I have a friend who is not a US citizen, but is in school and interested in getting into algorithmic system development. He really needs to start getting direct interactions in live markets and getting his feet wet writing code for some algo trading system back testing and even just getting familiar with charts. He cannot open a brokerage account. I was wondering if anyone can recommend a stand alone platform where he could just pay for data so he can start getting that hands on experience. (of course, he would not be actually placing trades)
AMP or NinjaTrader have demo accounts with access to historical and live data. AMP has over a dozen platforms that are available for testing, most of which are free. Trading Technologies has a demo with delayed quotes and historical data which should serve your purpose for testing/reviewing.
If he just wants to get familiar with the markets, charts and some basic algo trading he might start with Metatrader, especially if he is not a US citizen. He could open a demo account with a CFD broker or a micro account and have access to all major markets, charts and MQL4 and EA for algo trading. No account fees, no trading fees, no market data fees for such an account.
Thanks everyone! I will look further into those suggestions. For those of you who suggested demo accounts. If you are receiving data, aren't those "free trial" demos for a limited time. I probably would need to call around and talk with some of these platform providers. Seems too good to be true that some would would just offer you unlimited and extensive data for free I know with my platform (TOS) when I am in paper trade mode, you don't have access to back data. If I remember correctly, I only had access to paper trade until I funded the account. The problem is he cannot open a brokerage account since he has no tax ID. His visa also prohibits him from any kind of "work"...... which trading might be considered. This would have to be a purely educational set up.
Many MT4 brokers will allow you to open one or more demo accounts that run for unlimited time. Or you can open a live account with them and just credit it with something like 10 US$, thats ok for most of them. You will then have unlimited access to all the market data, charts ...