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shakti tiwari
shakti tiwari

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Building a Production ML Trading Dashboard with the Dhan API

#api #data #machinelearning

Real integration notes for wiring NIFTY ML models to live broker data via Dhan. Research/
paper-trading context — not a live-trading recommendation.

Why Dhan

Dhan's API exposes direct option-chain access — exactly what an options-ML system needs:

  • POST /optionchain — full chain for an underlying
  • POST /optionchain/expirylist — available expiries
  • Fields: security_id, last_price, volume, oi, previous_oi, implied_volatility, top_bid_price, top_ask_price, and greeks (delta/theta/gamma/vega)

Security IDs are stable: NIFTY = 13 (IDX_I), BANKNIFTY = 10001 (IDX_I).

The Pipeline Shape

A research dashboard pulls live chain + underlying, runs the trained XGBoost model on each
new 15-minute bar, and displays:

  • side score (CE/PE alignment)
  • gate state (entry ready / blocked)
  • contract quality scores
  • a doctrine/backtest report

Keep the inference path separate from the execution path. The dashboard shows; a
permissioned, human-approved module places orders.

Paper Trade First

The DhanLiveTrader pattern: load the model, predict on each new bar, place long orders with
configurable SL/TP (default 1.0 ATR SL, 2.0 ATR TP), and run in paper mode first. Only
after stable out-of-sample + paper evidence should any execution module even be considered.

{
  "client_id": "YOUR_DHAN_CLIENT_ID",
  "access_token": "YOUR_DHAN_ACCESS_TOKEN",
  "is_paper_trade": true,
  "nifty_symbol": "NIFTY",
  "quantity": 50,
  "max_trades_per_day": 3,
  "sl_atr_mult": 1.0,
  "tp_atr_mult": 2.0
}
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The Hard Part: Stops

A known footgun: using a Stop-Loss Limit (SL-L) order with price = sl − 0.05 means it
won't fill if price crashes through the stop. Prefer SL-Market for the protective stop.
Execution quality is its own research topic — don't bolt it on at the end.

Honest Status

The ML side of this stack showed real directional skill (60.5% top-decile accuracy) but the
fixed-SL backtest was still unprofitable (PF 0.53). A dashboard that displays an honest
"RESEARCH / PAPER" status is worth more than one that hides the gap.

Research only. Not investment advice. SEBI/compliance is a separate, required topic before live trading.

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