Hi CoolTrader, I see you also have a hard time to find out! As far as I can see this clearly shows the difference between IB and the rest. You probably will have to shell out minimum of $2000 to get at the docs and the development / testing software, in order to get a development environment comparable to IB's. At IB's website, everithing is readily available and free. I believe you have to be nuts to get involved in such a kind of adventure. I want to see something work, exactly like with IB's API before I will spend a single dollar for this hidden away stuff. Don't listen to those know-nothings here at ET trying to talk you out of using API, it is the way of the future. Some people, out of a job, apparently are fearful to see their old crony world crumble and hate API's. If you find out more, please post. nononsense
right, API is the future. So, if you could have a bloomberg terminal you would rather prefer to not have one but instead use an API in order to get data off bloomberg. I do not really get it, but well, ............ Same here: If you could chose a broker who supplies you with a top notch trading platform (and they do exist as extensively discussed in other threads) you would rather chose a different broker with similar features but not such a great execution platform and rather program sth and link it through API to that broker's system. Does not really make sense to me, but you must have your reasons ;-) (I did not talk about all the other features that distinguish one broker from the other, but merily try to make the point that API is anything but the future.) As discussed, connectivity to data vendors makes much sense but brokers? Well it makes sense: TO feed people like you, who make money out of those front end applications. At least you are excellent at marketing your products, just need to work a bit more on your arguments. API is great for IB but would not make sense for X-Trader.
Xenia, Thank you for pointing this out, I had spotted this website a couple of days ago and this could be very promising. Up till know I have not been able to find any real information on API's at this site. They seem to be pretty new, so we have to give them a little more time perhaps to complete their site. Do you know anything more? I would appreciate very much if you could tell us. Be Good, nononsense
bbmat, I have worked for 6 years almost day and night on my trading system. I can say to myself that I think that I know what I'm doing and know what I want. I am not recently out of a job and bullshitting on ET about Deutsche Bank. Thank you for your advise. Be good, nononsense
yes, that is what I said: you know what you want. Just want to let other users know your motivation behind all your lousy arguments: To make money off your programs, that is the sole reason why you promote API as if there were no tomorrow. BTW, API is a an old hat, its around for years. It has been further improved but is absolutely nothing new. So, please treat it as such and not the holy grail. BTW, I am not out of a job. I work fulltime at a different bank than DB, but I think I told you already. I dont know whether you need to fight for your living in here, I dont. So, be a good buddy and let's limit our criticism on each others' arguments. You might otherwise look quite old. You should recognize there are still people on this site (although only a few I believe) who have no reason making something up because they get their self esteem and confidence from something else than bull....... about their 'success'. I am one of those. Believe it or not.....that's up to you. If not, then do so, but keep it for yourself because you bore all the other guys or do you think they are interested in knowing what you think about others? They could not care less.
- Futures & Options on Futures USD 2.40/Contract - Futures CBOT mini-sized Dow USD 2.06/Contract - Futures (NYMEX) USD 2.95/Contract - Single Stock Futures USD 1.00/Contract
This is troubling. This is why there are no creative Front-ends for Jtrader......Why can't OCO be a local operation? Michael B. The API offers all options the J-Trader front end does, e.g. receiving real time depth of Market information, placing, amending and cancelling orders (OCO is possible if supported by the exchange) and so on. As the API is deleviered as a Windows DLL-File (of course together with a good documentation) you have to write a program to use this API. For writing programs you will use a multi-thread environment like Microsoft Visual Studio .NET or Delphi.
BTW, why should anybody waste his/her time with software technology of the late 90´s (like MS Java VM Java 1.1 crap) ?
Ditch, it can be for someone who loves the platform. Coming to IB's "special deal" - Of course you can do special deals with IB! If you're doing good volume, all you need to do is ask them. They'll give you better rates to keep you as a customer, rather than let you walk off to the competition. Any broker will. IB's standard rates are retail rates, for occassional traders doing 5 RT/day. If you're doing that kind of trading, IB won't give a hoot, and certainly needn't lower your comms to a "volume" rate. So it really depends on you and your style alone. The issue with IB ain't so much price, it's all about reliability, stability, transmission/execution and staff availability. Hope that helped, Scientist.