SL4 was originally designed and created by traders who required certain informational alerts, charting algorithms, montage layouts, and other informational displays for their own trading -- all of which were not available anywhere else (and, outside of SL4, are still not available to this day). In fact, its first incarnation about 8 years ago was in TradeStation, which is still a great product, but TradeStation did not support many of the required tasks for such an application (such as processing Level II data and programming algorithms using it, to mention just one). SL4 focuses on features not available elsewhere. Just about every firm makes decent candlestick charts, has Top 10 lists, can show full news stories, etc. If someone wants the type of standard charting (moving averages, stochastics, candlestick, daily, tick charts) that TradeStation does so well, or the ability to program their own systems based on chart data, they should still keep their TradeStation subscri!
ption. We're not in this business to provide one more product like every other one out there. Just about every feature we have implementated has some level of proprietary nature to it -- that's our focus. With TradeStation, one must still program and test systems, buy other systems, and do additional research, which can translate to thousands of dollars more and still not provide someone with a trading strategy that they are comfortable with. With SL4, they can focus on applying the advanced proprietary algorithms and displays on developing a personalized trading methodology most suitable for their style of trading. We would definitely consider an integration with TradeStation's quote and execution environment. However, we do not agree with their per-ticket pricing model ($14.95-$9.95). If they were to offer a reasonable cents-per-share model as an alternative to their per-ticket model, we believe this could be an excellent synergy. The per-ticket model is also the same problem faced by RealTick brokers as well, by the way, and is
the reason why we really haven't followed that path for integration. Of course, if there is enough demand from traders who are willing to pay a high ticket price to a broker, maybe we'll reconsider this stance. Regarding automated trading, as mentioned previously, there is an Order Execution API available that works based on simple Windows Messaging. You can place or cancel orders, see open orders, and get open position info for any trading account linked into SL4, as well as get status updates on routes available, connection availability, etc.