Best programming language for trading?

heavenskrow said:
Newb to programming but slowly opening up to the idea that it is very beneficial for trading and also for holding down a regular job outside of trading.

Right now I am contemplating the first language to learn.. So far I am stuck between Java or Python.
What would you recommend for someone new to programming but wants to have the most impact in regards to trading?
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I'm not a programmer but we offer LS Trader and Realtick that both offer an API based on C++.
 
heavenskrow said:
Newb to programming but slowly opening up to the idea that it is very beneficial for trading and also for holding down a regular job outside of trading.

Right now I am contemplating the first language to learn.. So far I am stuck between Java or Python.
What would you recommend for someone new to programming but wants to have the most impact in regards to trading?
More...

Situations vary quite a bit, so rather than give a 'use language X' answer, I'll just suggest a few things to consider, in no special order:

- Which language(s) are you already most familiar with? Ones you already know, even modestly well, will obviously require less effort to apply. Also, consider languages which are similar to ones you know.

- Which development environments are most affordable to you? Programming language discussions often neglect the financial cost of the tools and associated libraries, packages, etc. Though many programming tools today are free of cost, some are not.

- Which ones integrate with other systems you care about? In this case, you may want the ability to easily connect to specific financial data sources, or to make trades on your behalf.

- Which language already has relevant code available for you to borrow (for example, from on-line sources)?

Good luck!
 
Combination of python and c++ is what I use, and subsequently recommend. It is a myth that python is slow. Poorly written python is slow. Many of the math modules are written in c or c++, so they tend to be only slightly slower.

I write my latency critical code in c++ and then use a pybind11 wrapper to extend the class into python for rapid development

Someone said IB API is c#...they also have a c++ API, and I'm willing to bet you can find a python interface on github...if not, maybe someday I'll be altruistic and upload one
 
thank you everyone for all your help!!!!

I use IB for executing trades, but thinkorswim for charting so will probably find a language that best suits TOS.
Have a lot to read and learn, probably will go for C++, java, or python for the start, thanks again!
 
HobbyTrading said:
Although I've heard about Perl I never investigated it. I didn't know Java when I started but learned at that time (about 5 years ago?) that it was the most stable API version IB had on offer. So I decided to spend time learning Java, followed by making my own trading software. Over the years have I collected my software and now it has become much easier to combine bits and pieces from previous code into new code. This makes that I'm reluctant to switch to another language. Also: I'm not sure whether IB offers a Perl API.
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Well IB's whole TWS is written in Java so it's no surprise that it would offer its API in Java but IB does not offer an API in Perl. IB only offers API in C#, Java, Python and Excel DDE.
 
HobbyTrading said:
Someone said IB API is c#...they also have a c++ API, and I'm willing to bet you can find a python interface on github...if not, maybe someday I'll be altruistic and upload one
More...

IB used to offer the API in C++ but no longer does anymore.
 
heavenskrow said:
thank you everyone for all your help!!!!

I use IB for executing trades, but thinkorswim for charting so will probably find a language that best suits TOS.
Have a lot to read and learn, probably will go for C++, java, or python for the start, thanks again!
More...

There is no languages to be learned for TOS. It uses its own proprietary scripting language called Thinkscript and is not compatible with any programming languages out there. If you want to "program" in TOS, you will have to learn Thinkscript, the most pain in the a** scripting language you will ever learn, super tedious, super slow and VERY limited in functionality. It's basically just a charting script. Good luck!
 
elitenapper said:
Would you mind posting the part of the Perl script for connecting to the internet and downloading data from a particular website? Or point me to a good, concise book on the subject. Thanks a lot.
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Code: 
use strict;
use LWP::Simple;
my $url ="http://www.blah.com"
my $content = get($url);
 
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