All, not sure if someone can help out here. I've finely honed my strategy, somehow managed to keep profitable with a bucketshop spreadbetters, and now I want to start gradually increasing size (starting approx $20k).
1) There's 2-3 trades/day in this strategy so commission costs are an issue
2) I need an API to automate
3) I've never tried to program an API, and while I can handle a few nested IF statements in Excel, this might be stretching my skills a bridge too far. In which case, I'd need an API that marries some 3rd party software that could take my automation signals and translate into orders.
4) To know what kind of slippage to expect. I know - depends on liquidity, news etc, but my bucketshop to be fair doesn't slip me and instead charges a gigantic spread. Better the devil you know. Trades will be during London/US session on the majors only. Never within 5 minutes of news releases. I've seen some horror stories on here about ODL for eg, slipping 200 pips. That kind of thing would ruin this strategy instantly.
So, what recommendations would you make on the basis of cost, execution and API? It looks like Interactive Brokers or MBTrading so far. And am I being paranoid about the possibility of massive slippage?
1) There's 2-3 trades/day in this strategy so commission costs are an issue
2) I need an API to automate
3) I've never tried to program an API, and while I can handle a few nested IF statements in Excel, this might be stretching my skills a bridge too far. In which case, I'd need an API that marries some 3rd party software that could take my automation signals and translate into orders.
4) To know what kind of slippage to expect. I know - depends on liquidity, news etc, but my bucketshop to be fair doesn't slip me and instead charges a gigantic spread. Better the devil you know. Trades will be during London/US session on the majors only. Never within 5 minutes of news releases. I've seen some horror stories on here about ODL for eg, slipping 200 pips. That kind of thing would ruin this strategy instantly.
So, what recommendations would you make on the basis of cost, execution and API? It looks like Interactive Brokers or MBTrading so far. And am I being paranoid about the possibility of massive slippage?