sounds like OP is trading open..yeah that's a tough one but if rules are strict and no discretion-it can be automated. the way OP describes-semi automated. just give me yes or no and all i have to do is just hit buy\sell button. i have something similar too on one account.
You can also use our Strategy Wizard which does not require any programming at all. tp://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/strategy_wizard.htm
An alternative is to get someone to program for you but you give an alternative but similar strategy. Once all coded, remove the red heering(s) and add your small amount of valid code. Possibly your biggest issue is determining which best platorm to use. That takes homework, but once you have that in place it can be straightforward enough.
If you are using IB: IB provides API and you can automate and build your automated or semi-automated system in Excel, .Net (using activeX)or C++. This is for intermediate to advanced programmers but beginners can use it too. It is not easy because some features are not well documented and API in essence is programmer to programmer not to end user kind of design. This route is time consuming and if you hire somebody it can be costly. It is free and if you have time to experiment and search for answers then you can try it but at times it can become full time job. Another option is to use third party off the shelf package that can be customized but then you have less flexibility and time investment might not be trivial too. If you never programmed before than building system yourself is difficult because you have to deal with networking, sockets, input/output, graphics, data management, errors and exceptions, other programmers API and it has to work in real time.
If the strategy can be defined in words then most likely it can be programmed for automated execution. The bigger question is - does it make any sense and is it worth the effort. We do systems development work both for hire and for spec and are approached constantly for spec development. Some we do and have worked. Most do not. Jack
right then. had a chat with my father; in the event that he is not able to live up to expectations.. if anybody could give me any information at all regarding the likely costs of hiring a developer to help code my strategy it would be very much appreciated, thanks. i mean very roughly of course. what kind of ball park figure. (although i don't know anything about anybody else's methods, if i had to guess, i would say my rules are "rather complicated").