Newb to programming but slowly opening up to the idea that it is very beneficial for trading and also for holding down a regular job outside of trading. Right now I am contemplating the first language to learn.. So far I am stuck between Java or Python. What would you recommend for someone new to programming but wants to have the most impact in regards to trading?
If your objective is to develop a trading system, then it's not my area of expertise. But if your intention of programming knowledge is to support your charting software, then any programming language will do. I used perl to download stock data(end of day), process data from charting software(Amibroker) and output to Excel spreadsheet and occasionally Excel VBA to update my spreadsheets.
C# or Python. You are going to find C# more prevalent with commercial trading platforms where as there are a ton of open source python packages for trading.
C#. It's OO, easy to learn, versatile, powerful and with abundance of documentation and guides online. A lot of 3rd-party trading software with custom programming ability like MultiCharts use it. IB's own API, if you want o program your own trading system to connect directly to IB uses it too.
Python is slow, though widely supported. I found golang perfect for my use cases. Depends how much calculations you need. One extreme is full use of GPU (I'm not there), the other is full blown charting package, where I found Ninjatrader useful. Understanding your true needs is half the battle.
Would you mind posting the part of the Perl script for connecting to the internet and downloading data from a particular website? Or point me to a good, concise book on the subject. Thanks a lot.
Although I've heard about Perl I never investigated it. I didn't know Java when I started but learned at that time (about 5 years ago?) that it was the most stable API version IB had on offer. So I decided to spend time learning Java, followed by making my own trading software. Over the years have I collected my software and now it has become much easier to combine bits and pieces from previous code into new code. This makes that I'm reluctant to switch to another language. Also: I'm not sure whether IB offers a Perl API.
There is no need to switch. In fact, Java programs run faster since they are compiled vs Perl scripts, which are interpreted. Is the IB trading platform (or TDameritrade's thinkorswim) not powerful enough to implement your trading system?