It's open source, supports all major native order types (stop/limit/market) and most other order types.
Has super fast simulation capabilities for testing offline, and it's broker neutral. So if you get a better deal with non-IB broker later on you can switch without modifying your code.
tradelink supports 17+ brokers and data feeds. 300 users on community list.
Sierra Chart works great for automated trading and supports custom programming as well. I've used it for over 2 years so far with different automated strategies and it is very flexible and reliable once you learn how to use it. No complaints other than sometimes the pre-releases and occasionally new release versions break existing functionality so it is best to test versions extensively before using live. Their support board is a great resource as well.
You can program your strategies (Ninjascript) in C##. Please note tho that Ninjatrader is a Windows app (.Net I believe) even tho the TWS is Java and can run on Windows, Mac, or Linux equally.
You can program your strategies (Ninjascript) in C##. Please note tho that Ninjatrader is a Windows app (.Net I believe) even tho the TWS is Java and can run on Windows, Mac, or Linux equally.