I have news for you... you're already connecting w/ many of these people on this very thread. If you want to hire any of them, PM them an offer and wait for them to counter. Lacking that you'll just get replies that tell you you're out of your league; probably for good reason.
When you are hit on 1 side and your hedge starts running away from you what do you want the algo to do? Cross the market aggressively? Are you using order book signals for your trades? Do you need machine learning on historical order book data?
I'm not married to the idea of staying with IB, I just find them useful for the following reasons: 1. I still do quite a lot of manual trading, and this automation would not completely remove that need. Specifically, I find the use of book traders extremely important for my needs (I know TT has something similar for futures, but I need this for stocks as well) 2. I find their accessibility and rates for stock locates to be quite good. 3. I find their portfolio margin to be decent (I often need to hold large offset (delta1) positions overnight) and their leverage on 'offsetting' positions is better than basic RegT brokers. Offsetting margin between Futs and etfs for example. 4. I keep a significant amount of capital in a personal investment account with them (not mark-2-market), so on occasion when things hit the fan, I could quickly and easily transfer over capital/margin (borrow against my long-term equities for collateral) I often need the collateral immediately to take advantage of opportunities. I'm not naive to the fact the IB is not the best place to use for quoting- but for the combination of the factors #1-3 I would at least need to at least centralize everything with another Prime Broker who would have a in house book-trader style manual trader and an ability to portfolio margin across asset classes, with good leverage. Do you have a suggestion for a better way to accomplish #1-3? (#4 is what it is...) Does anyone else have a book trader style tool for equities? I make hundreds of trades a day this way, so that functionality is more important to keep. When I used to PB with a bulge-bracket they had some tools (x-trader), but are you familiar with other options that would have this same features and integration? What about options to solve the high leverage needs for cross-asset portfolio margin on delta-1 style positions?
To address your needs for manual trading with book trader functionality, stock locates, and high leverage for cross-asset portfolio margin, here are some suggestions: Book Trader Style Tools for Equities: ThinkOrSwim (by TD Ameritrade): This platform offers a highly customizable trading interface, including book trader-style tools for equities. It supports active trading with direct market access (DMA), which is crucial for high-frequency manual trading. Sterling Trader Pro: Known for its high-speed, direct market access and robust order routing, Sterling Trader Pro offers advanced book trader features and is popular among professional traders for equities and options. Lightspeed Trading: Offers a suite of trading tools, including a book trader and Level II access, specifically designed for active equity traders. It's known for low-latency execution and good support for high-frequency trading. Cross-Asset Portfolio Margin and Leverage: Prime Brokerage Services: Considering your needs for portfolio margin across different asset classes (futures, ETFs, equities), using a prime broker that specializes in this could be beneficial. Firms like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, or UBS provide comprehensive prime brokerage services, including portfolio margin across asset classes with high leverage options. These services are usually customized to the client's specific needs, which could match your requirements for delta-1 style positions. Interactive Brokers Portfolio Margin Account: IBKR's portfolio margin accounts allow for significant leverage across different asset classes, including equities, options, and futures. It might not offer the same level of cross-margining as a prime broker, but it's more accessible to individual traders. CME Clearing Cross-Margining: If your trading involves a lot of futures, the CME Group offers cross-margining for offsetting positions held at clearing firms that are members of CME, such as futures and options. This could be combined with a prime broker's services for equities and ETFs. Other Platforms and Tools: TT Platform (by Trading Technologies): While primarily focused on futures, TT offers powerful trading tools that could be adapted for equities with some customization or through integration with other platforms. Bloomberg Terminal: For high-frequency traders, the Bloomberg Terminal provides sophisticated trading functionalities, including order management, execution tools, and advanced analytics. It may not be as specialized in book trader functionalities, but its comprehensive market coverage and integration capabilities are valuable. Given your experience and volume of trades, a combination of platforms might be necessary to optimize execution and leverage while maintaining centralized control over your trading operations. Using a prime broker for the portfolio margin aspect while integrating specialized trading platforms for execution might give you the best of both worlds.
I wouldn't be using any historical data/historical orderbook/no machine learning, just real-time prices- no need for a database. I would keep the hedging simple- it would generate a limit order based on the triggered price- if the hedge misses it sits there- unless I cancel it and manage the delta manually (that's what I do now). No, I would NEVER cross the market aggressively. Obviously I'd like to have order book signal (and other signals at least for 'safety') but I'd keep it very simple to achieve a minimum viable product.
I think it will be very difficult to find a broker that will cater to the tech sensitive high volume trader and at the same time offer more or less global market coverage with one fits all margin. You could try to arrange a custom deal and post US Treasuries as collateral that are locked at your bank or you can go ahead and shop for prime brokerage. You will need a higher account size, probably pay minimum in monthly commissions but you most likely will have it all. When I traded equities short term I was using Centerpoint but that´s been ten years. Nowadays I use prime brokers/dealers for most of my stuff. The best way to start is to have a look at the respective exchange member lists like here: https://www.nyse.com/markets/nyse/membership#directory Most likely GS, UBS or Morgan won´t even reply to your request email but there are a couple of clearers who specialize in catering to smaller funds and "pro-tail" aka. ex. HF traders and prop shop warriors who do their own thing. Start having some conversations. I´m sure you will also find a suitable software solution. When it comes to toolsets, well...the world is yours. It should not be much of a problem to find a price ladder for equities. Sierra Chart might be a good start if you like to suffer It took me a year to put together my first professional setup including incorporation. I hope you´re faster. Good luck
How much are you willing to pay per day? If you are not thinking around 600 euros/day forget about it. Any developer that offers you anything below that will produce garbage.
There are many commercially available tools e.g. Metastock, Ninja Trader, TradeStation, Wealth-Lab, Neuroshell, TradingView, MultiChart, Amibroker etc. Here are examples of scripting tips for Stock and Commodities Magazine. Back Issue Archive (traders.com) Under each Trader's Tips, it provides various scripts for each trading strategy. It's not advisable to build your own, design and debugging will take a long time. I am a Amibroker user and it takes a long time to master it. https://forum.amibroker.com/ NinjaTrader is free if you don't need live trading. Futures Trading | NinjaTrader https://forum.ninjatrader.com/index.php?_gl=1*y72qxw*_gcl_au*MTY0MzYxNzg4Ny4xNzI0OTUzNTgx All trading packages have their own scripting tool/language. You need to master it in order to exploit its full potential.
Nah.. one can modularize it and hand out smaller pieces to cheap devs in Africa, East Asia, South America, etc. Then you run tests of the API + latency time and they only get paid if it performs according to spec.