Brokerages
Prime Brokerages
Introduction
The Lean CLI supports local live trading with all brokerages supported by LEAN, which makes the transfer from backtesting to live trading as seamless as possible. The Lean CLI also supports starting live trading for a cloud project on any of the brokerages supported in the cloud. We recommend live trading your projects in our cloud because we provide a battle-tested, colocated infrastructure racked in Equinix, maintained by our engineers to ensure the best possible stability and uptime. This page contains instructions on how to start live trading with the Terminal Link brokerage.
Asset Classes
Terminal Link supports trading the following asset classes:
You may not be able to trade all assets with Terminal Link. For example, if you live in the EU, you can't trade US ETFs. Check with your local regulators to know which assets you are allowed to trade. You may need to adjust settings in your brokerage account to live trade some assets.
Orders
Terminal Link enables you to create and manage Bloomberg™ orders.
Order Types
The following table describes the available order types for each asset class that Terminal Link supports:
Order Type | Equity | Equity Options | Futures |
---|---|---|---|
MarketOrder | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
LimitOrder | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
StopMarketOrder | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
StopLimitOrder | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Time In Force
Terminal Link supports the following TimeInForce instructions:
Day
GoodTilCanceled
GoodTilDate
Get Open Orders
Terminal Link lets you access open orders.
Monitor Fills
Terminal Link allows you to monitor orders as they fill through order events.
Updates
Terminal Link doesn't support order updates.
Cancellations
Terminal Link enables you to cancel open orders.
Historical Data
When LEAN taps into Bloomberg™ via Terminal Link, it can run backtests and research notebooks with rich historical data sourced from the Bloomberg™ Terminal. LEAN provides accurate slippage, spread, and transaction fee models for realistic backtesting. All models are customizable to adapt to your strategy requirements. Historical data is cached locally in an efficient format for quick backtesting in the LEAN engine. If you request intraday historical data, you can request data from within the last 6 months. Historical open interest and custom data isn't available.
Compliance
Bloomberg™ is not affiliated with QuantConnect, nor does it endorse Terminal Link. All users of the integration must hold a Bloomberg™ License to be defined as an “Entitled User.” All products must be used in accordance with established licensing terms set by Bloomberg™. All data accessed via the Bloomberg™ Desktop API must remain on the host computer. The Bloomberg™ Terminal and the LEAN instance must be on the same computer. The Bloomberg™ Server API cannot be used for black-box trading. Any Bloomberg™ Server API Data usage will require soliciting permission via the Bloomberg™ Permission System. QuantConnect requires installing the LEAN GUI along with any Terminal Link subscription.
The following rules apply:
- All users of the integration must hold a Bloomberg License to be defined as an "Entitled User".
- All data accessed via the Bloomberg Desktop API must remain on the host computer. The Bloomberg Terminal and the LEAN instance must be on the same computer.
- The Bloomberg Server API cannot be used for black-box trading. Any Bloomberg Server API Data usage will require soliciting permission via the Bloomberg Permission System.
The following table shows the activities each of the Bloomberg technologies support:
Technology | Research | Backtesting | Paper Trading | Live Trading |
---|---|---|---|---|
Desktop API | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
B.PIPE | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Server API | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | - |
CLI Commands
Execute the CLI commands in the following sections to interact with Terminal Link. If you need further assistance, see the CLI Reference.
Run Local Backtests
Launch local backtests with data from the Bloomberg Terminal desktop API. Lean automatically fetches the data required for your backtest.
$ lean backtest "<projectName>" --data-provider "Terminal Link"
Launch Research Notebooks
Start Jupyter Research Notebooks, tapping into the entire QuantConnect API with the data sourced from a Bloomberg Terminal.
$ lean research "<projectName>" --data-provider "Terminal Link"
Deploy Live Algorithms
Launch live trading algorithms to trade with any of the 1300+ routing destinations in the Bloomberg EMSX network.
$ lean live "<projectName>" --brokerage "Terminal Link" --data-feed "Terminal Link"
Deploy Local Algorithms
Follow these steps to start local live trading with the Terminal Link brokerage:
- Open a terminal in the organization workspace that contains the project.
- Run
lean live "<projectName>"
to start a live deployment wizard for the project in . / <projectName> and then enter the brokerage number.$ lean live "My Project" Select a brokerage: 1) Paper Trading 2) Interactive Brokers 3) Tradier 4) OANDA 5) Bitfinex 6) Coinbase Pro 7) Binance 8) Zerodha 9) Samco 10) Terminal Link 11) Atreyu 12) Trading Technologies 13) Kraken 14) TD Ameritrade Enter an option:
- Enter the environment to use.
$ lean live "My Project" Environment (Production, Beta): Production
- Enter the host and port of the Bloomberg server.
$ lean live "My Project" Server host: 127.0.0.1 Server port: 8194
- Enter your EMSX configuration
$ lean live "My Project" EMSX broker: someValue EMSX account:
- Enter your Open FIGI API key.
$ lean live "My Project" Open FIGI API key:
- Enter the number of the data feed to use and then follow the steps required for the data connection.
$ lean live "My Project" Select a data feed: 1) Interactive Brokers 2) Tradier 3) Oanda 4) Bitfinex 5) Coinbase Pro 6) Binance 7) Zerodha 8) Samco 9) Terminal Link 10) Kraken 11) TD Ameritrade 12) IQFeed 13) Polygon Data Feed 14) Custom data only To enter multiple options, separate them with comma.:
-
View the result in the <projectName> / live / <timestamp> directory.
Results are stored in real-time in JSON format.
You can save results to a different directory by providing the
--output <path>
option in step 2.
If you select IQFeed, see IQFeed for set up instructions.
If you select Polygon Data Feed, see Polygon for set up instructions.
If you already have a live environment configured in your Lean configuration file, you can skip the interactive wizard by providing the --environment <value>
option in step 2.
The value of this option must be the name of an environment which has live-mode
set to true
.