i have been linking bids and asks from sterling into my excel sheet. once a condition occurs, my excel will tell me to enter orders and i do so manually. since i am considering expanding the monitoring stocks list i am wondering if it is possible/easy (and how?) to send orders automatically from excel once a condition is matched without me doing anything at all? please point me somewhere. is it api that I should look into? thanks.
option1, DIY 1. go to sterling technologies website 2. download their VB.NET example application 3. write a vb hook into this from your spreadsheet option2, tradelink : 1. install tradelink and brokerserver from http://tradelink.googlecode.com 2. import tradelibfast.dll into your project, and call it as specified here : http://code.google.com/p/tradelink/wiki/TLTradeStation either way there's a bit of coding, less in option #2. cheers,
How much of a speed game are you playing? XL 2007 > XL 2003 - 2007 handles the RDP/DDE links MUCH better than 2003. Also, FWIW, every time you need to talk between your VB Project and Excel it is approx 200ms. If you add an outside interface to that (An API, etc.) then you add another 200ms. By the time its all said and done you are going to be600-800ms (almost a full second) behind someone who has programmed outside Excel in C#/C++/.NET, etc. Excel is a great modeling and testing tool but no where near good enough to be auto trading from if speed is a factor. On the other hand, if you are comfortable manually/mouse trading this strategy and simply want to use Excel so that you can add more stocks than you can handle with your hand/mouse - then go for it.... but don't try to get into a speed game/arms race using Excel. You will be starting out -500ms and thats not a good place to be. Also, Sterling's DDE is pretty good - not the best, but better than many out there. I've been spending a lot of time testing speeds of different platforms - Blackwood, Sterling, Anvil, etc. PM me if you want to talk more offline about this. EDIT: OP, in my opinion you get what you pay for - is Bloomberg totally out of the question? In my opinion the BB Excel add-in is by far the best out there.
You could use Excel's VBA to develop and automate your strategy using Sterling's Activex API. I have a developed a front end in Excel's VBA to to automate a momentum strategy. My application is very similar to the Interactive brokers Activex API. The application works well for systems that need less computing power and are of low frequency. sent me a message if you want to know more about my application, I might be able to give you a hand.