Dare I ask what your experience or exposure is in this field? (Obviously I'm not asking for strategy details, just curiousity on your time in this area...)
Bevore jumping in to an endless discussion about mister E Florek MTH the publisher of the german magazin i would like to say that stories like this will always exist because the help the brokers to make money and are sexy to read. Nobody would like to read an article about a trader how bought DNA last summer and is still holding it. From a trading standpoint I have to agree with ... and Nitro's statement. IMHO You can profit from the order book but not with if.... then... you can profit from it when you have a great gut feeling for what is going on. But even then the feeling do not come from the book on its own.
It would be unreasonable to expect anyone to hand over or even sell a good marketmaking or scalping system. However, if there is anyone out there that has programming experience applicable to automating an existing strategy, I'd be happy to hear from you. It seems that strategy aside, the tools for implementing automation at this level are not available to the retail trader.
http://www.atdesk.com are the main player in this game. Automated trading is definitely comming to the little guy (most of us) this year as several firms have or are developing on their own stuff or working on deals to integrate it, however a firm like automated trading desk is so far infront the curve compared to the stuff we are going to have access to it like comparing an Atri 2600 to the latest xbox or playstation. Having said that, automated trading is the future for sure IMO and even though you can't get access to the high end stuff, the low end stuff is still an edge over using redi+ or gr8trade or something with just your level II and some lousy bells and whistles that tell you what just happend rather than what is likely about to happen. Rather than volume tapering off like some people think, its probably more likely to explode over the next 2-3 years as more and more you have systems trading against systems rather than traders vs. traders. (well you know what I'm trying to say). Like someone just said, the good stuff isn't going to get broadly commercialized anytime soon. The platforms that the masses are using right now, myself included,...why do you think we get them for free basically...cause they suck, thats why. If they were really good or offered a real edge you would have to pay a lot more for them than we all do.
Those guys were in the book "The Predictors". Auto can supposedly predict 90 seconds into the future. There's too much competition in the short term (scalping or rebating) Longer time frames are much better, cheaper, and more profitable.
well i am sure you have already checked out the link posted by avalanche above......that boy is always right on top of things.
Does anyone know of other companies like ATD? I imagine where there is on success story more are likely to follow... I even vaguely remember seeing something about some people affiliated with Bright or one of the other prop firms using or trying to use automated (very) short term systems.
Interactive Brokers--->TMBR they are program traders and have a universal portfolio to offset/hedge their Delta.