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Quoting jjk2
I think its pretty down right stupid for people pay to use API. scratch that thought, its absolutely hilarious.
I actually used Oanda's API, though I only payed the intial $600 for the library and activation, as my volume was high enough that my discounts exceeded the $600 every month until I canceled it a few months later. The cheaper spreads were enough for me to be willing the pay that price anyway, I just left it because the system started losing ground and I went to another broker with more volatility. Anyway, unless you are planning on trading the EURUSD as your main trading, I think I would look more into the ECNs instead of Oanda.
Tradeview has the API and unlimited demo accounts. Far better than having to deal with those bucket shop pikers at oanda.
Quoting SBRfx
Tradeview has the API and unlimited demo accounts. Far better than having to deal with those bucket shop pikers at oanda.
TradeView uses MT4. MT4 doesn't have an API, or at least not a free one (MT3 used to have one). What API are u talking about?
Quoting motanu
TradeView uses MT4. MT4 doesn't have an API, or at least not a free one (MT3 used to have one). What API are u talking about?
MT4 has Expert Advisors that you can auto trade with. Most of my auto trading has actually been done with the MT4 platform over at MIG. So while they don't refer to it as an API, it does serve the same purpose of monitoring the market and doing whatever you tell it to.
Quoting willis11of12
MT4 has Expert Advisors that you can auto trade with. Most of my auto trading has actually been done with the MT4 platform over at MIG. So while they don't refer to it as an API, it does serve the same purpose of monitoring the market and doing whatever you tell it to.
Many platforms have some sort of EA. A few of them (such as VT) have both EA and API.
However this thread is about API and nothing but API.
Quoting motanu
Many platforms have some sort of EA. A few of them (such as VT) have both EA and API.
However this thread is about API and nothing but API.
I'm a little curious... What do you do with an API that you don't do with an EA? As far as my experience with both of them, they are the same thing: They allow you to code a program that gathers information, make calculations, and execute transactions.
If there is something you know that I don't about a difference between the two, please let me know. As far as I am concerned, comments about Metatrader 4 are just fine to be mentioned in a thread about API. SBRfx, you are welcome here, and don't let the others stop you from contributing to the conversation.
Quoting willis11of12
I'm a little curious... What do you do with an API that you don't do with an EA? As far as my experience with both of them, they are the same thing: They allow you to code a program that gathers information, make calculations, and execute transactions.
If there is something you know that I don't about a difference between the two, please let me know. As far as I am concerned, comments about Metatrader 4 are just fine to be mentioned in a thread about API. SBRfx, you are welcome here, and don't let the others stop you from contributing to the conversation.
First of all I don't have anything against you, SBRfx or anyone else, I just wanted to keep this thread on tracks.
EA and API are two distinct ways to accomplish more or less the same thing and this thread is only about the API way. When people start talking about EA as API some confusion arises and some other people may waste their time. For example I didn't know about Tradeview and I had to go to their website only to find out that he was talking about MT4's EAs.
Beer and juice are both drinks but if I ask where I can drink a beer I don't expect one to tell me that I can drink a juice instead at the local McDonald's.
Now, back to your question. EAs are notoriously unreliable and hard to program, test and debug. Part of the problem is that the EA programming language and libraries are very limited. While I am not an expert in MQL I know for example that it doesn't have events and it's very hard if not impossible to process XML files. EAs are maybe suitable for simple tasks such as alarms but I wouldn't let a fairly complex EA trade with my real money.
In the end it all depends of what u do. My trading strategy makes heavy use of events and does a lot of file processing and other stuff both on and off-line and no EA can do this for me.
  • Post #28
  • Quote
  • Edited 7:07am Apr 19, 2008 6:49am | Edited 7:07am
Interesting. I guess maybe it's because I have spent more time working with and trading with EAs, but to me it is so much easier to use EAs for live trading. When I was using the API at Oanda I had problems keeping it running. I talked to the API department and showed them the errors I was getting, and they had no idea what to do. I even showed them my code, and they said it didn't have any problems that they could find. With my EAs, they never have a problem running unless my whole computer froze, which was much more rare than the problems I was having with the API. Also, my EAs used up much less of my CPU, but a more professional coder probably could have eliminated that problem. Maybe for professional programmers that are used to that enviroment it may be easier to use the API, but for me it is much easier to use the EAs. Unfortunatley for me, the best brokers in my opinion do not use MT4, so I have to use APIs. I'm still using EAs, but planning on moving to an ECN, and probably Hotspot, so I have to go back to using an API. Hopefully I won't have as much difficultly with their API as I did with Oanda's.
