IBKR Trading Bot

A modular, extensible trading bot for Interactive Brokers with a focus on strategy development and testing.

Overview

This bot provides a framework for implementing and executing trading strategies with Interactive Brokers (IBKR). It supports both paper trading and live trading, with a focus on safety, extensibility, and strategy development.

Features

• Connect to IBKR via TWS or IB Gateway API
• Paper trading support for safe testing
• Multiple strategy support
• Real-time and historical data handling
• Order management with various order types
• Performance tracking and reporting
• Backtesting framework

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7+
• Interactive Brokers account
• TWS (Trader Workstation) or IB Gateway installed and running
• IBKR Python API installed

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/alfredpjose/IKBR_trader_bot.git
cd IKBR_trader_bot

2. Install the required dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Install the IBKR Python API:

pip install ibapi

Setting Up IBKR TWS or IB Gateway

1. Launch TWS or IB Gateway
2. Go to Edit -> Global Configuration -> API -> Settings
3. Enable "Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients"
4. Set the Socket port to 7497 for paper trading or 7496 for live trading
5. Disable "Read-Only API"
6. Check "Allow connections from localhost only" (for security)

Configuration

Customize the settings in src/config/settings.py or create a custom configuration file:

# Example custom configuration
{
    "IBKR_HOST": "127.0.0.1",
    "IBKR_PORT": 7497,
    "IBKR_CLIENT_ID": 1,
    "MAX_POSITIONS": 5,
    "MAX_POSITION_SIZE": 0.1,
    "ENABLE_STOP_LOSS": true,
    "STOP_LOSS_PERCENT": 0.05
}

Running the Bot

Test Connection

First, test the connection to IBKR:

python src/main.py --test-connection

Run in Paper Trading Mode

To run the bot in paper trading mode:

python src/main.py --mode paper

Run with a Specific Strategy

To run the bot with a specific strategy:

python src/main.py --mode paper --strategy momentum

Run with a Custom Configuration

To run the bot with a custom configuration file:

python src/main.py --mode paper --config path/to/config.json

Project Structure

IKBR_trader_bot/
├── src/                          # Main source code
│   ├── main.py                   # Application entry point
│   ├── config/                   # Configuration files
│   ├── core/                     # Core functionality
│   ├── connectors/               # IBKR API connectors
│   ├── strategies/               # Trading strategies
│   ├── data/                     # Data handling
│   ├── backtesting/              # Backtesting engine
│   └── utils/                    # Utilities
├── tests/                        # Unit and integration tests
├── logs/                         # Log files
└── historical_data/              # Historical price data

Creating Custom Strategies

To create a custom strategy, inherit from the BaseStrategy class:

from src.strategies.base_strategy import BaseStrategy

class MyCustomStrategy(BaseStrategy):
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(name="MyStrategy", **kwargs)
        # Custom initialization
    
    def generate_signals(self):
        # Implement your strategy logic here
        # Return a list of signals
        signals = []
        return signals

Safety Features

• Paper trading mode for safe testing
• Position size limits
• Stop-loss protection
• Risk management checks
• Disconnect handling

Disclaimer

This trading bot is provided for educational and research purposes only. Trading securities involves risk, and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.