Quote from cstfx:
1. Only need $400 USD to open an account and minimum trade size is 1000 units
2. They support VB, C (and C++ and C# as welll), and Excel to interface with their Navigator (fully Microsoft COM-compliant development platform) which means Visual Studio able
3. #1 on Barrons? So is TOS and IB. Depends on how you read the results.
As to automated trading with them, have you taken a look at using Ninjatrader to write some automation? Their Ninjascript is C# and the engine is already there. Much easier than starting from scratch.
Oh, and they are pretty decent fx brokers overall. Only real complaints are the commish is 50% higher than IB and they have limits on ACH withdrawals.