Good post and apparently I agree with everything you said IMO, multicharts is a good platform to start basic strategy work. Other good starter level tool is excel. Tradingblox is another good platform. Once you start to push the boundaries of these platforms, you graduate to Matlab. IMO, Bloomberg is a very good tool for real time data + news feed + analytics. But Bloomberg is not really suitable for strategy development. Does anyone want to contest this point ??!! The above approach as Epic has mentioned is not feasible for every retail trader. Some retail traders will want to move to next level after Multicharts for strategy development purposes - without getting their custom software + database + order execution built up. For example, they might just want a better backtesting platform than Multicharts. Currently, apparent limitations of MC are: 1) No pairs trading, no baskets, no spreading capabilities 2) No vol specific analysis, vol trading capabilities 3) No order fill, no market making capabilities. So, as a trader evolves, he needs a tool that will serve this purpose. So, my question is following: Consider a successful retail trader (call him Mr. X) developing systems in Multicharts and trading them. 1) What is his next step? More professional software like RTS or ORC or some other software? 2) How much difference (qualitative, quantitative) would it make to the strategy development process for a retail trader if he does decide to spend 10k or more to get a professional development software license? 3) What are the other options similar to RTS/ORC out there? Let us answer above just from the point of backtesting capabilities. We will assume if some strategy proves profitable in backtesting, Mr. X can get done custom programming for automatic order handling.
If you have a profitable strategy that works in any platform or language, there are a few proprietary lines of code, maybe one page, maybe 100 pages. All the rest can be outsourced safely, fast connection, order management, etc, etc. fast execution, etc, etc, etc. Others have done it already for you and it's basically open source for all platforms, brokers, etc. Use anything you want, hire a programmer to put it all together, but keep your 1 page secret. When it comes time to add your secret page to the code, ask the programmer to teach you to code your page yourself and how to so that you can do a basic copy and paste without the programmer being present. Then pay and fire the programmer. C++, C#, assembler, VBA, all good... Now if you want to learn some fancy new language like R or python in the hopes that you'll find a datamining edge jerking off with the data, you are wasting your time. Develop in excel/VBA and then when you have something worthy of execution, translate to C# or assembler or whatever. Everything else that you read is bullshit by wannabe-quant-trader employees. Use what you already know or if you know nothing about programming use EXCEL-VBA to research, or easylanguage, or MC or whatever. 99% of your final code has been already developed for you or can be at minimal cost... Now the 1 % secret page...don't show it to anyone. All the value is there.
back to what business to be precise? Snobbish and horribly delayed responses (sometimes for months) on your message forums? Aside that could you please point out how your "back to business" product is different than what you had before (talking about the retail product). Anything new?
ORC is a professional quoting and market making platform, most often used on the equity index options side but they can also handle a host of other products.
you should re-read your own post and count how many times you contradicted yourself. Hilarious. Nice job, Mr. Ninja Hyper.
100% agree, Bloomberg is not intended for strategy development. It is a portfolio management tool with access to users, news, data, etc. and most of all provides an excellent OMS (order management system) but that's about it. Bloomberg Analytics is not intended (my opinion) for developing automated strategies at all. Bloomberg is an excellent tool for a manual trader or a hedge fund when they reach that level but most HFT shops I encounter don't have a single terminal.
If I just want to trade one single stock such as AAPL through one broker Interactive Broker, what automate system would you recommend based on your experience of trying many system so far? Thanks.
You have no idea how really good professional automated trading platform looks like . I had no idea either until I saw one and used it. This system is not available in open access that is why do not ask me for the name. But no trading platform will be good for you unless you have a good strategy . And it takes a ton of time , nerves and experience to create one . It is a lot harder than you think.