Hello,
I would like to suggest that Q make more affordable brokers' APIs accessible to Q users. Our team did a LOT of research looking for brokers that are affordable and set up for implementing algo developers' systems. We found Tradier Brokerage and set up their API with a fair amount of ease. The minimum accounts are around $1000 and their fees are very cheap....under $6, I believe. If anyone knows of other similar brokers, please list them here for Q's admins to review. I understand IB requires a $10,000 minimum account size. That makes it inaccessible to so many folks. A prime directive of our model is to use algos coupled with affordable brokers to make investing/trading more accessible to the general public that does not have $10,000 laying around. I encourage Q admins to consider this demographic.
Cheers, Q !
Buen, to whom are you referring when you say "our team"?
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You cannot day-trade with less then 25,000 what will people do with accounts of 1000? trigger a margin call and lose all the money? Trading 1000 is just like giving your money away for commission .
Note that the Quantopian backtester has a commission model that can be adjusted to show the effect of high commissions. Lots of other bells and whistles, too. There's free Quantopian paper trading, as well. With a little effort, I think Monte Carlo type studies could be done in the Quantopian research platform, too (e.g. With $1000 capital, what is the returns distribution? What is the probability of gain? Loss? Etc.). Lucas is undoubtedly correct, but users can see for themselves without losing real money.
My understanding is that Forex (FX) is much more approachable for those with minimal capital (I don't have direct experience--just basing this on comments in this forum).
Another note is that it looks like Tradier is in the business of supporting investment advisors (see https://brokerage.tradier.com/advisors). My read is that Quantopian will indirectly support this type of platform usage and welcomes trading of any sort, but the main focus is on the crowd-sourced hedge fund (I'm still not sure how $500 E-Trade accounts fit in, but oh well).
SureTrader is ex-US and thus not subject to the pattern day trader rule (so you can day trade with any amount). Commissions are cheap ($4.95 per trade) and minimum account balance is $500 I believe, but user interface and customer service are both terrible. Trading small capital with an algorithm could be very doable with SureTrader if you design a system that doesn't trade often.
Bingo, Joe. You are right on all counts.
Lucas, I never mentioned day-trading, did I?
Jonathon, we are a group of programmers.
Grant, the problem with E*Trade is their API requires human interaction to log in each day. Their connection isn't persistent and our system requires persistent connections. We are developing for Forex next year. Backtests have shown 51% success rates. We had been trying to get capital , like a crowdfunded hedge fund, but are unsure of the regs and our compliance ,considering none of us have a license. Our system is designed for advisers and portfolio managers who have clients from the $1000 (ideally $3000). account size to million $ account sizes. It handles both margin and cash accounts, with the regs written into the code. Our system can run any algo's rules, beyond just our own. We are currently in the optimization phase for our own algo.
Optionshouse. Commisions are 4.95 a trade and their is not minimum balance. (But a $2000 minimum balance for margin accounts)
@ Buen,
I suggest contacting Q on the issue of E*Trade requiring daily user login. Maybe the Q/E*Trade system will manage that for users?
Add TD Ameritrade to the list: https://www.tdameritrade.com/api.page. The minimum to open an account is $100 (no minimum for retirement accounts). True, you can't make much money with that, but nothing can stop you from making additional ad hoc deposits, or setting up automatic paycheck deductions. See also http://apiforums.tdameritrade.com/tda-board/ubbthreads.php.
The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.
In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.