Hi, I have a background in click trading and automation went as far as spreading tools. I want to start programming and was wondering whether it is possible or a good idea to jump straight into matlab (even octave) and start with that? Any opinions? Has anyone trodden this path? Advice appreciated. Thanks!
Depends on your objectives. Excel VBA is usually the first step. But I've seen guys starting with Matlab and I believe it's not that hard.
you have money for matlab? I use python and R for modeling, hacks, charts, anything I can. http://www.pythonxy.com/ for production trading system I use java ,but c# and c++ could be used
There is a book called 'An Introduction to Matlab' floating around the net. It's designed for non programmers. You might want to download it an see if you can follow what they are saying. If you can't, have a look at simplier program.
Matlab's seamless integration with java, perl, C and ActiveX allow you to use the right tool for job all under the control of Matlab. There a plenty of examples around of Matlab/IB APIs using Java connection objects that are very straight forward. Matlab m-code is easy to learn and once learned can do amazing things with very short dense snippets of code. You can program Matlab OOP or just old school or both. People who excel at Matlab aren't necessarily genius programmers but rather people with a large vocabulary of Matlab functions they remember. If you possess a large verbal vocabulary you might find you are especially suited for this language. Matlab data is mostly 3-dimensional so if you can think in terms of 3-D data you are going to do well. I think you are asking the right questions and are on the right path. My good friend Duane Hanselman wrote Mastering MATLAB with Bruce Littlefield and I recommend this book. Good luck. My qualification to speak about this language is about 10-years experience. I've got a little code running at Citadel Global Equities, the USAF, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute of Health, University of Pennsylvania Neuro-Engineering Laboratories...well, I'll stop there. You get the idea.
Hi- if you don't mind my asking please advise the type of system and why you use java as opposed to c# / c++? Thank you.
Thank you everyone for the replies so far. And thanks ohm for the detailed response. Please do add more as I am still thinking things through.
matlab has a function urlread which can be used to read web page source data into a character array which can then be processed to extracate info of interest: [s stat] = urlread(['http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=' ticker]); You can do GUIs in matlab too. The aim is to use whatever programming method you prefer to develop tools that aid trading and focus on the trading rather than get bogged down in programming details.