I'm wondering how anyone gets arounds this. When you use the Genesis API they give you a couple of demo symbols to use like... ZVZZT and ZXZZT, however these symbol are so ridicluous. The spreads are 0.01 * 5000.01. I've even seen the spread 100 * 75. You place buy limit orders above the ask... nothing happens. Some symbol don't even trade. Why the hell out Genesis do this? how do you get around this? Thanks
Aren't those NASDAQ test symbols (part of their "NTF")? Not sure what it would actually do if you hit those.... maybe the trades just vanish (???)... I wouldn't hit them unless you know for sure, though. Unrelated to that, my observation is that the "simulated" or "test" accounts for trading API's never work quite like the live ones. I think that the final "testing" has to be done with real money, at some (hopefully low to zero) cost...
The markets (e.g. NASDAQ or NYSE) do not like when participants test in live symbols and expressly prohibit such activity when a broker/dealer applies for any of their services. The NASDAQ SuperMontage test symbols was provided as a way for developers to post bids/asks and test functionality such as cancel/replace orders. With regards to "fills" in the test symbols like ZVZZT, the broker/dealer should filter these executions out before uploading activity to the clearing house or the clearing house will ignore. The widened spreads that you see in these test symbols represent the fact that there is no active testing by other developers but this does prevent you from posting a bid and hitting your own bid. I'm not speaking for Genesis but their API or any direct access API is meant to provide real-time access to the markets and generally speaking, I don't think it serves their interests to provide a simulated environment for anyone especially API developers. I believe their responsibility is to certify with you to ensure that your application does not create problems on their backend and further upstream to the markets. I used to work for a small direct access trading platform so I speak from firsthand experience.
Huh ? Interactive Brokers and ThinkorSwim provide separate test or "sim" id's for their API developers. Test trades can be placed in the "real" market (live data) and filled as if they were real ones.