
Ask HN: Which API should I use to build an high frequency trading bot? - fosk
I&#x27;m getting more and more interested in high frequency trading, and I&#x27;m in the process of evaluating an API that I can use to retrieve real-time information about the market and submitting orders. Given your experience, which API would you suggest using?
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X4
Depends on which Exchange you focus on, I guess NASDAQ. You also forgot the
tell us in what language you want to develop.

First things first: You know that access to real-time data costs some money
right? I mean a friend pays 3k/monthly (real-time incl. support). Paying
upfront before you even have started doesn't make much sense. Don't get
schocked by that price, he's doing it professionally and what he pays for his
servers is n times more than that.

Some links to APIs:

[http://www.nasdaqdod.com/](http://www.nasdaqdod.com/)

[http://www.lmax.com/trading-tech/access](http://www.lmax.com/trading-
tech/access)

[http://www.hotspotfx.com/technology/apifix.jsp](http://www.hotspotfx.com/technology/apifix.jsp)

[http://www.easy-forex.com/int/developers/](http://www.easy-
forex.com/int/developers/)

[http://www.iqfeed.net/index.cfm?displayaction=developer&sect...](http://www.iqfeed.net/index.cfm?displayaction=developer&section=main)

[https://developers.tradeking.com/](https://developers.tradeking.com/)

[http://www.turbotrade.com/content/category/9/61/95/](http://www.turbotrade.com/content/category/9/61/95/)

[http://www.activetick.com/activetick/contents/ActiveTickPlat...](http://www.activetick.com/activetick/contents/ActiveTickPlatformPricing.aspx)

Keep me updated, ok?

~~~
fosk
What about E*TRADE?

~~~
X4
If you're willing to share more from your income with them, sure. This is the
API link: [https://us.etrade.com/active-
trading/api](https://us.etrade.com/active-trading/api)

Advice: Please contact a specialized lawyer before you put any algos into the
market.

PS: Marc, that's a cool site that you have built at
[http://mashape.com/](http://mashape.com/) !

~~~
fosk
Thanks, Mashape is what I'm passionately currently doing. HFT is more of a
side project thing. If you are based in San Francisco, it would be cool to
meet for a coffee (you can email me at: mark at mashape dot com)

------
beejhuff
When I wrote HFT bots for trading futures contracts a while back, I used
Trading Technologies.

Their systems power something like 80% of all electronic futures orders and
they have by far the best overall system I've ever tested. This includes the
entire stack from networking to low level code.

It's windows only (.net) but incredibly powerful. Starting prices when I was
using it was about 1500-2000 per month so it's not really designed for people
wanting to dabble, but they have the lowest latency I've ever seen in both
pricing data and order routing so if you're serious about trading futures
there really isn't any alternative.

~~~
SEJeff
80% of all electronic futures orders and the are .net? Call me skeptical
(being that I'ved worked in the industry and still do for a very large
player), but can't believe you can get a windows stack down to remotely the
level of low low latency you can get a Linux stack. I find that statement as
woefully wrong on so many different levels it makes me almost want to cry

~~~
X4
@SEJeff Exactly, what I just wanted to post! I think SEJeff agrees with me,
when I say that people in that business have no mercy, be prepared and learn
yourself before accepting raw advices. Question what we say too.

Net and low-level code... well only if they have a fpga-cluster running the
.Net code through a specialized compiler like [http://www.mono-
project.com/Mono_LLVM](http://www.mono-project.com/Mono_LLVM) and then run
some commercial optimizers to tune the assembly. Even then, the risk of
malfunction due to "undefined behaviour" is too high to take the risk. You're
better of with just Ada,Fortran,C or C++ Backends

This is just to illustrate how ridiculous a .Net ultra-low latency trading
system sounds.

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canterburry
I recommend Interactive Brokers...and couple it with the ActiveQuant (open
source) trading framework. (For some reason I am getting a malware warning by
Google when accessing the ActiveQuant website...you may want to wait until
they fix it).

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sachin0235
E*Trade is what i used few months back. It works well