Thanks by the way for pointing some differences that I was not aware of. I guess I never felt the need to process XML files so I don't know if that is possible or not. I've always felt that all of their indicators and library were more than I needed, plus you can make custom indicators if you want. I guess being a self taught coder for the sole purpose of trading, MQL4 had an easier path for me to learn than I could find for java or c++ looking online.
Anyway, as for your original qustion about who offers API, most of the big brokers do, such as Oanda, Hotspot, Interactive Brokers, MB Trading, and if you have $50,000 or more to open an account with, there is also Dukascopy. I really like their tick charts, but they don't carry as many pairs as I would like them to, though their API seems pretty easy to use, and you can use it on a demo without having to make any direct arrangments with them other than a couple clicks online. In my opinion, depending on what pairs you like to trade, I would say the top four are Hotspot, Oanda, IB, and Dukascopy, but there may be some better ones that I am not aware off. I don't like MB Trading, and I believe Oanda watches their more profitable traders to change the market feed to make it more difficult to profit, at least that's what it seemed like to me. Though if my strategies were using EURUSD, I would probably go with Oanda, as that is one pair they can't really mess with or else people could use arbitrage between them and another broker.
I hope that helps!
Quoting willis11of12
...When I was using the API at Oanda I had problems keeping it running. I talked to the API department and showed them the errors I was getting, and they had no idea what to do. I even showed them my code, and they said it didn't have any problems that they could find.
What were your problems with Oanda API? And how do you set up the API at Oanda, do they allow you a demo version or something free to try?
And what language did u use?
Quoting motanu
What were your problems with Oanda API? And how do you set up the API at Oanda, do they allow you a demo version or something free to try?
And what language did u use?
It's been a while now, but the error messages said something about a problem with the socket, not staying connected, something about a handle. Like I said before, I am not expert at programming, but I started a long discussion with others who were more familiar with how evrything works who were having the same problems appearantly. If you look at their forums, you can probably find it by searching for something like "API reconnection problems." There were several different ideas and some examples of code on how to deal with the problems.
As far as setting up the API, you have to pay $600 for the right to use the API and to get the library. They will then give you 2 months free with access to use it on a demo to test, and then switch to a live account as soon as you have it ready. They say the two months are to get your program running, but even for a newbie like me, it only took about 3 weeks. Using their "Example2.java" as a template and just changing it to my needs was a big help. But yeah, no free trial period without first paying for the library. So you really have to be serious about using their API before you sign up for it.
As for me, I get Hotspot to send me what I need to get started testing their API. I took a while for them to get it to me, as they weren't sure at first if they were going to let me since the last couple months my average lots per day has been about 27-28 lots, and they want a minimum of 50 lots a day. They said I could start and they would give me a period of time to get my volume up to 50 lots a day, but they said the details of that will be discussed after I get the API running on a demo first. We'll see how it goes. I'm actually pretty excited about it, but it doesn't seem like they have any examples similar to the one that Oanda gave me.
Happy trading!
Ok, thanks.
So Oanda uses Java for API. Is there a way to look at the documentation before buying the API?
What about Hotspot? Java too?
It seems strange to me that some brokers treat API users as different then normal platform users. Both API and platform should implement the exact same protocols to communicate with servers, this should be totally transparent for the broker.
I'm using CMS's API now. It is pretty good and is free. It has interfaces for many languages, is completely separated from the platform ( u can use the platform and API simultaneously) and you don't need anything to set it up, just use the same account as the platform. The tech support is rather weak however. And I only traded lightly live so far so I cannot say for sure how good is the CMS-API combination.
Here's a list of all the Forex API's I know of outside of Metatrader, and what they run on.

