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Recommendation for US broker/data/platform for automated forex tick level strategy?
As the title says, I'm in the US and am looking to develop a tick-level automated forex strategy. I'm unsure what the best language would be to do so since some brokers primarily support MT4, some work with NinjaTrader, etc.
I have long-term aspirations of working in the quant field so I don't mind putting a lot of work in, but I've spent the last couple weeks doing research and can't seem to decide which platform to start with.
Are there any quant traders who work at the tick level who would be able to suggest a good platform and language to learn? R? Python? NinjaScript? ThinkScript?
I'm also finding that there aren't a lot of good resources for learning how to use some languages like NinjaScript and ThinkScript, so I'm trying to consider that as well.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
We use OANDA for our forex automated trading, with MultiCharts as our platform. This is primarily because we do our futures trading in TradeStation (TS), with our strategies (algos, whatever you want to call them) written in EasyLanguage (TradeStation). PowerLanguage (MultiCharts) is mostly compatible, so we can move code between the two platforms easily. On the whole, I prefer MultiCharts as my trading platform.
If you want something more robust (code-wise), you can consider MultiCharts .NET, which allows you to extend your capabilities greatly using the .NET framework.
With that being said, there is such a huge ecosystem for MT4/5 in the forex space, that it might behoove you to check it out. I looked into MT4 when we first opened our OANDA account, but it didn't make sense to learn a new platform. Personally, EasyLanguage/PowerLanguage have been able to handle most of what I'm doing, and there are plenty of learning resources available. I am expanding into OOEL (Object Oriented EasyLanguage), which greatly expands the capabilities of the TS platform.
There is an interesting argument against Python (or other language) made over on EasyLanguage Mastery: https://easylanguagemastery.com/?s=python&tcb_sf_post_type%5B%5D=post. Personally, I am code agnostic, but for me, EasyLanguage offers the least amount of friction when getting my ideas off paper and into testing.
Thank you for the information. I decided to open a TradeStation brokerage account for now so I can learn with EL without paying monthly fees for MultiCharts, and I'll look into Oanda, MultiCharts, and MT4 at some point as well.
Just FYI....TradeStation in the US does not do Forex, which is how we ended up on OANDA. I'm not sure there is a way around it. With a TradeStation account, you can consider the currency futures, if that's what you're interested in.