Good broker for automated futures and options trading?
- Thread starter snackly
- Start date
Mirus Futures. Give you a decent API, and the Zen Fire data feed 
The API is from ZenFire, you have to contact them.
I personally started hating ninja yesterday Could not get a SIMPLE strategy working for a whole day, and no way to debug.
Their API is availavble in .NET and C++. it is relatively pure, but a dll - i.e. no ui etc. but they do a lot of stuff in it, and no source is available. For the C# part that I use it is:
* 2 dll's
* 3 certificates that you have to point the API to
* compiled 32 bit (sadly, will have to check to get a 64 bit version).
It is not optimal that way - I would like ONE dll, no cert files lying around (integrate them if you have to as resources) and the API could be a little more complete, but in general it is good.
What I miss most is a way to get symbols. No symbol list through the API.
The API also handles trades, or you go with a FIX based API for that (the brokers they have support that).
No historical data either
I will get ninja to get access to their historical data (not so much money there) but otherwise... that is what I plan to use and am implementing right now.
I personally started hating ninja yesterday
Could not get a SIMPLE strategy working for a whole day, and no way to debug.Their API is availavble in .NET and C++. it is relatively pure, but a dll - i.e. no ui etc. but they do a lot of stuff in it, and no source is available. For the C# part that I use it is:
* 2 dll's
* 3 certificates that you have to point the API to
* compiled 32 bit (sadly, will have to check to get a 64 bit version).
It is not optimal that way - I would like ONE dll, no cert files lying around (integrate them if you have to as resources) and the API could be a little more complete, but in general it is good.
What I miss most is a way to get symbols. No symbol list through the API.
The API also handles trades, or you go with a FIX based API for that (the brokers they have support that).
No historical data either
I will get ninja to get access to their historical data (not so much money there) but otherwise... that is what I plan to use and am implementing right now.
Quote from NetTecture:
The API is from ZenFire, you have to contact them.
I personally started hating ninja yesterday
Their API is availavble in .NET and C++. it is relatively pure, but a dll - i.e. no ui etc. but they do a lot of stuff in it, and no source is available. For the C# part that I use it is:
* 2 dll's
* 3 certificates that you have to point the API to
* compiled 32 bit (sadly, will have to check to get a 64 bit version).
It is not optimal that way - I would like ONE dll, no cert files lying around (integrate them if you have to as resources) and the API could be a little more complete, but in general it is good.
What I miss most is a way to get symbols. No symbol list through the API.
The API also handles trades, or you go with a FIX based API for that (the brokers they have support that).
No historical data either
I will get ninja to get access to their historical data (not so much money there) but otherwise... that is what I plan to use and am implementing right now.
Thx for the feedback. So the point of their API is purely for getting the market data, is that right? So you are not submitting any orders through it, it's just for the ZenFire data?
Ordinarily I'm opposed to running code that I didn't write for my trading systems, I would like a pure TCP/IP based protocol that I can setup streaming data from and then use FIX to manage the orders.
But as long as these DLLs are not touching or seeing my orders/account info, then I guess I could live with it.
What kind of commissions do they charge?
If you find one, please tell me!! I've been trying to find one for a while and can't find one. Other than FIX. But I'm concerned about performance and bandwidth of FIX for getting market data because it appears to be strictly a text and tag based protocol. That seems far bigger/less efficient than a binary one would be.
Zen-fire does allow you to do orders through their API, so you don't have to use a separate FIX API for that if you don't want to.
At this point I am leaning toward using zen-fire, but I'm developing in Java, so that would mean some sort of bridge between Java and C++ which is kind of a nuisance and would reduce performance (as opposed to Java connecting directly which I would prefer).
They charge no comissions But the clearing house does. CHeck http://www.mirusfutures.com/.
THey also do order handling, but if you go with Rosenthal Collins you can handle the orders through FIX
Nice thing about zen-fire is Pat - the guy in charge of development. He is AVAILABLE. And reasonable. Means: if you decide you want a separate id only for the stream, I am sure he will make that happen, so that while zen-fire does see accounts, it would only be simulated.
I am really impressed with Mirus so far, just opening accounts with Rosenthal Collins as their introducing broker. WIll be fun
But the clearing house does. CHeck http://www.mirusfutures.com/.THey also do order handling, but if you go with Rosenthal Collins you can handle the orders through FIX
Nice thing about zen-fire is Pat - the guy in charge of development. He is AVAILABLE. And reasonable. Means: if you decide you want a separate id only for the stream, I am sure he will make that happen, so that while zen-fire does see accounts, it would only be simulated.
I am really impressed with Mirus so far, just opening accounts with Rosenthal Collins as their introducing broker. WIll be fun