Well -
I've been pondering what format would be best to review the demo.
Basically, its an Excel spreadsheet with tabs along the bottom. The middleware is positionable on the same PC as you run your Excel on or it can reside on a second machine, but if its not on the same PC, you need a gigabit ethernet to avoid speed issues.
The middleware is where the scripting language resides. Also the machine on which you position the middleware needs to be as robust as you can manage. I'm sure it would run on a PIII with 1 gig of ram, but if you can afford a dual core 3+ or above maxed out on ram, you will be much happier. No specific specs were given but it was clear that the bigger and more muscular you box, the happier you will be. I will probably put it in a home network environment and I'll probably host the middleware on a muscular box dedicated to it.
The scripting language is their own invention and the key detail for me is that it COMPILES AUTOMATICALLY TO C++I was not clear on whether it complies directly to fully complied C++ or whether it generates C++ code which you can compile separately or use in other C++ projects. I didn't think to inquire. Either way, you don't have to know C++ and you don't need a C++ compiler to generate the code, so obviously, whether it generates intermediate C++ code or complies directly. My preference would be to both generate intermediate C++ code and also have the option of compiling to executable code too. In general it is an investment "program-generator", as it were. Out of the box, like a Lego set, it comes with usable pieces that can be snapped together to construct whatever you want.... a Lego set for trades. What this means in laymans terms is speed and ease and flexibility. The code you invent that does the customizations you want for your own trading signals have to be fast enough to not be outrun by the 10 mill inctructions per second of the middleware. This is exactly what is delivered: speed together with any level of complexity you can dream up. But, if you want to access the FIX, (that, I think, how it's spelled; its the industry standard for data feeds into C++ environments and it is a standard across all brokers & hedge fund guys worldwide.... meaning Joe Ordinary gets direct access to the power formerly only available to the big boys on the Street), then you can, because all the FIX functions and/or methods are available via pull-down lists. This is also true of the function calls to the API of the library of their data-stream provider, thru which you can leverage the specific functionality available from their data-stream provider.
But for those afraid of having to build a system before you can even get startd, rest your head on this soft pillow: you don't have to build your own. Paul said the key to the value they are offering is the mass of pre-built components and complete Excel templates that will be available to users. The templates already out there appear to already number in the hundreds, if not the thousands. There are already plenty of choices that can serve, if nothing else, as a pretty darn good starting place from which to acquire the skillset and the experience needed to begin to build your own system. Or, you can just poke around, exploring different trading templates and you have a high degree of likelihood of finding a pre-built Excel template that will suffice for your actual needs unmodified. But also, remember that, because it is all Excel (in terms of the template that you see and which is pre-configured to work out-of-the-box) you can always build on it and modify it, thereby letting a fully assembled trading system serve as a functioning starting point for developing your own. And, get this: (not going to be available at launch) they will release a tool to enable the users of Tradestation to bring their exicting code directly over and have it automatically converted.
Basically, it is like a paint box full of oil paint tubes and pallete knives. You can use a pallette knife or a fine camel hair brush. You can stretch and gesso your own canvas or you can buy a prebuilt canvas and start immediately. The idea is that it is a neutral backplane that is fully equipped and deliberately designed to serve as a place to conceptualize, assemble, test, tweak, and finally use custom trading approaches of your own design. It is a fabrication factory for the implementation and use of your own custom trading ideas.
It is both a starters/newbies product and a full-blown experienced developers product. It is freedom to develop investmet and trading systems that have never been invented before. It is YourTube for the investment world.
I'm supposed to go to an end of year assembly this afternoon for my three children, so what I'm going to have to do is post a series of posts over the upcoming week that cover things in snoppetts. Sorry, but gotta go be a daddy. More in the upcoming days.
Imperial Whazoo
"Just my opinions, folks. Do your own due diligence & make your own decisions. DO NOT... I repeat... DO NOT make any investment decisions on my comments. They are my opinions. That's all they are... OPINIONS."
