Custom Strategy Code (IP) - which platform(s) to trust?

[userque]

No, some non-professional who started the thread is struggling to comprehend why the chances of some NT "insider" stealing his golden goose are zero, since the vast majority of serious operators don't fool around with retail platforms. They build their own, or have someone build it for them. Not easy, but well worth it if you have clear cut specifications.

Yeah, I recall that. I don't believe the chances are zero. Zero is such a strong word.

Non-professionals are capable of having a profitable system.
Platform employees aren't "Professional" traders and may be interested in a profitable system, if it wasn't create by/for a "professional."

Odd vibe in this forum.

 

[fractalize]

Non-professionals are capable of having a profitable system

Retail traders are capable of having a profitable system, but the profitable ones operate like professionals do. Generally speaking, at least how I see it, if you pay capital gains tax you’re retail. If you pay income/self-employment tax you’re a professional.

 

[userque]

Retail traders are capable of having a profitable system, but the profitable ones operate like professionals do. Generally speaking, at least how I see it, if you pay capital gains tax you’re retail. If you pay income/self-employment tax you’re a professional.

This is true, and doesn't disagree with my contention: An employee at a "retail" platform, could be interested in stealing a profitable strategy; and such theft is technically possible.

 

[fractalize]

An employee at a "retail" platform, could be interested in stealing a profitable strategy; and such theft is technically possible.

Technically yes, probable no, since the risk grossly outweighs any reward/guarantee for that employee. My developer has all my IP, but wouldn’t know what to do with it. It’s much more complex than most here realize.

 

[userque]

Technically yes, probable no, since the risk grossly outweighs any reward/guarantee for that employee. My developer has all my IP, but wouldn’t know what to do with it. It’s much more complex than most here realize.

We agree. But that's not the message that was originally conveyed to the OP.

It's hard to know how risky it is for an employee to steal company intellectual properly. All 'known' avenues of theft are closed; yet, companies still get hacked by un-apprehended outside entities.

So, my point is that it may not be risky. The reward is based on the profitability of the stolen strategy; plus any added value.

Added value would be the size of the account the strategy will be applied to, and whether or not others are willing to pay for the strategy. There are many ways to monetize a good strategy.

Black swans aren't common either. But it's fine if folks want to consider them in their trading. It's fine if others don't.

 

[lvca]

Why don't you block & sniff the Trading SW to send messages to remote servers? That was my concern with Arcade Trader too (I am testing their downloadable version) and after almost 3 months, no packets have been sent outside. The only requests I can see are WebSocket and HTTP to Alpaca, TD Ameritrade and Polygon.io to retrieve data.

I guess you can do the same with other SWs, just block & sniff whatever it goes out.

And if you find something suspicious, please report it here!

 

[danielc1]

OP has moved on and is now worried about brokers reverse engineering the trades the system makes...

 

[lvca]

Algorithms that work with $<50K usually won't work with $Millions, so unless you have found a new way to make money from arbitrage, I doubt brokers/firms will spend hours to understand your algorithm.

Also, many algorithms perform well for weeks and months, but then they don't work anymore.

Really, it's more complicated than just "I found a hedge on the market, backtest results show incredible returns, now I'm worried somebody could steal it".

I've heard this so many times. And the first 20 times was me years ago

 

[danielc1]

Algorithms that work with $<50K usually won't work with $Millions, so unless you have found a new way to make money from arbitrage, I doubt brokers/firms will spend hours to understand your algorithm.

Also, many algorithms perform well for weeks and months, but then they don't work anymore.

Really, it's more complicated than just "I found a hedge on the market, backtest results show incredible returns, now I'm worried somebody could steal it".

I've heard this so many times. And the first 20 times was me years ago

It's a joke, my friend.

 

[EmilyZ]

Not to sound dismissive, but I really doubt anyone trading through Ninjatrader would have come up with anything worth copying. Despite everyone claiming to make 100% per year, I have not seen that many people here that have a clue and have not seen anyone doing something completely unique.

100% per month is ambitious, but 100% per year is very VERY VERY VERY realistic if you know what you're doing trading options. I would map out a collection of ways for you to do it but that would be an excessively long post. Just saying....as an options trader, 100% return on capital in a single trade is easy, I think we can agree on that. In 1 year, with compounding, I aim for 100x returns, that's 100 x my initial investment.