Laser Software? Hard to search for, everybody seems to have Laser in their name. After eliminating the skin surgery from google I came up with: Genesis Securities, Guardian Trading, Variance Securities, Nevis Trading, Globus Trading, Realitytrader, Broco, TradePMR, Magnum Broker, Alphaedgesystems, Cygroup.... Ugh. Hmm... looks like many of them are actually the software from Genesis but through different brokers. Confusing. Whoa. Frightening. Any recommendations as to which one? --- Thanks!
Yeah. I looked at IB very early on. I think my gripe with them was Java. Even Sun recognizes that Java isn't ideal for a realtime appication because of the way it manages memory. It doesn't happen very often, but I noticed that with busy charts if I was online too long, the garbage collector occasionally introduced very long delays. One of the first rules of real time programming is to preallocate resources like memory... garbage collectors are definitely out of the question. I think by now that Sun has released a version of Java specifically for real time, but who knows how long it will be before people use it. I think it is safer to just go with a platform written in C or C++. They even feel more crisp. I tried a few third party trading platforms to circumvent the problems, but noticed that TWS always had to be running anyways. It seemed a more complex solution than was required, and some of the platforms would actually get out of sync with IB. This would definately lead to unhappy results.... It seemed that backfills were also pretty slow, and there was also the issue of snapshotting and aggregated trades. I'm hoping for something better than all that. In their favor, IB sure offers access to a lot of markets tho. Thanks for the suggestion!
Looking at Investscape's fee schedule, http://www.investscape.net/feeschedule.html, my TradeStation platform/broker appears cheaper.
Let me add to my original post. Sometimes a profitable trade for me is only held for 5 seconds, or even less. But if things don't do what I expect, I need out *now*. I hope to find a platform which is written in a fast compiled language like C or C++. I hope to find a broker that I can reach quickly. Some form of Chat is great, even preferred, but if that doesn't work, quick phone access. I also hope there are *no* technical issues, but if there is a problem, I hope the guys on the other end can get past asking me if my computer is plugged in after a phone call or two.
I looked at tradestation early on as well. It looks like you can do a lot, and they have been around for many years. I sent them an email with a couple of questions, and they never replied... Somewhere deep down I had this odd feeling that I wasn't what *they* were looking for. I could be wrong. Maybe they didn't like me being in Japan or something... Thank-you very much for the suggestion!
I have been using TradeStation since 2006 and I would recommend it. It has programming capabilities through their own EasyLanguage and 3rd-party codes written for the platform. The in-house forums are extensive so you can get help from fellow clients.
There is no question about the capabilities of TS for writing trading systems, 3rd party addons, etc., for longer term trading. How do you feel about it for scalping? Also, do you happen to know whether they accept foreign accounts? I notice in Japan that some people do trade American markets using TS, but for some reason they all seem to use, uh, I think the name is TS 2000i, and go with a different broker. I've tried to contact using TS in Japan to find out about such things, but my Japanese is functionally non-existant and I haven't managed to get a reply from anyone here, either.
I have been working on selecting a broker for over a year. After so much effort, I was so happy to find Lightspeed. You can imagine how sad I am that it didn't work out. It sux to be starting this process all over again. At least I know more now...