Search results

Regular exchanges don't permit odd lot orders that initiate new positions. So my guess is most (or all?) of your orders are being internalized by IB's Timber Hill unit, hence IB is your counterparty. As the orders are not going to an exchange, my guess is that you may experience a...

I think it would be easier to go the other way around -- write your own top-level program that uses whatever order input methods you code yourself, send symbols to some news app, etc.; then use the Sterling API to place the orders. A related idea: there are ways to control Windows programs...

Your odds of success are probably far better in starting some other type of business. Trading is a shrinking field, especially as the short-term movements of securities become more efficient owing to computerized competition. And it's not as if the computers are now earning "all the profits"...

The real problem here is the absurdity of having a capital gains tax at all (at least in its current form). It creates endless complications, all while disincentivizing efficient reinvestment. And on top of that, there's an issue of fairness - why should foreign residents pay 0% to the IRS...

There is a wide range of brokers that fall somewhere between IB and GS in terms of minimum account size, pricing, etc.; and this question has been asked before on ET, for example: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=238469

I know you're not asking me, but I'm confident in saying that this is an incredibly comlplex problem. Exchanges are adding ever-more complex (and rapidly changing) pricing schemes and order types in an effort to differentiate themselves in a market where differentiation is getting ever harder...

At first glance I like the idea of a half-second minimum lifespan (for most order types at least), but if regulators impose this then I sure hope that they don't exempt "market makers", a designation which most of the large US HFT's have now obtained.

These ideas come mostly from academia -- I'm sure you've heard of Eugene Fama, EMH, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis For something that's probably closer to the timeframe of traders, I suggest checking this guy's work out...

This looks like B/D internalization and/or payment-for-order-flow. Retail orders don't go to a real exchange anymore -- they go to the PFOF oligopoly for the fleecing they deserve: http://www.cnbc.com/id/38974297/Man_Vs_Machine_Tracing_Trades_Through_Electronic_Maze I couldn't agree more...

Earning outsized returns on capital is a highly competitive field (as it should be) with most successful having the greatest dollar weight in pushing prices towards perfect efficiency, so common sense isn't going to be enough.

Sorry for not answering your question directly, but are you not aware that nearly all (if not 100%) of "forex robots" that are sold to the public are flat-out frauds? There is absolutely no incentive to sell a profitable automated system publicly -- it just doesn't make sense for the creator of...

Many HFT's were there for the whole thing and had their "best day of the year", according to the Tradeworx honcho, even though he himself pulled the plug. And anyway, just what is an HFT? In liquid issues, aren't almost all bids are put up by HFT's and/or similar buyside algorithms? What...

If this is a serious post, I'm almost certain that you'll blow out your $3000 very quickly. Retail forex is a horrible market -- your counterparty is your broker, which is a potentially fatal problem right out of the gate. This is a bit oversimplified, but on average it's true: when you lose...

Oh, the irony! Fidelity itself, on its retail brokerage side, is a significant source of one of the major problems that causes a lack of liquidity, which is broker-dealer internalization and off-exchange payment-for-order-flow deals. For many small/mid caps, orders almost never hit a real...

.0002 / share seems pretty cheap to me. What kind of volume do you need to run to get that type of a rate? And does that include clearing?

I think that no economically rational agent would ever sell purely automated trading software that really works. So anything that's sold as such is all but guaranteed to fail, unless you're adding some serious value yourself (e.g., by extending the code or doing something discretionary in...

That's pretty imaginative, but I doubt it's even remotely true. Mary Schapiro seems to be targeting quote stuffing; see, e.g.: http://www.nanex.net/aqck/2816.HTML If you're spamming orders in with a really bad fill rate (whatever that is -- there's lots of subjectivity there), then you're...

Never used it, but QuickFIX claims to have a .NET wrapper, which may be useful if your broker allows you to connect via FIX: http://quickfixengine.org/quickfix/doc/html/building.html

For the record, this post on ET has a large list of pro and semi-pro brokerages, some of which are no longer in business:

Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge. It does indeed appear that you've the "real deal" and have a lot figured out, and you've added a lot to the site in the short time you've been here.