Super fast trading - all automatic
- Thread starter trillenium
- Start date
Does anyone know of platforms for the retail trader that have a well documented API?
So far I know of:
Interactive Brokers - their's is free to use, well documented and has many automation apps available already.
Pats Systems(?) - J-Trader - I think there is a $1000 monthly fee.
Trading Technologies - X-Trader - I think they charge $1500 monthly.
The main advantage of developing to the later two platforms is that the introducing brokers that offer these systems have very low commission rates for higher volume traders. Also, if you lease a seat your commission rates will reflect member rates and become substantially lower.
I'm not familiar with what it takes to write to any of their APIs or where to find qualified programmers either...
If anyone knows more about the API subject and good options for someone who wants to automate, I'll all ears.
So far I know of:
Interactive Brokers - their's is free to use, well documented and has many automation apps available already.
Pats Systems(?) - J-Trader - I think there is a $1000 monthly fee.
Trading Technologies - X-Trader - I think they charge $1500 monthly.
The main advantage of developing to the later two platforms is that the introducing brokers that offer these systems have very low commission rates for higher volume traders. Also, if you lease a seat your commission rates will reflect member rates and become substantially lower.
I'm not familiar with what it takes to write to any of their APIs or where to find qualified programmers either...
If anyone knows more about the API subject and good options for someone who wants to automate, I'll all ears.
Realtick has a well-documented and powerful API. Access is included with their basic subscription costing $150/month. See https://secure.toolkit.taltrade.com/
IB apparently has a FIX API for high volume traders. I do not know much about it...
Pat systems also has a per transaction fee. There are two to three components to all comissions, 1) The Exchange fee, 2) the broker or comission fee, and 3) the software fee.
The Pat systems API is pretty stable as of last year when they changed their infrastructure. In addition, their software is relatively programmer friendly. However, I really dislike the .20 per transaction (thought there is supposed to be some sliding scale for monster volume,) but for "low" volume traders, this is close to being the perfect solution when you leave the retail world and start playing in the big leagues.
Yes, but that would be reflected regardless which broker you went with. Also, the exchange rules at the MERC are such that if you are in a partnership, the rate is calculated based on the lowest "rank" of the membership of the partnership, so that if one of you owns a seat and the other doesn't, you get charged based on his rates.
It wouldn't matter. A good design would provide an abstract interface that your programs would write to. Then you would instantiate whatever backend you were actually connecting to. This way, if you decide to change brokers, all you need to write to is the (new) back end.
The back ends are either a proprietary API, or a FIX API. If you need a qualified programmer, send me a line and I may be able to send someone your way...
For data or executions? For executions, I would look at PAT or Oconnor. There are others (like FFastTrade which I may get a chance to beta,) but I am not familiar enough to recommend them or not, yet.
The ultimate solution is to bypass all of this and put your own server at the MERC LAN and bypass the software API fees altogether...
nitro
REDI+ has a very simple VBA API in addition to VB and C++ API's. REDI+ Works for futures (mini's only) options and stock. You can very easily trade right from your Excel spreadsheet. Tradefactory has a bad ass JAVA API that is smokin' fast and can do anything you can imagine, works with stock and mini's, but not options. I mentioned these 2 because they are free if you clear through SLK. There are others that are even more powerful, but they are expensive (and complicated) enough that they are mostly used big hedge funds, floor brokers, MM's etc.
I have heard the same thing about REDI+, but I do not have first hand experience with them. Are you talking about the REDI+ FIX API or some other propietary REDI+ API?
Never heard of TradeFactory. I am on the website now. Is that sofware or an API or both?
Do you know if there are any retail brokers that clear SLK, or do you have to go to a Bright Trading to get SLK clearing?
Thanks for the tips.
nitro
This site might be of interest to anyone looking to develop their own front end for IB.
www.trademagic.net
Runningbear
www.trademagic.net
Runningbear
REDI+ also has a FIX interface which I forgot to mention. REDI+ has a very easy to use VBA link to Excel. So I guess the answer to your question is "Some other proprietary API".
Tradefactory does not have a website and does not advertise. Oh I am sure there is a website called tradefactory, but it is not the tradefactory that SLK gives to its customers. They use to charge big bucks for tradefactory by the way.....then they decided to give it out for free to their clearing customers. You can get a watered down version of tradefactory built right into the new REDI+, but you have to ask for it, because they don't advertise it at all. You can also get a very powerful stand alone version of Institutional Portfolio Trader (IPT) and spread trader (both Tradefactory products). Tradefactory has a JAVA API that is literally thousands of prebuilt JAVA classes that control data servers, order servers, etc. It is the most powerful API anyone will lay there hands on for less than the 12K+ per month you fork over for Flextrade. It is easy enough to jump right into and it can send 100+ orders/sec. Tradefactory is also a stand alone portfolio (basket) trading software. You can open an account directly with SLK and skip the middle men. Most people don't realize that it is possible for an individual to do this. You get to keep the money the introducing broker would have been pocketing. I think you need 100K to open an equities, 250K to open and trade futures and options. The equities, options, and futures accounts are linked together so you just need to put money in one place. For 1.5M you can open a prime brokerage account which gives you the option of trading anywhere you like and clearing through SLK.
Regards
Tradefactory does not have a website and does not advertise. Oh I am sure there is a website called tradefactory, but it is not the tradefactory that SLK gives to its customers. They use to charge big bucks for tradefactory by the way.....then they decided to give it out for free to their clearing customers. You can get a watered down version of tradefactory built right into the new REDI+, but you have to ask for it, because they don't advertise it at all. You can also get a very powerful stand alone version of Institutional Portfolio Trader (IPT) and spread trader (both Tradefactory products). Tradefactory has a JAVA API that is literally thousands of prebuilt JAVA classes that control data servers, order servers, etc. It is the most powerful API anyone will lay there hands on for less than the 12K+ per month you fork over for Flextrade. It is easy enough to jump right into and it can send 100+ orders/sec. Tradefactory is also a stand alone portfolio (basket) trading software. You can open an account directly with SLK and skip the middle men. Most people don't realize that it is possible for an individual to do this. You get to keep the money the introducing broker would have been pocketing. I think you need 100K to open an equities, 250K to open and trade futures and options. The equities, options, and futures accounts are linked together so you just need to put money in one place. For 1.5M you can open a prime brokerage account which gives you the option of trading anywhere you like and clearing through SLK.
Regards