Brokers' trading software versus third party

[no_username]

Hi !

I am new to trading but had some experience on "trying to lose money" with crypto. (Lost nothing in the end). Currently I am studying financial engineering and the financial markets(genral market related stuff) from coursera. I have a programming/computer science background.

I have a question: Why people are getting bothered if their stock broker offers them "good" software and they do not just use external platforms to watch stock prices or just get the data and parse them in their own custom platform ? And have the broker just to trade ?

Thanks!

 

[Sharky]

Hi !

I have a question: Why people are getting bothered if their stock broker offers them "good" software and they do not just use external platforms to watch stock prices or just get the data and parse them in their own custom platform ? And have the broker just to trade ?

Welcome no_username, but I'm not sure I understand your question. Who's getting bothered? Do you want to use the live feed from a broker in a third party software platform, to analyse potential trades then just go to the broker to make the trade?

Also please always use a thread title that relates to the question so it's easier for members to know what the thread is about. I'll update it for you once I understand what the question means.

 

[no_username]

Hmmm . I see that in many broker reviews, people are rating the trading software.

I was trying to find websites that offer api for live data feed or custom trading software for technical analysis (without broker related stuff ). Maybe I did not search well enough.

Thanks and hope to understand better the markets from posts from your forums ! Now I am trying to burn my first money to learn the sport

 

[awe]

I know that Interactive Broker has an API so that developers can create custom software to interact with them. Perhaps other large brokers do too.

 

[Sharky]

Thanks for the clarification. I think it all depends on what markets you trade (stocks, indices, commodities etc.), what instruments you use to trade with (buying/shorting the underlying, futures, options etc.), what time frame your trading (scalping, day trading, swing or investing) and what platform your broker offers. If you're getting into APIs, also what support the broker offers to automate the trading. For example, some new brokers, are not just low cost, executionary but API only, like Tradier (not currently available in the UK) who can be wired to any number of platforms: https://brokerage.tradier.com/platforms