing to a hard disk I think. Performance will be lower and be aware that if you use a USB thumb drive these have limited amount of times data can be written to them (while USB thumb drives and SSDs are both flash storage, SSDs are a much more advanced technology where for all practical purposes that isn't a concern). It would be fine to experiment with that.

As for OpenOffice I get that you are familiar with it from Windows but LibreOffice is the one you want to use. They share a common past. LibreOffice is the most active project with hundreds of developers. Most if not all Linux distros these days have LibreOffice and not OpenOffice.

Probably the screenshot tool Shutter would meet your needs. It support annotations. On Linux Mint you can install it using the Software Manager program.
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phd21
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Re: Can any of you linux gurus that are traders as well help

Post by phd21 »

Hi Pipster,

Welcome to this great Linux Mint forum.

Just read your post and the great replies to it. As usual in this forum, I agree with "xenopeek" and his replies to your post.

I totally agree that you should seriously consider trying and then using Linux Mint. LibreOffice should be able to handle most, if not all, of the Ms Office stuff that you have; as already mentioned, you might need a little tweaking with some it, then again, you might not.

Here are some other links you might want to read:
"If you just want to analyse charts, Yahoo and Google's websites are surprisingly capable."


Installing MetaTrader 4 on Ubuntu Linux
https://www.finfx.fi/en/installing-meta ... untu-linux


"Merchant of Venice" - Venice is a stock market trading programme that supports portfolio management, charting, technical analysis, paper trading and genetic programming. Venice runs in a graphical user interface with online help and has full documentation.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mov/

http://venice.org.nz/


"Qtstalker" - Stock market, commodity and technical analysis charting app based on the Qt toolkit. Extendible plugin system for quotes and indicators. Portfolio, back testing, chart objects and many more features included.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtstalk ... ecommended

http://qtstalker.sourceforge.net/


"EclipseTrader " - Stock exchange analysis system, featuring shares pricing watch, intraday and history charts with technical analysis indicators, level II/market depth view, news watching, automated trading systems, integrated trading. Based on Eclipse RCP framework.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipse ... ecommended

http://www.eclipsetrader.org/

JStock makes it easy to track your stock investment. It provides well organized stock market information, to help you decide your best investment strategy.
http://jstock.org/

Linux for Stock Trading?
http://bannronn.com/faq/trading-softwar ... ading.html

https://iqoption.com/promo/charts-v2_en/?aff=10411

Linux and Daytrading
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/general ... ading.html

"Grism is an open source stock market observation tool. It allows you to easily track the evolution of stock prices through watchlists, portfolios and charts.

Grism uses Yahoo! Finance for its quote data. This means that with Grism, you can observe stocks, ETFs, indices and mutual funds from every major stock market in the world. All you need is the stock's symbol that interests you."
http://www.grism.org/

Open Source Trading Platforms ( who needs mt4 ?)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279773.0

Linux compatible trading platforms
http://www.hotstockmarket.com/t/83356/l ... -platforms



Good Broker for a linux user?
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread. ... ight=linux

Oanda
http://fxtrade.oanda.com/

E-trade
https://us.etrade.com/home

"Equityfeed can transform you into the most efficient and profitable stock trader you've ever been."
https://equityfeed.com/

Free Charting Software: Incredible Charts 7.0.0.14
http://www.incrediblecharts.com/free-ch ... _linux.php
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Finance Software - 10 Linux financial tools
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuFinance

======================================================================================================

New to Linux or Linux Mint? You might consider creating Live DVD's (or USB flash drives) of each edition of Linux Mint: Cinnamon 17.2, Mate 17.2, KDE 17.1 (my Fav.), or Xfce 17.1; 32-bit or 64-bit depending upon your CPU processor. Then, boot up to each one and see if one edition of Linux Mint performs better for your hardware and that you like the most. If you get "software rendering", or end up in "compatibility mode", then that edition of Linux Mint is having a problem with your video setup that may be resolved by installing special video drivers or not; In these modes your system will not run well.

FYI: It would help everyone here to have more information about your system's setup: like what edition and version of Linux Mint are you using, Cinnamon, Mate, KDE (my favorite), or Xfce; version 17 or 17.1, or What?; 32-bit or 64-bit? Some more information about your hardware would be useful as well. You can get this information from top of your system menu's Welcome screen, System Information program(s), and the best is by typing in "inxi -Fxz" from a console terminal prompt, which you can then copy and paste back here. This information helps anyone here in this forum to be able to answer any questions you may have better :), thanks. You can even add this information (abbreviated) to your signature using the control panel link in the above left of this forum screen; then when you post a question or reply to one, that info will automatically be there, ex: see mine and others below their posts.
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
_lu_

Re: Can any of you linux gurus that are traders as well help

Post by _lu_ »

Pipster, I've been using Linux for a few months but am definately no guru. Prior to that I used MT4 in Win.
I can tell you that I have tried MT4 in Wine and it is fine for placing trades, but there is one problem that drives me nuts: You have a profile open with lots of charts open. You organise their tabs (underneath the visible chart) in a specific order, but when re-starting MT4 the chart order is not preserved. The correct charts all open but in a scrambled order. I have spent hours searching for a fix for this but haven't found one yet. Thats not to say that there isn't one, but I have read others reporting this with no solutions offered. I have tried numerous versions of wine but all have the same problem.

