Trying to find a broker that allows/does automated strategies for index options. Only one i ever see mentioned is interactive brokers and am wondering if anyone has used them or has another broker that they would recommend.
What exactly are you trying to do? Interactive Brokers allows orders to be created and modified via their excellent API. I wrote a Java app that handles orders for me. Wasn't the easiest thing on earth, but now it's quite solid and better than anything I could find anywhere else.
What Im looking for is a broker who doesnt make it hard to automate an options strategy. Something as simple as what tradestation or many of the other charting programs have in place for futures, stocks, etc.
Ah. I'm unaware of anything that makes it _that_ easy. I tested out CQG recently, and their Real Time Data plug-in for Excel showed promise. It works with options. But I don't think it supports order entry, so you might still have to write something manually for that part.
The problem is the symbols and the different logic of daily, weekly and monthly options..
Then there is also the issue with the option been traded on different exchanges, and that
has sometimes different codes..
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There are lots of automated options trading software but most if not all are designed for market making and most are not cheap. I've known people who have used and like ProOpticus . Metro & Freeway from OptionsCity/Vela is quickly becoming a very popular solution. Both of these are >$1000 month though I believe. I gather ORC (www.itiviti.com/orc) is one of the very best but think it comes with a 5 figure a month price tag! You could also program this up in TTs ADL easily as well but you would be reinventing the wheel. Probably not the answers you were looking for.
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I started writing a program to do this a few years ago using various broker APIs (like etrade and ally). But it was going to be a lot of work and I lost interest... definitely interested if anything good comes up. Maybe I should try to make my own again
