Hello, I am in the early phases of attempting to develop an automated trading system. I am trying to do as much background research as I can about trading platforms, brokers, data feeds... etc. What I want to do (if i can figure it out and backtest it to an acceptable level of proficiency) is be able to place a long or a short with a tight stop loss based on price trend conditions. And then automate the whole process. To narrow down the bulk of information to go through, I would like to focus on one trade medium. Should i concentrate on a stock? an exchange? a mini? forex? does it matter? I don't know much about any of these, but I think it would simplify the process if I could just concentrate on one. The Forex market seems to have the best hours of operation. What medium is best for me? Any helpful tips appreciated.
This is standard in dozens of platforms. Check out NinjaTrader or RightEdge to get started. They come with samples and tutorials to show you how to get data and run everything. Hours of operation don't matter for backtesting since you'll be working of stored historical data. Each of these instruments moves a little differently so if you really have no idea which is best, try your strategies on all of them. It only takes a couple extra seconds in the backtest and as you gain experience you may find that you prefer one instrument over another. Without knowing you, there's no way anyone can tell you which that will be. Luck.