nitro, what are your thoughts on non-competes or nd's re: this situation? any suggestions for finding these traders/programmers? is there a company you use, or do you just post an ad on bb or special headhunting service u can recommend? i dont mind paying $100/hr or even a few k to get it done right.
Non competes are worthless. NDs are good. Interview the person, and either you close your eyes and trust the person, or you don't. Where are you located?
The OP should just pay a programmer. The work for free model does not work unless the programmer is getting SOMETHING more than a promise.
What markets are you trading, and do you need direct connects to the exchanges, or do you go through a brokers and/or proprietary API? Feel free to PM me the info if you prefer not to divulge this info here.
1) depends... for a _good_ programmer: starts at $75/hr at the bottom end. 2) you can't be certain. if it's worth replicating, good rule of thumb is to assume it will be. re: keeping it secret... nda's/non-compete's are worthless at the indi level, and arguably even at the insti level... however there's been a few court cases recently where hf's have been successful in enforcing them. re: secrecy techniques.. a trader friend of mine with low programming skills who went this route abstracted the hell out of his strategy via custom settings in a file, and a hefty gazillion option gui. seems to work pretty good for him, his guys have no idea what he's doing... be prepared to pay if you go that route.