stevehopwoodforex.com
https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/
Print view

MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2291		 Page 2 of 6
Author:  AnotherBrian [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 1:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
What about a platform that uses a bridge to whatever the brokers decide to go with?
I like the FIX solution - does jforex use it? It would be wise to start with something that is already there (open source) and build on it. If its open source then the connection (bridge) just needs to be modified during the course of time. Just ideas, I'm not an expert on this stuff.
Author:  babalu4u [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 5:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
I think cTrader and cAlgo is best solotion for the future, look at this...
http://www.spotware.com/about/news-updates
Spotware Systems, developers of the FX platforms cTrader and cAlgo, have released details about their upcoming open API called Spotware Connect. The project will help third-party application developers easily build their own cTrader systems, and integrate existing FX related products into the cTrader platform.
Brian Martin, Vice President EMEA at Spotware Systems, said that the open API will allow for the creation and access of API capabilities as they are added. "We know that, just like any other software business, we need to be open to third-party integrations. There will be certain times at which users may want extra platform or analytic functionality, and Spotware Connect is about putting that power in their hands.
"We had 3 main principles in mind when we started this project. The first was that it should be open to absolutely everybody. You don't need to be a customer of a broker or anything like that. Secondly, we've made it extremely simple to start using, as we want to encourage people to really get going with this."
Finally, says Mr. Martin, once you do get going, Spotware Connect is relatively simple for even novices to grasp. "That was the point really, to make it as simple and user-friendly as a third-party developer application can be."
FX platforms and third party plugins have been making FX news recently, with platform developers and third party technology providers often in disagreement over the legality of plugins and platform modifications.
Stefanos Economides at Spotware Systems said that the company wanted to avoid such misunderstandings. "Our terms of service will as open as possible to encourage use. The important emphasis we want to place on this is that for the first time, a genuine direct-access FX platform will be opened up to creativity, experimentation and new possibilities for the people who care most about FX trading."
Author:  bodleytunes [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 6:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
Anything that should be developed should be based on a language with is OS agnostic, like Java, Python, ...

I see a few of these new trader progs popping up that are based around C#, which is all well and good (easy to use, similar to Java), but it's allying to Microsoft Windows (Booo!) .NET framework, whereas a decent open source platform should be able to function on Windows / Linux / BSD ... whatever you want to run it on it should be your own choice.

Also to be able to choose the language that you use to write the robots / indicators would be nice, so it has various interfaces depending on your language preference, I suppose similar to Google Apps.

Cheers,

Bod.
Author:  afshannoomi [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 6:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
I am passionate about developing Post Managing system that would only process details that have been considered in XBMC.
Author:  renexxxx [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 6:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
babalu4u wrote:I think cTrader and cAlgo is best solotion for the future, look at this...
Do you know the license fees of cTrader?
Author:  babalu4u [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 7:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
I am waiting a call today from Spotware for licence fees of cTrader...
Author:  snailbeard [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 7:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
There are several coding styles in the forum.

Since I come from a software design background, I know there would be a conflict of styles in trying to develop a professional, high performance platform.

It is really expensive and time consuming to write top quality software.

However, JForex based on Java (open source) has a bridge to Empty4 so that might be good migration path.

Java is easier to learn than some programming languages and is perhaps better suited to members than C++, C#. Python is a very nice language but Java is more wide spread in this context.

My background is C/C++ but I have written things in Java without fully knowing the language.

One thing that many members might not realise is that EA's for multi-pair trading could be a lot more streamlined in a modern object-oriented language than a 1980s style language: MQL is 30 years behind which is one thing that increases the time to get ideas converted into code.
Further, MQL encourages the use of global variables which adds to the number of obscure bugs which are difficult to track down. If I was to market a language for the purposes of making coders wade through swamps and sabotage their efforts it would be MQL.

MQL is only good for knocking up simple scripts, EAs and indicators but not for sophisticate basket-trading where you might want very similar things for each pair like pivots but then you want to offset those pivots differently for some pairs, in an modern language this kind thing is easy to achieve.

In the time that I have wasted debugging MQL code I could have finished my ideas in Java and had a library of reusable classes!

In terms of reusing code, there are a lot of common things for a basket of currencies which don't need to be recoded for each new strategy idea - which could reduce the time it takes to produce and test a new idea.

There are a couple of major open source development environments to choose from for Java as well.

