Novice needs help on trading platform

[dexgreen]

Have been an active trader on the US equities markets for 6+ mths and need some help.
Does anyone know of a trading platform I can use that has good execution speed/cost and will also let me have an external program trigger a trade so that I can be out of the office and still do my trades. I currently use Scottrade Elite and they told me that you cannot have an external program trigger a trade in Scottrade. I thus have my program (which so far is on the money 50% of the time, wrong 30% and a wash 20%) tell me what to do and then I manually do the trade. Any thoughts on the above. Also, according to Barrons, it appears Scottrade Elite is not nearly the best in terms of trade execution. Any recommendations on best firms to use for trading US equities. Thanks in advance.

 

[Charlton]

Try IB

Have been an active trader on the US equities markets for 6+ mths and need some help.
Does anyone know of a trading platform I can use that has good execution speed/cost and will also let me have an external program trigger a trade so that I can be out of the office and still do my trades. I currently use Scottrade Elite and they told me that you cannot have an external program trigger a trade in Scottrade. I thus have my program (which so far is on the money 50% of the time, wrong 30% and a wash 20%) tell me what to do and then I manually do the trade. Any thoughts on the above. Also, according to Barrons, it appears Scottrade Elite is not nearly the best in terms of trade execution. Any recommendations on best firms to use for trading US equities. Thanks in advance.

Dexgreen

Try Interactive Brokers. They are US based and cover a great range of markets from the one account, including US equities.

They have an API to enable data to be passed to and from the IB account. They have a webinar on May 15th that you could participate in at:

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/education/ibSeminar.php?ib_entity=uk

They have an IB bulletin board at:

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.pl?pg=topics

which includes an API section. You can also ask questions on the T2W site in the Interactive Broker's thread

Charlton

 

[rog1111]

How are your programming skills ? You'll need some for IB's API

GL

rog1111

 

[dexgreen]

too pricey

thanks for the replies to my post. i have checked out IB and they are rated very high with Barrons as is MB Trading. Problem is that they are quite expensive and the way I trade (about 25 trades a day and an average of 8,000 shares), my trading commisions alone will be around $15-$20k per month. (thats a lot more than the $7 Scottrade cost - $3,500 per month). I am not that good a trader to make up that type of cost. How can active traders afford to pay so much for their trades. Also checked out MB Trading and they are also quite expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. Both MB Trading and IB will indeed allow me to have an external program trigger a trade which is a huge plus for them. Am caught between a rock and a hard place. Any suggestions welcome.

 

[timaru69]

thanks for the replies to my post. i have checked out IB and they are rated very high with Barrons as is MB Trading. Problem is that they are quite expensive and the way I trade (about 25 trades a day and an average of 8,000 shares), my trading commisions alone will be around $15-$20k per month. (thats a lot more than the $7 Scottrade cost - $3,500 per month). I am not that good a trader to make up that type of cost. How can active traders afford to pay so much for their trades. Also checked out MB Trading and they are also quite expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. Both MB Trading and IB will indeed allow me to have an external program trigger a trade which is a huge plus for them. Am caught between a rock and a hard place. Any suggestions welcome.

Make less trades.............

Sorry couldn't resist......................

 

[rog1111]

Hmm, I'm not so sure about your calcs. IB's unbundled commission fees are $0.0035 per share for <=300,000 shares per month, plus exchange fees depending on routing :

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/commission.php?ib_entity=uk

rog1111

thanks for the replies to my post. i have checked out IB and they are rated very high with Barrons as is MB Trading. Problem is that they are quite expensive and the way I trade (about 25 trades a day and an average of 8,000 shares), my trading commisions alone will be around $15-$20k per month. (thats a lot more than the $7 Scottrade cost - $3,500 per month). I am not that good a trader to make up that type of cost. How can active traders afford to pay so much for their trades. Also checked out MB Trading and they are also quite expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. Both MB Trading and IB will indeed allow me to have an external program trigger a trade which is a huge plus for them. Am caught between a rock and a hard place. Any suggestions welcome.

 

[Charlton]

thanks for the replies to my post. i have checked out IB and they are rated very high with Barrons as is MB Trading. Problem is that they are quite expensive and the way I trade (about 25 trades a day and an average of 8,000 shares), my trading commisions alone will be around $15-$20k per month. (thats a lot more than the $7 Scottrade cost - $3,500 per month). I am not that good a trader to make up that type of cost. How can active traders afford to pay so much for their trades. Also checked out MB Trading and they are also quite expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. Both MB Trading and IB will indeed allow me to have an external program trigger a trade which is a huge plus for them. Am caught between a rock and a hard place. Any suggestions welcome.

Dexgreen

Have you tried the calculation of fees with both the bundled and unbundled pricing structures ?
It may be worth contacting IB and get them to quote you for your intended volumes.

Failing that I guess it's a case of going to the main broker sites and seeing if they have an API.
Good luck with the search

Charlton

 

[peto]

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/commission.php?ib_entity=uk
shows a 1000 share trade (bundled) as $5, so your daily coms on 8000 should be in the region of $40 with IB?

 

[garethb]

Dexgreen

I can't help feeling there is a mismatch between your trade size and number of trades you do and your profitability expectation and skill level. At 25 trades a day and 8000 shares per trade you are way out of my league in turnover so I may be wrong but don't basic, per share profitability considerations still apply. If you can't plan to cover 1c per share each way (way over what you would have to pay IB at those volumes) on average on a trade I can't see how you can move 8000 shares at a clip without without slippage obliterating any chance of a profit. You need really good trade execution skills yourself and a top notch direct access platform to move 8000 without slippage particularly when exiting in a hurry.

If you are going to automate this with a program do you know how you will manage orders in the software in order to reduce slippage?

As I say, you may have a completly different trading model from me and I am misunderstanding you. In which case appologies in advance.

Best Regards,

Gareth