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i have been considering setting up a remote server to test some automated strategies on simulated accounts. i am interested in the fdax and fdxm contracts from eurex and have developed a couple of strategies for both tradestation and ninjatrader.
as i understand, getting a colocation server (whether cloud, shared or dedicated) is only worth the money and the hassle if one will use it to run automated strategies from a location as close as possible to the exchange where one intends to operate and only if one's data company and broker also have servers in close proximity to the exchange we are interested in.
therefore, i would like to ask of the people with previous experience trading automated strategies from remote servers three things:
- what would be the best way (are there any recommendable colocation services in frankfurt am main?) to trade a number of automated strategies for eurex products on tradestation? does tradestation even have servers of their own close to the eurex exchange? i have emailed tradestation to ask where is it that they do have data and order servers of their own but haven't received a clear answer yet.
- same question for automated strategies for eurex products on ninjatrader. being that ninjatrader works with several data companies and brokers, do any of those intermediaries have servers of their own near the eurex exchange? what would be the best available setup in terms of cost versus quality?
- are there any other platforms, brokers and / or colocation providers that anyone would recommend to trade the fdax and fdxm contracts?
additionally, i would also give some consideration to the nq contract and would appreciate if people with experience trading cme products from colocation servers could share their experience in those same 3 subjects:
- i understand tradestation does have servers of their own in chicago, so, which colocation providers would anyone recommend to run automated strategies on cme products on tradestation?
- is it recommendable to trade cme products from automated strategies on ninjatrader? which would be the best data company - broker combination to do this?
- and what other platforms, brokers and / or colocation providers would anyone recommend to trade the nq contract from automated strategies on a colocation server?
very well, thanks in advance, regards.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
AFAIK Tradestation account/risk management still done in Florida so whatever the instrument traded you'll have some communication to this location. No need to say that on a network latency point of view it won't be very good...
For the market data itself TS have servers in NY/NJ and in Chicago but not in Europe. If your strategies are latency sensitive it will be a problem.
For Ninja it depends on the connection used:
- CQG/Continuum have its gateways not too far from Eurex, in London (nothing in Frankfurt), but I can't confirm if the account/risk management is done in London (and this can differ depending on the FCM used)
- Rithmic have its gateways in Chicago
- Interactive Brokers have his European infrastructure in Zug Switzerland. Not the best data feed but not a too bad option if you can deal with filtered data (assuming you're using colocation not too far from Zug)
I can't comment on colocation providers without congratulate myself so I won't , I'll let unbiased people doing it if they want.
But basically automation with NinjaTrader on CME instruments works very well. Of course the strategies have to be carefully tested with a live data feed first to confirm there is no bugs/errors in the strategy code. Whatever we can read from time to time I found Ninja more stable than TS when it's running 24/7 (at least for version 9.5, the 9.1 looks more stable).
Keep in mind that you can't have a good solution (on a latency point of view, which is the key aspect for good fills/low slippage) if you want to trade Eurex and CME instruments with the same brokerage account.
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
The following 3 users say Thank You to sam028 for this post:
Is there a reason you want a remote server to carry out simulation? Most commercial simulators are unaware of the time between the data source and you and the simulation's executions simply fill in the reference frame of your trading platform anyway.
The following user says Thank You to artemiso for this post:
If your connectivity provider is really based in the Eurex facility, you can use any cheap cloud provider in Frankfurt that uses DE-CIX Frankfurt for peering. This would put you <30 miles away from the Eurex colo edge.
e.g If you use Telia for IP transit and peer into DE-CIX, you get about 1.5-2 ms from the Eurex colo:
The following 3 users say Thank You to artemiso for this post:
So which data feed, broker and colo server do you recommend to use together with Ninjatrader to be close to Eurex for trading the FDAX and FDXM contracts?
Colo probably doesn't matter very much if you're using NT. If that's the case and assuming you don't have any cross-venue signals, I actually recommend being as close as possible to the data feed because the order messages are cheaper to send out. e.g. If you're using Reuters, you'd want to be in their London Docklands facility.
The following user says Thank You to artemiso for this post: