Hi, I have been lurking on the forums here for awhile now, but this is my first time posting! I have been discretionary trading for awhile now, but I am looking to finally get into algo trading, and I have started looking into tools. I found out about C2, and it seems really interesting, but I am wondering what it offers that other solutions do not (I only really know about Amibroker). Can somebody give the noob breakdown for me regarding what C2 can do vs what Amibroker or ??? other tool can do. Since I have yet to actually get into this, if there are any other tools that you can recommend, that would be greatly appreciated. I already code for a living, so I doubt picking up a new language would be that challenging, but I have a lot to learn about building strategies. Thanks, Charlie
Ok, so upon doing more research, it seems that C2 is a way for people to trade, and others to use those traders as a "black box" without writing those strategies themselves. Which is an awesome idea, but does C2 have a platform to write algo strategies? What is the best platform(s) to backtest and create strategies?
https://collective2.com/about-seetu Ninja Trader is one of them. Whether it's "the best" ... depends.
Thank you for your response. So I have yet to try either of them, but since you can do all of those things on Ninja Trader, do you think it would be better to just do everything there? It would seem inefficient to develop a strategy in Seetu and then somehow "port" it over to a different platform where I can actually trade (since I am just interested in trading my personal account until I am more experienced.)
If you want to trade your own strategy, and not someone else's, then C2 doesn't make sense for you. NT is one option. There are others. Which one is best for you depends on a lot of factors: How much are you willing to spend upfront/per mo.; intraday/EOD trading; Broker; Coding skills; Complexity of your strategy; instruments you'll be trading; etc. What is the best platform for backtesting? https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/what-is-the-best-platform-for-backtesting.299657/
MotiveWave is very good for backtesting and you can create your own custom studies and strategies using our Java SDK.
Thank you all for your responses. Especially Userque, you cleared up some confusions I was having with C2. MotionWave sounds interesting, but NT seems more up my alley since I build software in C# on a daily basis. I am really looking forward to learning as much as I can and joining your ranks, and I am hoping to be more active on this forum as I get more involved. If anybody still has thoughts they would like to add, please feel free to do so. My ears are open to whatever knowledge anybody can throw at me
I am using a custom machine learning solution I wrote (.NET Core) which generates code that can be plugged into AlgoTerminal where I do live trading. Basically what I did was define the problem I needed to solve (i.e. I need to be able to do x,y and z with my strategy research and it needs to seamlessly integrate with a live trading solution that is fully automated) and then I went about creating/finding tools to solve my problem. The platform and tools you decide on really depends on what you want to do and the budget you have. Good luck!
@fan27, I know almost nothing about ML, but it is something that interests me, and I would be very interested to learn more about it. How would you suggest one learn the skills necessary to create a solution like the one you mentioned? I will probably cover some of it in my masters, as I am getting close to finishing up my BS in CS, and then I will be going for a masters at GT, but I could always get a head start
Perhaps start by researching the available open source solutions for ML. I don't recommend going the route of writing something from scratch. I had very specific requirements that required a custom solution. Good luck!