I've recently been swept through a whirlwind of high-end financial software demonstrations. When I say "high-end" I'm speaking of products that are in the $5,000 to $20,000 a month range. Some of them I'm almost willing to pay for. All of them shared much of the same principles. Great manipulative databases and functions to capture and use data at any resolution you'd like. Complex system devlopment using CEP, powerful libraries, in C#, Java or both etc... Some could be created using visual development blocks, much like Simulink in Matlab. Sophisticated ways of replaying markets to ensure your systems function in real time the same way they are backtested. Some sort of strategy server to execute and monitor your strategies independently from the rest of the framework. Finally, the ability to route orders to any broker or exchange you'd like through means of API's,FIX or FIX hubs. All with great GUI's... Now, very obviously, this description pretty much fits the bill for most of the higher end stuff out there portware, aeigis, orc, apama, quanthouse etc... My question actually comes from a perspective of is there anything similar out there that you can actually buy or get source code to anymore? I'm familiar with all the opensource products like Marketcetera,Tradelink, ActiveQuant, TickZoom, everything on modulusfe etc... Although I don't think they would help me as much in the way of workflow as some of the higher end products would... A few years back I neglected to purchase the source code to QuantStudio, which is what QuantHouse is today, and see I definetley missed out, considering it was selling for 15k, and I could have spent money developing it. I feel pretty confident that I'm familiar with most products out there. Although I bumped into one that I never heard of before through a recomendation I saw in LinkedIn just the other day. To be honest it was one of the most impressive demonstration I had seen so far, but still followed the lease model and only had 20 clients. So in the spirit of that... Has anyone else seen similar products that you can either purchase outright, instead of lease? Or carry all the workflow functionality I'm looking for at lower leasing prices? Or be able develop with their products and pay for the actual deployment when it reaches the strategy server environment? Preferably on your own machines. Thanks for reading and any responses are appreciated.
Stuff like that can be developed. at a cost. Broker/Market connectivity will also be an issue. but most of what you are talking about is feasible.
@Big...I'd totally agree with you as far as what could be developed. Part of the reason I've had difficulty in choosing a product is because I'm lamenting over the idea that I could have bought source code a few years back...Spent $100k-200k in development over that time, and had everything I needed and more for what I'm doing. Instead of spending 500k or more over the next few years for what's out there now. I'm open to the idea of development still, but I already have some things working for me right now. So I'm more so trying to have them work in a more unified way by porting code to a specific platform ,and be able to easily expand from there. I use to work for a major firm when I was a bit younger, but I've been able to be almost a one man show, since I started out independently, aside from friends, partnerships and a few employees/contractors. To keep things the way I like them I always spend alot of money on infrastructure...mostly FIX hubs and servers. I've got limited needs to actually keep creating systems verse running them. So for most of what's out there I'd be spending alot of money for things I won't be using that often except for modifications. Leaving me between a rock and a hard place.
I don't know who you are clearing through or what exactly you are trying to do - but there are a bunch of open-source programs out there that will do just about everything you'd need. Send me a PM if you don't want to discuss online. I don't know why you would pay those amounts just for software that is "high end".
@WinstonTJ... Once again I'd agree about the development of some of the open source software that's available. Of course you're always faced with what needs to be extended and modified when it comes to most of those platforms. A few years ago I would thumb my nose up at some of the products out there that cost that much because I was willing to do it all myself. Now it's a function of workflow and productivity with products that already do everything I need them to. I've been able to garner success at this by working with a lot of other people. So I'm either running the same systems at several different brokers or aggregators an entertaining new ones. Building systems for others to connect to their own platforms,exchanges, FIX hubs etc... In other words I'm porting code all over the place rather than write once and go. So it's kind of like the idea of if you were flippping a house... do you do all the work yourself and spend 6 months doing it...or would you just spend the same amount of money you'd spend in that 6 months in 1 month and have it for sale quickly thereafter instead... If you know of something or have something let me know.
I figure I'd reinvigorate this now that the East Coast is awake. Anyone else heard of any good products that fit my description? Commercial or non-commercial is fine, just trying to be aware of everything out there, if there's something I missed, before I make a decision. I'm starting to wonder if the real question is do I have to spend that kind of money to get a good workflow environment.
The_Gekko, you have to be more specific... these platforms you mention above, they are very, very different... and these features you mention - it's not like all these platforms have them all - some of them have some of these features. What are you looking for exactly? Besides turning back time and snatching this QH source code? (which, in my opinion, would not do you much good - I think you might underestimate the cost and what is involved in building a trading platform "over a few years", but maybe you know better...)