Frequently Asked Questions

General

Is QuantMage an investment adviser?

QuantMage is neither a broker-dealer nor an investment adviser. It is a software-as-a-service tool that you use at your own discretion.

Is QuantMage free to use?

While QuantMage isn’t entirely free, we offer a 14-day trial that doesn’t require any credit card details. For a detailed breakdown of our pricing, please visit our pricing page.

Is QuantMage suitable for day trading?

QuantMage is designed to trade at most once per day, based on the spell’s When To Trade setting. The data used for backtesting and trading is also daily, so it is not intended for high-frequency day trading.

Are options or cryptocurrencies available for trading on QuantMage?

Currently, QuantMage doesn’t support trading in options or cryptocurrencies.

How does threshold rebalancing function?

Threshold rebalancing kicks in when the difference between an asset’s target and current allocation percentage exceeds a set threshold. For instance, with a 10% threshold, if the target allocation is 30% but the current allocation is 19%, the 11% difference triggers a rebalance.

What is the schedule for weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly trading?

Trades are initiated on the very first market day of each designated period, whether it’s a week, month, quarter, or year.

Can I share my spell with non-users?

Absolutely! You can make your spell public and share its URL. While others can view and run backtests on your spell, they won’t be able to modify it unless they’re registered users who can clone the spell.

How can I keep my trading logic confidential?

With Grimoire’s Export/Import feature, you can avoid permanently storing your spell in our database. However, that also means you will not be able to use it for automated trading.

Can I access it from outside the US?

Absolutely! You can enjoy our services from anywhere in the world. Automated trading requires that the brokerage operates in your region. Plus, our trusted payment partner, Stripe, ensures seamless transactions from a wide range of countries.

What is the best way to migrate from Composer?

If you are moving from Composer, start with this guide for the smoothest migration path into QuantMage.

Backtesting (Grimoire)

How accurate is backtesting?

Our backtesting assumes that spell logic uses the day’s closing asset prices and that trades are executed at those prices. Automated trading happens near the market close each day when the trade setting requires it, so the difference is usually small. In volatile markets, however, even small price differences can be noticeable, especially if they cause the spell to end up in a different branch. Simulated trading also assumes fractional shares, or at least enough starting capital that share fractionality does not materially matter. Aside from these differences, backtesting and live trading use the same evaluation engine.

Is the historical data used for backtesting reliable?

Absolutely! We source our data from a top-notch provider, ensuring you get dividend- and split-adjusted historical prices.

My backtest shows impressive returns. Can I trust it?

With historical data and enough degrees of freedom, meaning enough parameters you can tweak, you can eventually produce an impressive result if you search long enough. As the saying goes, past performance is not indicative of future results, and if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. In practice, a straightforward and understandable strategy is usually preferable to an overly complex one.

How far back can backtesting go?

Our engine backtests using all available historical data (from our source) for the underlying assets.

Trading (Cast Spells)

Which brokerages are compatible with QuantMage?

At the moment, we support Alpaca. Alpaca offers free paper trading in addition to live trading, allowing you to explore QuantMage’s capabilities risk-free.

Is there a commission for trading with Alpaca?

Good news! When you trade U.S. equities with Alpaca, you won’t be charged any commissions. However, there might be other fees to consider. For a detailed breakdown, we recommend checking out this discussion on Alpaca’s official forum.

When are trades executed?

To align with our backtesting methodology, we aim to execute all trades close to the market close each trading day.

Are there instances when trades might not execute?

Yes. Unforeseen issues can arise, ranging from bugs on our end to brokerage-level problems such as low trading volume or delisting. If that happens, we aim to keep you informed and be transparent about the issue.

Can I mix my manual trading or trading from another app in the same brokerage account?

It is strongly recommended that you use the account only for QuantMage and avoid trading from other sources in the same account. Otherwise, the different systems can interfere with each other and create unexpected results.

Can you explain paper trading?

Paper trading is similar to real trading but uses virtual money. However, certain aspects like stock dividends and splits might not be covered. For a comprehensive understanding, check out Alpaca’s documentation.

Do you support IRA accounts?

Absolutely! Through our integration with Alpaca, you can link both Traditional and Roth IRAs to QuantMage alongside your taxable and paper accounts. IRA eligibility and account rules are handled by Alpaca and applicable regulations.

Why might there be a difference between live trading and backtested results?

The main reason is trade timing. Market volatility can cause meaningful price changes near the close. Backtesting assumes that trades and logic evaluations use closing prices, while live trading uses the latest prices available at execution time, so results can differ. Another source of tracking error is non-fractional tickers. If the capital allocated to the spell is too small, those tickers may not closely match their target allocations. QuantMage’s cube-icon warning for non-fractional tickers can help you identify this risk.

Why aren’t low-volume tickers recommended?

We source our real-time price data from the IEX Exchange, which doesn’t cover the entire market. For stocks with low trading volumes or liquidity, IEX might show very little or even no activity. This can lead to real-time prices that are inaccurate or outdated for those tickers. To ensure you’re getting reliable and up-to-date information, we recommend focusing on stocks with higher trading volumes.

What about dividend payouts?

If your spell remains active through the dividend payment date, any cash dividend you receive will be automatically reinvested into the same spell it originated from. This default behavior can be turned off for each spell.

If I invest in multiple spells, will I be labeled a pattern day trader?

No. Our trading engine groups the required actions and handles net sells before net buys each day, so you will not be flagged for day trading for that reason alone.

What’s the max number of tickers I can use in a spell?

Keep in mind that Alpaca has a rate limit of 200 requests per minute for each account. If your spell results in more than 200 trades in a day, you may run into issues.

Is it a good idea to invest all the funds in my brokerage account into QuantMage spells?

We recommend leaving some extra cash as a buffer. Investing all available funds can cause buy orders for non-fractional shares to fail because of last-minute price changes and insufficient buying power. To reduce that risk, keep at least 0.1% of your funds in cash. If several of your spells can hold non-fractional positions at the same time, consider leaving a larger buffer. For example, if your account has around $10,000, leave at least $10 in cash.