…it’s 2.15 UK time and you go to set your automated trading program to run on the Dow Jones opening at 2.30, and realise that British Summer Time has just ended, so you are an hour late, and have missed a nice easy 120pt move down that your system would have taken…
You need to be 100% automated, hands off, otherwise Human Error will always creep into your trading. If it wasnt this it could be some other distraction that pulls you away from starting your program in time. You also need to add multi time zone support to your ATS. My ATS starts US based strategies off an internal clock that is running on New York time.
It's the little things that often make the difference when running a trading operation. You have to make sure this doesn't happen again. I use the alarms in Outlook to make sure. They're great because they can be setup for years in advance. PS. I made the same mistake a few years back!
Yes there are ways and means of course, and things do gradually get better. There are always complications though - the API tokens I use are only valid for a time after login, and it doesn't seem possible to automate the login process. On the plus side, these things tend to average out more or less (the edge I have is not that huge sadly). It seems as if I always fail on good days, but looking at the data, I have made as many howlers on bad days and feel glad to have dodged a bullet. Also I am not always at the computer I use for trading, and remote operation has its own risks and drawbacks. And there is the day job that gets in the way. The tribulations of the systems programmer...
Had that issue before. Now I run my VPS in NY time but cron (scheduler) times needed to be adjusted for Japan when trading it.
The platform I use has the concept of exchanges and an exchange has a time zone so you could have multiple symbols for a strategy all with their own current time.
The easiest quick fix is the Outlook alarm system of Abbotale. If I set a reminder at 12 every day, it will be fine. In the meantime, I'll look into automating it. 80/20 principle and all that.