Downloading tick data using command line options

Modified on Sun, 13 Dec 2020 at 06:14 PM

This article is meant for users with a working knowledge of the Windows command line, application arguments, editing shortcuts and working with scheduled tasks. If you are not familiar with these, it would be a good idea to do some external reading about them before proceeding.


You can automatically download or refresh your tick data by means of command line parameters. If desired, you can perform this operation periodically via the Task Scheduler.


Please note that attempting this will fail if you already have an instance of the Tick Data Manager running.


If you use the Tick Data Manager frequently and you would like to schedule tick data updates via the Task Scheduler I recommend making a batch file that prompts you to quit the existing Tick Data Manager instance prior to running the new one (you can use tasklist for that purpose).


You can also make a copy of your Tick Data Manager shortcut and make the new shortcut start it with the desired arguments.


It's important to note that the parameters can be specified multiple times in the same command line - as you will see in the examples below, you can specify all the operations in a single iteration.


Available command line options


/download:provider:symbol(s)
will queue a download of the complete data range for the specified provider and symbol(s), with the override set to disabled.


If the provider has spaces in its name these should be removed. For example Alpari ProECN becomes AlpariProECN.


An asterisk (*) can be used to specify all the symbols available for the provider.


Example:

Tick Data Manager.exe /download:Dukascopy:EURUSD /download:TrueFX:USDCAD,USDCHF


/update:provider:symbol(s)

will queue a download for the data for the specified provider and symbol(s) available since the most recent date in your database. This is essentially a "resume". If you have no data, it is the same as the /download switch.


As above, if the provider has spaces in its name these should be removed. For example Alpari ProECN becomes AlpariProECN.


An asterisk (*) can be used to specify all the symbols available for the provider.


Example:

Tick Data Manager.exe /update:TrueFX:* /update:Dukascopy:EURUSD,USDCAD,AUDJPY,NZDCAD


/update:*

Queues downloading new data for all the symbols that already have some data downloaded.

This option became available in Tick Data Suite v2.2.9.


Example:

Tick Data Manager.exe /update:*


/dontquit

Starting with v2.1.5, the Tick Data Suite will automatically quit when the tasks performed as a consequence of the /download and /update parameters are finished. To disable this behavior, add the /dontquit command line parameter.


Example:

Tick Data Manager.exe /update:TrueFX:* /dontquit