You don't have to be a quant to use matlab. matlab is simply a programming language that enables you to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran. It is by far my favorite language!
Umm, you mean slower than C/C++ etc., but with many useful built-in functions that allow fast development of mathematically complex algorithms. Don't get me wrong, I love Matlab and use it all the time, but it's not popular for its speed (or lack thereof).
sorry... FASTER = WITH LESS CODE.... Matlab 2007a now supports multi threading, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the speed!
Thank you for the comments. We are not into deep concerning programming and need an easy to use tool for algorithmic trading. I think, if it is easy to use I will ask a salesperson from mathworks to come by.
Personally, in terms of computation, Mathematica is by far the best out there. I use it for volatilty modeling/forecasting on a very large scale. Performance wise, Matlab pales in comparison when manipluting large arrays of data using built in functions. If you can stomach the price ($1800), Mathematica is the way to go.
I think you are wording this inaccurately. Matlab won't run algorithms faster than if you hand coded them in C++ etc. In fact, it will run them much slower (on average). What it will do is allow you to go from conception to running algorithm far faster than if you did it in C++ etc, assuming you can state a trading algorithm mathematically. Matlab is an interactive environment with mathematical modeling in mind. Remember, there is more to algorithmic trading (as opposed to modeling) than coming up with a model to get theoretical prices. There is position managment, there is order management, there is error handling, there is feed data handling, etc. Matlab doesn't even come close to dealing with these things out of the box. nitro
Mathematica is better at symbolic solutions and is a far bigger program than Matlab. It supports several programming paradigms, in particular functional programming. Matlab is closer to an imperative programming language like C++. I have never done the performance tests, but I would wager you that Mathamatica is not faster than Matlab, in fact the reverse is far more likely true. I think people should own them both, just like people should probably own both a TI 84+ and a TI 89 Titanium calculators. My TI 89 is never far from ams length. nitro
i thought rts was just a frontend trading system like orc and actant. there are alternatives to matlab like python/scipy combo. I am not sure why you would spend the money on matlab only to lock yourself into it.