momentum-system/GO_LIVE.md

Go Live — market-open runbook

The system is verified end-to-end on real data (Postgres backend, sub-$20 discovery, live signals in the morning window). This is how to run and monitor it at the open.

0. Preconditions (already done)

• Postgres reachable at 127.0.0.1:5432 (your LAN instance via the port proxy).
• .env has DATABASE_URL=postgresql://admin:password@127.0.0.1:5432/momentum and valid ALPACA_API_KEY / ALPACA_SECRET_KEY.
• Linux venv at /home/philip/.venvs/momentum.

1. Start it (LIVE PAPER TRADING — enabled)

cd /mnt/c/code/momentum
PYTHONPATH=. /home/philip/.venvs/momentum/bin/python run_live_paper.py --no-dashboard

Each loop: discover sub-$20 most-actives, ETF-filtered (every 5 min) → ingest 1-min bars (every 60s) → watch/evaluate (every 30s) → on a ready signal, auto-arm a bracket order to your Alpaca paper account → sync account/positions → guard unfilled entries. Stop with Ctrl-C (graceful).

Guardrails (.env): 1% risk/trade, max 3 concurrent, 2R targets, and a -3% daily-loss circuit breaker that halts new entries. Trading window 9:30–10:35 ET.

Start it a few minutes before 9:30 ET so the premarket screen + daily backfill are warm at the open.

2. The trading window

Signals fire 9:30–10:35 ET. The entry cutoff is 10:30 ET (+5 min grace, Ross-Cameron style) — after that, qualifying setups are marked late, not ready. So watch the first hour.

3. Monitor (any terminal, or remotely)

M="PYTHONPATH=. /home/philip/.venvs/momentum/bin/python momentum_cli.py"
$M watch                  # LIVE auto-refreshing board — the real-time view
$M doctor                 # PASS/WARN/FAIL across every stage
$M inspect signals        # ready board + per-symbol gap/rvol/status
$M inspect bars           # per-symbol bar counts + freshness (are bars flowing?)
$M inspect criteria RGNT  # full per-criterion reasons for one symbol
$M inspect discovery      # current sub-$20 universe + ranked gappers
$M inspect events --limit 30

Or point pgAdmin at the momentum DB (events, daily_bars, minute_bars, scanner_snapshots are all live). For a polished remote dashboard: cd grafana && docker compose up -d → http://localhost:3000 (see grafana/README.md).

4. Trading is ENABLED — how to dial it back

.env already has live paper trading on, with guardrails:

TRADING_EXECUTION_ENABLED=1
ALPACA_PAPER_SYNC_ENABLED=1
TRADING_AUTO_APPROVE=1            # auto-arm bracket orders (hands-off)
TRADING_MAX_DAILY_LOSS_PCT=0.03  # -3% daily-loss circuit breaker (implemented + verified)
TRADING_RISK_PER_TRADE_PCT=0.01  # 1% of equity per trade
TRADING_MAX_CONCURRENT_POSITIONS=3

• Manual approval instead of auto: TRADING_AUTO_APPROVE=0, drop --no-dashboard, approve each signal at http://127.0.0.1:8765.
• Observe only (no orders): TRADING_EXECUTION_ENABLED=0.
• The breaker at -3% halts new entries and flattens the book — cancels unfilled entries + market-closes open positions. Set TRADING_FLATTEN_ON_BREACH=0 for halt-only (leave positions open).

5. Tuning (env vars)

var	default	meaning
WATCHER_PRICE_MIN / MAX	1 / 20	discovery + watcher price band
DISCOVER_TOP	20	screener universe size
DISCOVER_INTERVAL_SECONDS	300	how often to re-screen
WATCHER_INTERVAL_SECONDS	30	evaluation cadence
LIVE_BARS_INTERVAL_SECONDS	60	minute-bar ingest cadence
WATCHER_MIN_BARS	10	min bars before evaluating

6. Reset to a clean slate (optional)

# clears event stream + scans; KEEPS the daily-bar gap baseline
/home/philip/.venvs/momentum/bin/python - <<'PY'
import psycopg2
c=psycopg2.connect("postgresql://admin:password@127.0.0.1:5432/momentum"); c.autocommit=True
c.cursor().execute("TRUNCATE events, scanner_snapshots")
PY

Known limitations (honest)

• quality_score is a constant 1.0, float_rotation is 0.0, spread_pct is null — these fields are not real metrics yet.
• News-catalyst discovery (RSS) exists but isn't wired into the watchlist.
• Free Alpaca IEX data is thinner than SIP, especially premarket — some sub-$20 names show few/no bars until volume builds.
• The screener can briefly rate-limit; discovery retries and falls back to a liquid sub-$20 list, so the watchlist stays tradeable.