Of course a lot of members in the forum don't have time to go this seriously into software design,
but anyone who thinks they might be coding long term can gain a lot from moving in this direction!
No need to try and learn everything at once, just like learning to trade - it never ends and there is always more to learn :D
Author:  hopfi2k [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
AnotherBrian wrote:What about a platform that uses a bridge to whatever the brokers decide to go with?
I like the FIX solution - does jforex use it? It would be wise to start with something that is already there (open source) and build on it. If its open source then the connection (bridge) just needs to be modified during the course of time. Just ideas, I'm not an expert on this stuff.
Brian,

JForex uses a direct access rather than FIX, but Dukascopy nevertheless offers FIX-API access http://www.dukascopy.com/swiss/english/ ... i/fix_api/. While there are more and more brokers out there that offer FIX API access, those generally have hard to match 'conditions' - basically something in the $50-100k min. deposit.
Dukascopy allows to open an account with as little as $100 opening balance http://www.dukascopy.com/swiss/english/ ... unts/link/. I see the problem here with our fellows from the US...on the other hand if some of you US guys seriously planing to open an forex account with real $$$, there are still ways to do it ;)
From my point of view, I see huge benefits from using JForex/VisualJForex, compared to Empty4 (and MT5). Allowing us to backtest multipair EA's (even if relatively slow) and using Java as an relatively easy to learn language are other important points. Oh, and JForex even has an build in convert that converts (not too complex/fancy) Empty4 robots into JForex http://www.dukascopy.com/swiss/english/ ... converter/.
I'll very likely switch to JForex as it clearly outperforms crappy Empty4/MT5 and I'm fed up with fighting all day long repeating errors/bugs/problems Empty4 is throwing at me.

Cheers,
Andy
Author:  renexxxx [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
hopfi2k wrote: From my point of view, I see huge benefits from using JForex/VisualJForex, compared to Empty4 (and MT5). Allowing us to backtest multipair EA's (even if relatively slow) and using Java as an relatively easy to learn language are other important points. Oh, and JForex even has an build in convert that converts (not too complex/fancy) Empty4 robots into JForex http://www.dukascopy.com/swiss/english/ ... converter/.
I'll very likely switch to JForex as it clearly outperforms crappy Empty4/MT5 and I'm fed up with fighting all day long repeating errors/bugs/problems Empty4 is throwing at me.
Multipair backtesting in JForex came to a grinding halt (when I tried it), as you have to "subscribe" to all pairs you're interested in. May be this has been improved now...
The problem I see with JForex is that you're stuck with only three brokers: Alpari US, Dukascopy and FXDD.
Author:  ByteJuggler [ Mon Jun 03, 2013 10:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: MT5 - when to switch to new version ?
snailbeard wrote:There are several coding styles in the forum.

Since I come from a software design background, I know there would be a conflict of styles in trying to develop a professional, high performance platform.

It is really expensive and time consuming to write top quality software.

However, JForex based on Java (open source) has a bridge to Empty4 so that might be good migration path.

Java is easier to learn than some programming languages and is perhaps better suited to members than C++, C#. Python is a very nice language but Java is more wide spread in this context.
Long time lurker here (and professional software developer with interest in markets including FX.)

The Python comment is somewhat debateable IMHO. Python is quite heavily (and increasingly) used in the finance and quant world, as far as I can tell, apart form being increasingly used as a very powerful general "go to" language as well. It has several libraries some of which originated in hedge funds and the like (for example Pandas: http://pandas.pydata.org/ which was started by Wes McKinney IIRC while he was still working at a hedge fund.) I also know that Bank of America is currently recruiting heavily for Python developers and that they're using it as a foundational language to replace many of their existing trading/quant systems.

Anyway, my main point is that apart from these advantages, Python is IMHO even easier to learn and become productive with for non-programmers than Java and I'd highly prefer/reccomend it for that reason. It is also my language of choice for my current quanatitaive/algorithmic trading research work. For example my own trading strategy trainer/exploration work leverages the "pp" (Parallel Python) module to allow me to scale my training workload across as many cores and machines as I wish, almost entirely without having to think about the actual distribution of the workload to the local and remote cores/machines, giving me almost linear scaling with added hardware. Distribution "just happens" automatically. Usually distributed programming isn't that transparent in most other languages, Java included as far as I know. (Not that I'm a Java expert however.)

Aside, I've recently completed the "Computational Investing" course on Coursera, presented by Tucker Balch. It's highly recommended, not so much directly for FX, but to learn some useful stuff relating to markets, trading, investing, finance and computational approaches, though the work will also no doubt be useful for quantitative and algorithmic based FX strategies (which is really what we're all interested in here.) The course also uses Python as does Tucker Balch in his company Lucena Research. Link for the course:
https://www.coursera.org/course/compinvesting1

Tucker's view on languages:
http://augmentedtrader.wordpress.com/20 ... or-quants/

So, not meaning to start a language flame war here but I'm obviously opinionated about this. :) But, either way I'm interested in what's being discussed here, albeit I should add my time is unfortunately rather limited so not sure how much I'd be able to contribute in practice... If it absolutely *has* to be Java then so be it...
All times are UTC Page 2 of 6

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited