End Of August Update

I noticed that I haven't written anything here for a while. So I guess I have to make up for it with a really, really long article :-) Some other things had taken priority, but for the last few days I've been doing some research and now have a whole bunch of non-related things to say.

Firstly, let me say that anything commercially-ready would still be months away. If you have urgent desires, then I won't be able to help you out. And I still haven't decided whether to sell this software, or just keep the original purpose of being a helper application for my own purposes.

Making a helper app purely for myself is much simpler. There are a lot of features that are a bit rough on the eyes, but I'm fine with it like that. Making something that people would pay for means making everything "pretty".

It also means creating some database tools built-in to the system so the customers don't have to become database experts. We'll be storing millions of rows of data, and I'm guessing someone would buy my software because they were attracted by its ease-of-use. After all, if they could code, they would have already gone off and made their own systems in any of the programs that rely on you writing code. So I doubt my customers want to learn the ins-and-outs of database administration.

Trading-bots are readily available, you see. Some companies even offer services where they will code your system and execute your system for you. In that context, I'm actually not offering anything remarkably new. Use your favourite search engine and you'll find many. I'll even provide some links at the end.

So why would someone purchase Thinking Stuff? My innovations are the simplicity of creating systems (i.e. NO CODING! - see this page for details), the simplicity of backtesting those systems, some money management I haven't seen anywhere else, and the fact that you would be in control of everything (for people who like to be in control of everything).

And then comes the price. Geez I'd be competitive. But what price to sell Thinking Stuff for? If indeed I decide to sell.

Originally I was going to start with Oanda as the supported broker and add others as time went on. As I mentioned in previous articles, the Oanda API is US$600 to begin with, then US$600 every month (with discounts for volume of trades, so potentially free if you trade a lot). And I was going to use MySQL as the database, which has a licence fee of around US$600. That would have been $1,200 a customer would have to pay to *other* companies, before I add my cut.

That's not really competitive. That's kind of expensive. But...

Thanks to comments provided by readers of this website, I have been alerted to other APIs and other databases which are free. Completely free.

PostgreSQL seems to meet all my requirements for a database, and is completely free. Although I don't enjoy the thought of the work involved to switch over to a different database, well, it's free.

The API provided by Gain Capital, and its retail off-shoot, Forex.com, is also completely free. One little hitch though, is that currently they do not allow usage of the API with their mini account. It means you go straight from testing your system in a demo account, to a minimum of 1 contract (100,000 units). If you don't have much money to start with, that's too much risk unless your stops are very close to your entry, in which case your stops are far more likely to be taken out.

A lot of people have complained on their forum, and apparently Gain is "thinking about it", although this certainly does not mean anything's going to change. Still, it provides a way to test your systems in real-time using their demo account, as you should, for free. Hopefully they'll reverse their decision.

Interactive Brokers' API is also free, seemingly, although there is a US$10/month minimum commission. Not so bad. IB also seems to allow API-based trading on all kinds of vehicles, not just forex. That's cool. I've sent an email asking for further details and am waiting on their response.

I've already written most of the code required to connect with Oanda, so if you're keen to use them you will still be able to. But for people not wanting to part with $600 up-front, there will now be free options as well.

I've decided against the FXCM API, made by a 3rd-party called DynaOrder, because it lacks the ability to retrieve historical data. Should your computer lose its connection with the internet for any reason, and there are many, you now have a hole in your data - data you'll be using to make trading decisions with, and backtest on. Also I sent an email to their support months ago and never received a reply. Apparently I'm not the only one.

FXCM does have an API built by themselves, but it's only for customers with US$250K in their account. Which isn't me just yet. So apologies to FXCM customers who were thinking of using Thinking Stuff. But, FXCM is one of the companies who will trade your system automatically for you.

The beauty of using Gain Capital (or Forex.com), apart from the free API, is that (a) their API can access the last 24 hours worth of data; and (b) they post their historical prices going back to 2000 in text files on their webpage. Available to everyone.

And finally, Thinking Stuff will probably have fancy charts. I discovered a product called StockChartX which has a reasonable-enough price tag.

So how does US$50/month sound for this product I'm making? Too expensive? Too cheap? Leave a comment, anonymously or otherwise.

Here are some websites I've found which offer trading-bots or similar. These aren't recommendations - I've only browsed the websites and not used any of the services.

• FXCM - Requires your system in TradeStation's EasyLanguage format. Free service for accounts above US$100K.


• Keener Capital Management - have some of their own systems that they will trade with your money, or you can get them to code and trade your own system.


• Strategy Runner - has a lot of the same features as Thinking Stuff. Coding is required, I think, but they have a service where they will code your system for you (not so good for experimenting though).


• Berkeley Futures - provide a system where they will run your trading-bot software for you. I guess it means you could get them to run Thinking Stuff and not have to worry about your internet connection, power outages, etc.


• Others - there will be a lot - just use your search engine of choice.

After reading through those descriptions I've given though, it seems that the advantage of Thinking Stuff is definitely the no coding bit, along with experimentation being very simple to perform. There's no use in paying someone to code your system for you if you don't have a system yet.

And I think that just about makes up for the month of no posts :-)