interactive brokers for scalping futures and Qs on algo trading infrastructure

[patrickrooney]

Hey folks,

I wanna thank you again for your kind input i received on a previous thread I started a while back. It really opened my eyes on how much i didn't know, and how naive I was.

Well, now i am back at it again..

I am interested in scalping the e-minis for small # of contacts say 1-5. I am fairly good at picking movements using volume data...but my concerns is speed of execution and reliability of data feed from from brokers.

so I am wondering whether it would be possible to scalp futures using IB holidng positions for say~1min? is their infra stucture fast enough for this kinda thing?

I do understand that HFTs have 1ms delay and are therefore very successful doing what they do....so how do successful futures scalper of 30yrs (@Handle123 ) do it?

what broker,data feed, tools do you use?

On a different note, I came across posts regarding automated trading and how folks are putting their trading strategies into code. I am familiar with coding (engineer) but I don't know where you guys run your algos? are the servers hosting your code co-located with the exchanges?

thanks

Trading Technologies, TT, provides a drag-and-drop DIY algo development tool, ADL, and our servers are colocated. You may read more about the TT platform here: https://www.tradingtechnologies.com/trading/tt-platform/

You may also click the "Start A Free 30-Day Trial" button in the upper right to try the platform yourself. The trial comes with 30 days of live CME data and you can trade against our matching engine in simulation.

 

[tiddlywinks]

I am interested in scalping the e-minis for small # of contacts say 1-5. I am fairly good at picking movements using volume data...but my concerns is speed of execution and reliability of data feed from from brokers.

I am an intraday (index)futures trader. I am not a scalper per-se, although on any given day, I do many scalp trades, some planned as such, others not. I am not an HFT trader. Further, I do not now, or ever have, held an account with IB. Some time has passed since I've evaluated IB as well. The following points will either be valid, or the IB-folk here will help update my information.

1) IB uses a snapshot data feed. It is not tick-by-tick. For HFT and/or scalping this is not optimal. IMO not even acceptable for that type of futures trading.

2) For futures, IB commissions are not impressive, bordering on expensive in the current futures marketplace. IB's depth of futures products however may reduce the size of that marketplace dependent on which instruments you intend to trade. For futures on US indexes, including ES, IB is not a low-cost leader, IMO.

3) For intraday scalping, IB intraday margins and the time-in-force policy may be considered conservative. Within the marketplace other intraday margin policies are available which may or may not have an effect on your daily trading, or your abilities to execute a specific trading plan.

As I said earlier, the points are either valid and true, or I will be schooled on what has changed or been updated.

Trade On!

 

[Robert Morse]

Further, I know you guys have offices in Chicago, New York, Boston and Los Angeles...how do you help your clients with the low latency issue involving the CME futures if they reside in Boston/Los Angeles area ???

P.S. I'm not a scalper and I live in Québec City, Canada but I do own a second home in the North Chicago area. Simply, if I were to do some scalping...it would seem logical to only do it from my home in North Chicago instead of from Québec City.

Sorry, I just read this. We have offices in NY and Chicago. We don't offer our own hosting for futures.

Yes, having your server or PC running in Chicago would make sense. You can remote to that, to trade from Canada.