protect intellectual property

Mtrader said:
I would like to start a thread about protection of your software. I read a few remarks about this in another thread. But apparently nobody really pays attention to this problem.
What is the problem? Almost all existing software is full of risk and does not protect your intellectual property at all. Many say: do you really think your trading techniques are so smart that they want to steal it? But that's not the point. The point is that what is mine should stay mine, no matter the value.
So I have already a few remarks:
  1. Tradestation: their so called protected eld's can be cracked in minutes, all you need is to pay a few $ and people will do it for you. So security ZERO. On top of that they have a continues connection with your computer. What for? There are other possibilities to do what they pretend they need it for. But they prefer to be able to watch everything they can find on your PC, including self build indicators, tradesplans.... So again security ZERO.
  2. Multicharts: the same remarks as for Tradestation. Security ZERO.
  3. Ninja Trader: the same remarks as for Tradestation. Security ZERO.
  4. Sierra charts: ????
  5. Amibroker: ????
My questions are:
  1. how can you protect yourself?
  2. Dll? And how does this work in detail?
  3. Special software to encrypt or obfuscate or....
Who has a (if possible waterproof) solution for this problem?
More...

I have always wondered what can be done in this area. It is good that you brought it up to the attention of the ET community. I would like to follow this thread's progress.
 
Mister X,
I would appreciate it if people would show at least basic politeness. Words like WTF should be avoided because they have no added value.

Moscow is in Russia, and your wife is not Russian. Georgia is 2000 km away from Moscow.

If you walk through certain areas in Russia, and even in Moscow, and if you think people follow you to rob you, most of the time it is not paranoia but reality. They rob you, and if you are lucky that's all they do.
I know Russia very well but will not go in details.

So what in some cases is really paranoia can be in other cases reality. It is important to know when it is what.
 
Mtrader said:
What is the use to protect if you cannot protect?

http://secureteam.net/ looks to me working for every program, not only for Amibroker. They pretent the code is unbreakable??????
If you watch their client list....
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Once again there is not "unbreakable". You can make it hard to be breakable. But only time decides for how long something is "secure" and how much effort is required.

Just send your dll to NSA and wait for how long it will take them to use some Microsoft backdoor.
 
M.ST. said:
Once again there is not "unbreakable". You can make it hard to be breakable. But only time decides for how long something is "secure" and how much effort is required.

Just send your dll to NSA and wait for how long it will take them to use some Microsoft backdoor.
More...

They probably found it already on my PC. So I only should ask them if they can read it? :D

On second thought I decided to send it to Snowden. Maybe he has better advice for me. o_O
 
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Mtrader said:
I would like to start a thread about protection of your software. I read a few remarks about this in another thread. But apparently nobody really pays attention to this problem.
What is the problem? Almost all existing software is full of risk and does not protect your intellectual property at all. Many say: do you really think your trading techniques are so smart that they want to steal it? But that's not the point. The point is that what is mine should stay mine, no matter the value.
So I have already a few remarks:
  1. Tradestation: their so called protected eld's can be cracked in minutes, all you need is to pay a few $ and people will do it for you. So security ZERO. On top of that they have a continues connection with your computer. What for? There are other possibilities to do what they pretend they need it for. But they prefer to be able to watch everything they can find on your PC, including self build indicators, tradesplans.... So again security ZERO.
  2. Multicharts: the same remarks as for Tradestation. Security ZERO.
  3. Ninja Trader: the same remarks as for Tradestation. Security ZERO.
  4. Sierra charts: ????
  5. Amibroker: ????
My questions are:
  1. how can you protect yourself?
  2. Dll? And how does this work in detail?
  3. Special software to encrypt or obfuscate or....
Who has a (if possible waterproof) solution for this problem?
More...
The value of your trading techniques is absolutely relevant. If you have a $500 car parked in a lot full of Porsches, it is worth it to put a $1000 LoJack system on it? Sure, it's your car and sure someone could steal it, but the chances of them doing so are vanishingly small given its absolute and relative value, and you'd be investing $1000 to protect a $500 car. If you want to build dlls to protect your program then knock yourself out. Run obfuscation programs (which I agree with other posters are easy to crack), do what you feel you need to. Just remember that there is a cost, and if you get too obsessed with "mine" you may end up spending so much on it that it seems foolish in retrospect.
 
I recommend coding your system yourself (Excel VBA, Python, etc.). Not releasing the source code nor application to anyone.

If clients are your thing, then I recommend only issuing signals (via Collective2, for example, or etc.).
 
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