Yw. You hit a nerve with me here. Coding this algo opened my eyes to just how limited retail trading really is. There are caps and limits on everything, including but not limited to: market data, price scans, orders, news, historical data... you name it, there's low retail limit, which effectively limits profits. System performance is embarrassingly low, often operating in milliseconds or even seconds. Don't forget compliance, regulatory, clearing, and a host of other reporting. There's other restrictions, such as: "KYC" checks, "Non-Display" limits, and others. Data about retail traders is valuable, and utilized by Google, FB, et alia. Finally, taxes taxes taxes!!! It's unbelievable what markets have become. Understanding how harsh retail limits really are, and how many have a hand in my trades was a real epiphany. It completely overturned and revolutionized the way I trade. Adding insult to injury, it took me years to understand all this; many have no idea just how limited it is, and thing that trading is a free market. So when you said "thousands of orders for 1 or 2 shares," I winced and chuckled, knowing just how many roadblocks there are to this type of strat. You'd run head-on into every snare, trip-wire, and red flag there is.
kmiklas: No doubt it sounds like an uphill battle if not a roadblock completely. Thank you for the info for sure!
Personally I do something similar (not your strategy, but I also scan the market everyday and automatically buy all instruments that meet my criteria in the quantities based on my risk management, and sell throughout the day or next couple of days based on programmed exit criteria). From your post it sounds like you are not asking for feedback on your strategy but rather which programs/tools/systems others use for implementing automated trading. As others have mentioned, interactive brokers is pretty good with their API. Another recommendation, and this is what I do because I am not an expert programmer, is NinjaTrader. NinjaTrader has a wizard and much easier to get started NinjaScript allows non-programmers to test out their automated trading ideas. In my opinion the NinjaTrader charting software is one of the best, and very easy for getting started with your own automated trading. It works with equities too, not just futures. You can connect your equities IB account to NinjaTrader and get the benefit of lower commissions from IB. Then lastly if you are serious about automated trading, you'll also need a server where you can run the automated trading 24/7. You can run your own server out of your home, but that introduces alot of other complexities outside of trading such as redundant internet connections. So for the server would recommend a reliable VPS. Highly recommend checking out www.ninjamobiletrader.com
deepfkvalue: Yes, was definitely looking more for info about means to implement versus whether or not the strategy will work. Thank you for your thoughts on this. I do also hear NinjaTrader mentioned a lot online. I will check that out too. Thank you! On another note, I have done more testing on my strategy, and have run into a few issues of course, so I am testing for supplemental tweaks that might be able to make it viable still. Regardless, if I do come up with a viable strategy, I still need to know what tools to implement it, so thank to all of those suggestions from everyone so far.
I dont want to get into details, but the problem I am running into is liquidity. Running the formula would do extremely well "it seems" if I could buy every single stock that meets my strategy, but once I tone the list down to only ones that have great liquidity (lets say 1 million), to ensure all orders get taken and sold without issues, the strategy falls short bigtime :-( . I will keep digging and see if there is a solution. I have plenty of time.
To test your ideas, you have demo accounts offered by most brokers. Make use of them to do better in the market.
It is good that you have a strategy that you can work on. It becomes quite important for any trader to actively focus and work towards their strategy. All the best!
If you have a good idea, now you have to look on the Internet "best forex programmers" and you will surely find a list with the good programmers. I also need to prepare robot for me, but I do not have a proven system yet, so for this moment trying everything manually in demo account.