SteveH, I am looking at JSystemTrader and a couple other automated trading systems. Before I commit to spending months programming, I'd like to spend some time to explore the different alternatives.
I want to commend Frostengine for doing this. I don't care if he is a college kid, he is apply his skill and trade to something worthwhile. And it is definitely a great resume builder if he ever decides to take it to the corporate world. I built (name of IB interface) and getting a side stream of income is not bad for development work of this nature. Nice little start money if you ask me. Frostengine, keep up the good work.
I've been trading with this c# open-source platform for over a year : http://tradelink.googlecode.com It's main strength is it's library, plus the fact it works with IB and Assent out of the box. http://tradelink.googlecode.com
sorry... the period at the end of the url was messing it up for some reason. something non-standard about way google does redirects I guess. anyways its fixed now. http://tradelink.googlecode.com
I've already posted about this on a similar topic. I hope It can help here. Look into the IB accumulate/distribute algo to created automated trading strategies. You don't need any external software or programming skill and It works quite well provided You have backtested Your strategy and chosen the right parameters. The full tutorial is at https://interactivebrokersautomatedtrading.wordpress.com/