Nothing you say is incorrect, but I think sometimes platforms have problems that can become very, very limiting. The worst part is that you don't know how limiting they can be until you've already spent several months working with them.
Well i don't really see how using a product suite like deltix is much different than what i said. They have pretty much just gone and pre-packaged and assembled all of the components that i mentioned. Then they charge pretty insane prices for it. You might be more familiar than i am with Deltix, so correct me if i make any errors. As i understand it, you still subscribe to market data from your typical source like bloomberg. Deltix has then assembled its own database for aggregation and retrieval. I don't see how it could be any better than SQL server. Then they have provided full MatLab integration with a fairly extensive analisis toolkit. But a MatLab web search turns up a hugely extensive analysis library. Then they have a trading automation platform with C# integration for building your own indicators and trade parameters. Platforms like X-trader and CQG and others already provide this including colocation for execution. If you read the FAQs you'll notice that they explicitly state that the user will still need to be proficient in C# or C++ to utilize the product suite and fully implement a trading system. I've not gotten a quote yet, but I've heard numbers around $100k annual. The package I suggested might cost about $20k on the high end. What are they providing for the extra $80k? The point is that you still can't just use their drop-down list of chart studies and end up with a good system. You have to do all the custom analysis and API development. They've just assembled a "product suite" out of essentially the same list that I provided.
Do you want a good system, or do you want a system you can build from "drop down list of chart studies"? Because you can't have both. If you don't want to have to program, you have no choice to but to re-use what others have already regurgitated.
Exactly. Successful traders are usually specialized to a very narrow market niche... And on top of something like the above framework... They build custom, real-time apps with exact features they require... So, in the end, they are doing something relatively unique... And uniqueness can give you a competitive advantage. Really, only a software engineer can do something like this... It's not 1995 anymore, sorry. But suites like Deltix, etc... Allow a PhD Quant at a bank or a hedge fund... Someone on a 7 figure annual budget managing 8 figures... To build very sophisticated Automated Systems without being an engineer.
No, I totally agree on this....especially if you are considering the algos that work the order book. You must have speed all around for that....as well as Colo. But for the other 90% of the strats out there, I'd be willing to bet that Tradestation or Multicharts can easily accomodate them. Both are multi-threaded. In the case of MC, it supports multiple vendor data feeds, and multiple broker order APIs...and it has a DLL interface to allow extension of the core algo programming language which is Easy Language.
Ninjatrader can't even do basic Pairs Spreading... Only an idiot scalps a single instrument... As opposed to baskets consisting of 50 or 100 positions. The IB Spread Trader is a complete joke for stocks... And probably for everything else. http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=36101 That's why any serious shop builds Custom Systems... A platform with API, C#, Excel, SQL database... A few 1000 hours of skilled programing and 5 years trading experience... And you are ready to run a trading business... As opposed to being a subsistence gambler in mom's basement. Then you have precisely ZERO limitations... And the entire Mook Fleecing industry hawking charts, ticks, ez-shit-on-toast... Can go and fuck itself.