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Product Overview of QuantConnect
QuantConnect is a comprehensive, open-source algorithmic trading platform designed to empower quantitative researchers, developers, and self-directed investors to develop, test, and execute sophisticated trading strategies. Here are the key aspects and features of the platform:
What QuantConnect Does
QuantConnect provides a unified API and a suite of cloud-based tools for investment research, strategy backtesting, and live trading. The platform is tailored to support a wide range of assets, including equities, futures, options, forex, CFDs, and cryptocurrencies. It aims to democratize access to quantitative trading by offering a cost-effective and transparent solution, significantly reducing the traditional costs associated with such activities.
Key Features
Cloud Research
QuantConnect’s research terminals offer access to vast amounts of financial, fundamental, and alternative data, totaling around 400 terabytes. This data is sourced from integrated providers like US Equities, Tiingo, and Bitfinex, ensuring users have a rich dataset for their research and strategy development.
Backtesting
The platform facilitates robust backtesting capabilities, allowing users to conduct point-in-time, fee, slippage, and spread-adjusted backtests with minimal code changes. Users can import custom and alternative data to simulate realistic live-trading scenarios. The backtesting process is streamlined, requiring only the configuration of a start date, end date, and initial cash amount.
Parameter Optimization
QuantConnect enables users to run thousands of full backtests on scalable cloud compute resources, which is crucial for sensitivity testing and ensuring robust out-of-sample trading performance.
Live Trading
Strategies developed on the platform can be deployed to co-located servers near major exchanges, leveraging high-quality, low-latency data. This setup supports both live trading and paper trading, allowing users to test their strategies in a real-world environment before committing actual capital.
Multi-Asset Portfolio Modeling
The platform supports modeling and trading across multiple asset classes, enabling users to create diversified portfolios and manage complex trading strategies.
Alpha Stream
QuantConnect’s Alpha Stream feature allows quants to lease their developed algorithms (Alphas) in an open marketplace. These Alphas generate insights and predictions about asset price movements, which can be rented by funds and other interested parties at shared or exclusive prices.
Community and Open-Source
One of the standout features of QuantConnect is its open-source nature and the support of a global community of over 275,000 quants, researchers, data scientists, and engineers. This community contributes to the platform’s development, sharing knowledge and resources. The LEAN algorithmic trading engine, which powers QuantConnect, has been contributed to by more than 150 engineers and can be run on-premise or in the cloud.
Functionality
- Algorithm Development: Users can create algorithms using a class that inherits from the `QCAlgorithm` class, allowing access to various methods and variables for managing portfolios, placing orders, and more.
- Universes and Pipelines: QuantConnect uses Universes to dynamically select assets for trading or data requests, similar to Pipelines in other platforms. This includes coarse and fine universe selection functions to filter assets based on fundamental factors.
- Scheduling Functions: The platform allows users to schedule events and functions, similar to Quantopian’s `schedule_function()`, enabling automated execution of strategies at specific times or intervals.
Plans and Access
While backtesting is free, live trading requires a subscription to a Quant Researcher membership and a live trading node. The platform offers various plans to accommodate different user needs, making it accessible for both individual traders and institutional investors.
In summary, QuantConnect is a powerful, community-driven platform that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for quantitative trading, from research and backtesting to live trading, all within an open-source and cost-effective framework.
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