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Asia
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader, TOS
Posts: 796 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 109
Thanks Received: 800
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There are four or five all-in-one packages (data, backtest, execution) targeting smaller funds available in the market. The ones I've looked at in depth are all .Net. Depending on the feature set you require and your hardware infrastructure, the cost for those packages will be 5K-10K/month.
Note I say smaller "funds", not individual traders. If you follow the 2% rule and draw a basic wage (keep your expenses below 2% of AUM PA), you need to have at least $10M AUM to justify that kind of overhead. It might also make sense if you have a team of people currently paying for the high-end discretionary platforms and you are moving to an automated environment.
IMHO the QH strength today is perhaps not its OQ software product, but its data network and colocation offerings.
The core selling point of all those packages is time-to-market. The assumption is you have an idea (actually a portfolio of ideas) that makes money and you need to start trading tomorrow. If you are not sure if your idea(s) make money it is an expensive way to find out.
If you don't need to trade until, say, 1 year from now and you or members of your team have strong coding skills, roll-your-own to your API of choice is a viable option.
Take a look at the products from Deltix Labs, 4th Story, and Alphacet if you really want to compare. Marketcetera is worth a look if you need 100% Linux, but note I'm told there is a pretty big difference between the open source code and the commercial code.
Good luck. It is a journey that might make you appreciate the $50/month POS we love to hate  .
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