The mt4 text file called order.wnd is created (this tells mt4 which chart order layout to show) and lists the correct layout but mt4 just fails to open the charts the way is told to.

You can also use the Play On Linux (POL) application which will install the default (non broker version) mql version of mt4 for you. It does this by installing Wine and doing the mt4 installation for you. But it has the same chart order problem. Like Wine, POL is found in the software manager so is easy to install. It can also install your own pre downloaded broker's version.

There is also the 'pay for' Crossover application which uses Wine. From memory, they have mt4 in their list of supported apps. I downloaded and used their trial version and found the same chart order problem. They also offer support but I am not sure if they have a fix for this problem. I have not yet contacted them about it. I would be happy to pay for a fix and do plan on asking them about this. https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibili ... tatrader-4

I have also found in the above three methods that for the icons for the up/down arrows, thumbs up/down, tick etc you need to copy the fonts over from win, specifically the wingdings fonts. Its not hard to do. PM me if you need some help with them. All the other drawing tools work fine.

Other than the chart orders I am happy but I do not use complicated EAs or do backtesting so I can't comment on those. All my indys work fine. Placing trades is fine and fast. I copied my indys and EAs over so I haven't had to use the meta editor yet so I cannot comment on that one. Creating and saving templates and profiles work fine.

And the news will or won't work - pretty sure it depends on IE being installed in the same Wine C drive. It worked in my Crossover install and it had IE. I don't use the news feature so I haven't really bothered about it.

At the above Crossover site I see that the office 2007 suite has a silver rating so it could possibly work ok for you.

Thats all I can think to tell you - not much help I know. So yes I use mt4 in Wine and am happy except for the chart orders problem.
When/if I find a fix for that problem I'll update this topic.
I use Libre Office but haven't used it much yet.
Screenshots apps are easy to find - I grabbed one from within the software manager.

EDIT update: I now use Crossover instead of just Wine or POL. In Crossover there is a tab to 'manage bottles' where you can select the bottle which contains mt4 and tell it to use your native linux browser (so that when you click on a codebase EA at the bottom of the mt4 terminal window it will open the relevant page with your linux default browser. That way you can easily read more about them at the mql5 site. However I don't think signals or market place (they are the ones you have to pay for) down there work but I haven't really tried to use them.
FT277002
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Copy and Paste MT4

Post by FT277002 »

MT4 is used on my Linux Mint machine I just built in 11/17. I could not get MT4 (or MT5) to install the advised way using Wine. The install failed because now it wants you to login or create an account, but this could not connect. It seems to me that this is one program which designers have deliberately made impossible to use on Linux.
I tried using Crossover and PlayonLinux, and didn't like either of these programs because they put each Windows program in its own virtual drive. (Also, they encourage using the Windows version of Steam, and I'd rather use Linux Steam.) And beware- I found that uninstalling Crossover or Playonlinux will damage your Wine install- you'll have to reinstall it.
Anyway, my suggestion on how to get MT4 working with Mint comes from a post from another site (sorry forgot the link). Basically, with an existing Windows MT4 install, go to the program file folder and copy all the files and folders - config, history, logs, MQL4, profiles, Sounds, templates, tester, terminal.exe. Then, going to LM, paste these in a folder on your Wine drive_c, preferably in a program_files folder, so my files are in: "/home/LM_User/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/MT4". Then you just run terminal.exe to run Metatrader everytime. It does Ok, but I would say:
- Be sure to have your broker name, account login, and server info before running MT4 on Linux Mint - it will ask for this on first run
- MT4 appears to use slightly more processor power on Linux with Wine than on windows, or at least with my current kernel and Wine 3.0. I found that you can reduce this by opening wine config (winecfg from terminal), adding terminal.exe to the application settings and have it run in Windows 7 or XP mode.
- Custom indicators and profiles now go in the folders you pasted, not the data folder, as in Windows.
- one glitch I encounter is that when applying a profile to a currency pair, it may crash unless you apply the profile on the daily time frame. But once applied, it works just fine on all time-frames. :)
Last edited by FT277002 on Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
Lucap
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Re: Can any of you linux gurus that are traders as well help a

Post by Lucap »

https://www.myforexchart.com/charts

I've seen people mention the above free charts and tools as they run in your browser.

You have to click the advanced chart option to get all the tools.
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