I have been going though the documents on the Genesis site, with a view to maybe using their FIX product. Though it seems that the only way to get market data is though their windows based API calls, is this correct, or have I missed something?
if you are trading from your desktop, the windows api calls (either via c++ or c#) are needed. however when I talked to alex shapiro at genesis.... he said few paying clients use either of these (he put the total number at '5'). most people co-locate with them and use a genesis proprietary protocol, which is similiar to fix but easier to setup and more efficient. he also said that it's better to call and talk to them before just building stuff off their api... here is his info: Alexander Shapiro Managing Director Head of Global Markets, International Genesis Securities, LLC. Tel: 212-668-0888 ext. 134 Fax: 212-668-0880 Email: AShapiro@gndt.com I am not affiliated with genesis in any way, just trying to help you out bc I have been working on same thing.
no idea. they are not a huge shop, they seem to like to tailor each deal to the client. the alex guy seemed upfront and honest though, pretty easy to work with.
from my experience with them they will likely push you one way or the other towards colocation so you can access their feed. once that is done service is pretty good but their API does have a few limitations you might find challenging. There are still quite a few good things about it. Few brokers offer feeds through the FIX protocol, it is usually too slow for that.
fyi, if you need a genesis connector you can use the one in tradelink : http://code.google.com/p/tradelink/ this has been tested on both genesis live and simulation accounts. it's limited to two symbols though, because as the previous poster mentions genesis is primarily a co-location provider. you should contact alex for pricing. I am not affiliated with genesis, only tradelink.
omg. Alex is a complete idiot - he doesnt know the first thing about automated trading. He is a sleezy broker that only thinks how to screw you. There are other guys at genesis who are actually competent, but u gotta find them.
Alex is very reliable, responsive and helpful. He is quite knowledgeable about the api, although he is not technical and is very upfront about this.
I'm not to the point where I want to engage a place like Genesis to talk price - but if someone could PM me a ballpark estimates for their colo service I'd appreciate it. I read somewhere that a bare rack near ECNs is about $3500/mo. So, thinking naively, you could fit a bunch of boxes(40?) in a rack. Then, there's hardware costs and the cost for their data/execution service and a good markup. I'm guessing the latter is the real driver of price and I'd be interested to get an idea of what it would cost to work with 50 symbols, 500 symbols, etc.