History of Fully Automated Trading (black box)

Were any of the systems of the early pioneers in automated trading ever documented anywhere? Who were the first to trade with fully automated algorithms? Were the basic systems ever published? Which ECN's were the first to support automated trading?

Did anyone ever publish the trading approach of Long Term Capital Management?

Here's a start: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

Come on guys and gals. Who were the early players on fully automated trading?

Technical,

I have looked at numeorus write-ups on LTCM, but I cannot discerne whether or not they executed trades manually based on mathematical modesl (black scholes, etc) or if they just let the computer run the whole show.... What I want to know is did the computer enter orders or did a human based on a computer program?

These guys go back a ways: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...rchives/omega/

There are of course other players, but the tradestation crowd has been at it for quite awhile.

There is a similar Metastock group of similar age.

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If I was researching the early institutional folks I'd start here, but I don't really know if this is the best lead...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...ol&btnG=Search

Thanks Technical. It looks like microlabs started automated trading support for laymen back in 99. I would have thought earlier. I am sure the private and hedge industry was eariler, but everything is so secret, naturally...

Tradestation *may* have had autoexecution then or earlier, I don't know.

If you really need an accurate answer, this guy is an *old* hand, exploring the edges of the possible, waaaaay back when. He was mainly using tradestation, but was looking at everything from weather modelling software to you name it. I think he had a foot in the institutional world also. Gettin' him to talk to you might be a neat trick, but I can't think of a better lead: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search
(Sorry about the oblique link, but the sheer number of hits will give you a sense of his involvement & hopefully it complies w/ the antispam rules)

If you go way back in the purebytes archives you'll see mark brown and some other guys who were 'with it' early on.

Thanks again Technical. It looks like Tradestation only offered alerts in the 2000i suite. Still trying to figure out when they offered auto execution. Looking at Metastock as well. Day Trader Pro might have too.

Ok, sometime in 2000 Tradestation merged with a broker who was tied in with the ECN's. That enabled auto execution.

I'm fairly sure that version 2000i had autoexecution capability with 3rd party brokers BEFORE Tradestation Inc became a broker, and I wouldn't be surprised if the preceding version, "Tradestation 4" had some sort of a brokerage link.

BTW, 2000i was the last of the versions that was user-owned & completely resident on the user's harddisk. I think the brokerage model was adopted after they introduced the next version, "Tradestation 6", which was online by subscription. 2000i definitely preceeded Tradestation Inc.'s brokerage service.

In any event, another old-timer who would likely know the full history is Sam Tennis, the original author of the Tradestation programming language, known as Easylanguage: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...22&btnG=Search

Sam's a good guy, and can probably give you a detailed history by phone off the top of his head. There should be a phone number for him on his web page. If not PM me & I'll give it to you.

Between Sam & Mark Brown you can learn more than you ever wanted to know about the history of autotrading, assuming you can get 'em talking.

Send me a copy of your paper when you're done.

the real founders of automated trading were a company called Automated Trading Desk in the 1980s.

the compay was purchased by citi as the investment branch of the company for a cool 600 million in 2007.

the website to the company is www.atdesk.com

Thanks Tdion and Technical. Flextrade also looks to be an early mover, although not nearly as early as ATD. I would imagine that the adoption of FIX in 93 caused autotrading to rapidly expand.

Yikes!

You're welcome.

Read this :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_trading

This is a good information site about what you looking for.

Regards.

I read Wiki before, but it is really sparse on who was actually doing this early on. This is understandable though as the private institutions that started all this were just that -- very private.