MB Trading/EFX Group http://www.mbtrading.com/sdk.asp
OCX/COM controls Windows only

OandA http://fxtrade.oanda.com/forex_tradi..._trading.shtml
Java,C++,.NET Linux and Windows

Gain Capital http://www.gaincapital.com/forex_api.html
Web based/SOAP Linux and Windows

CMS Forex http://www.cmsfx.com/en/trading-soft...vt-trader-api/
dll based Windows only

Interactive Brokers http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en...&ib_entity=llc
Propritary (Java/C++) and CTCI Fix Windows and Linux

HotspotFX http://eu.hotspotfx.com/trading-software/connectivity/
FIX or Direct API (DLL) windows and Linux (?)

Currnex http://www.currenex.com/trading_serv...tegration.html
FIX or Java API Window or Linux

FXCM http://www.fxprogrammers.com/forum/
Java or COM objects Windows or Linux

Dukascopy http://www.dukascopy.com/swiss/engli.../int2/fix_api/
Fix JAVA windows or Linux
Thanks a lot.
Finally a well compiled list.
Quoting motanu
Ok, thanks.
So Oanda uses Java for API. Is there a way to look at the documentation before buying the API?
What about Hotspot? Java too?
It seems strange to me that some brokers treat API users as different then normal platform users. Both API and platform should implement the exact same protocols to communicate with servers, this should be totally transparent for the broker.
I'm using CMS's API now. It is pretty good and is free. It has interfaces for many languages, is completely separated from the platform ( u can use the platform and API simultaneously) and you don't need anything to set it up, just use the same account as the platform. The tech support is rather weak however. And I only traded lightly live so far so I cannot say for sure how good is the CMS-API combination.
As was just mentioned above, Oanda allows you to use a few different languages, but I was using Java for mine. They told me I had to choose just one language to get the library in so I chose Java.
Now I have the library from Hotspot in Java, but I haven't figured out how to get it up and running yet. Again, if you are someone who is a professional, it would probably be pretty easy for you. If you want to look at the documentation that I finally got from Hotspotfx, let me know in a private message and I can share with you. As for me, I don't even know if I am importing the library and jar file properly into the Eclipse workspace! Oanda's API was my first experience learning any java, and I only learned what I needed to learn to run my programs.
Thanks for the offer. I've sent u a PM.
Whats the filename for the oanda api .jar file ?

Can anyone send it to me?
fxspyder offers free api on fxgame
and 0.5pip fee api for fxtrade on a volume base
they also claim to hide your acc info from being known by price source so they cannot manipulate price against you.

that is cheaper to start with? worth doing? I haven't tried yet

Quoting Liquid4x
#1) Oanda offers API at a monthly fee
#2) Again Oanda...
#3) Is this some kind of reverse psychology advertising?
I'm aware of fxspyder.

fxspyder uses the Oanda API to talk to Oanda's Servers and access your account.

It uses the .NET 2005 API; you can find the dll files for Oanda's .NET API when you install fxspyder in its directory under Program Files.

But I still want the Java API library....
thanks for the detailed list 4xCoder

i'm attempting to use the oanda java api currently, but find the it and support for the product quite lacking.

oanda are the preferred agent because of the tight spread they offer, but with stability obviously a major consideration, i'm considering jumping ship - can anyone recommend another platform?

i basically need reliable rate notifications and order execution with as tight a spread as is available.

regards, paul.
oh, and a bottomless depth!
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