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Creating your own charting platform

  • #1
  • First Post: Jul 29, 2013 7:52pm Jul 29, 2013 7:52pm
Just an honest question for those who know out there..

What would be involved in a programmer building something like MT4 or some other type of charting platform?In terms of access to data stream as well as the actual platform itself (which would be very basic, bare charts standard time frames, only need vertical, horizontal and trend lines). I'm mainly interested in something for stocks.

What kind of prices would need to be paid for not only the programmers work but the data feed it would probably need?

Any input would be appreciated thanks.
Time hides Nothing
  • #2
  • Jul 29, 2013 8:38pm Jul 29, 2013 8:38pm
This isn't the kind of work a programmer would undertake on his own. It requires a team of programmers, designers and testers. Multiple programmers are required due to the different skills required, such as user interface, communications, security and database. A month ago, someone was looking for something similar and had come up with an estimate of 10 coders.Sounds optimistic to me, but I haven't actually worked out the details.

Using somebody's feed and API is doable, but that cmes with a high cost and/or ongoing fees. Plus the bad features and defciencies of trying to use someone's code for your purposes. It is higly unlikely you would find a good fit, so compromise is required.
  • #3
  • Jul 29, 2013 9:32pm Jul 29, 2013 9:32pm
it is my opinion that a new trading platform is not what is needed.

a solid trading strategy is what is needed.

my opinion.
contact zero 510-684-1114
  • #4
  • Jul 30, 2013 12:01am Jul 30, 2013 12:01am
Quoting CindyXXXX
Any input would be appreciated thanks.
I wrote a specialized charting platform in Clarion for the FTSE (London exchange) back in 2003-4. It took me about 3-4 months to write and test the code. Price data was obtained by using a screen scraper (Kleptomania, which has in-built optical character recognition) on the broker's (CMC markets) trading platform.

I say 'specialized' because its main function was analysis by industrial sector, allowing a number of different views of sector vs sector strength/weakness across different time periods. The FTSE had around 45 sectors at that time, and the strategy requirement included buying the strongest stocks in the strongest sectors, and selling (CMC markets allowed CFD trading) the weakest stocks in the weakest sectors.

I assembled weekly charts for both stocks and sectors from the daily data. It was possible to drill down from sectors to daily and weekly charts for individual stocks. I included a number of basic indicators, like MAs, Bollinger bands, Stochastic, RSI, Heikin-Ashi, linear regression, MACD, NR4, NR7, OBV, CMF, DML, etc. The client's requirement didn't involve drawing objects like lines or boxes, hence I didn't bother.

It was purely charting software, i.e. all trading was done via CMC markets platform. Scaling everything to fit within the screen space was a fun exercise.

I assume you've looked at packages like MetaStock (unless your requirement is incredibly specialized, it's package will almost certainly offer more bang per buck than employing a programmer, and you have the benefit of running tried-and-tested software backed by a large organization) and free on-line interactive charting like bigcharts. If you do eventually decide to look for coders, I'm too busy with other projects at the moment.
  • #5
  • Jul 30, 2013 12:18am Jul 30, 2013 12:18am
Quoting slam.dunk
it is my opinion that a new trading platform is not what is needed. a solid trading strategy is what is needed. my opinion.
I need the data manipulated/ tweaked slightly, it would be different to anything that currently is available. Otherwise I would just use whats already out there obviously.

The other option is some kind of table format in Excel I guess using VBA or something
Time hides Nothing
  • #6
  • Jul 30, 2013 12:23am Jul 30, 2013 12:23am
Quoting hanover
{quote} I wrote a specialized charting platform in Clarion for the FTSE (London exchange) back in 2003-4. It took me about 3-4 months to write and test the code. Price data was obtained by using a screen scraper (Kleptomania, which has in-built optical character recognition) on the broker's (CMC markets) trading platform. I say 'specialized' because its main function was analysis by industrial sector, allowing a number of different views...
Great info Hanover thanks, some things for me to look into.
Time hides Nothing
  • #7
  • Jul 30, 2013 2:09am Jul 30, 2013 2:09am
I'm currently doing something similar. CodeMeister is correct, it would better fit a team. Hiring people from a software engineering firm will cost you something like $500-$1000 per day per developer --for peanuts you get monkeys!--. That's a multi-month project. I don't have that money so I do it all alone. I have a full time job on top. I'm a software engineer for a living (15yr exp.)

I'm not trying to rewrite MT4. I'm trying to build a automated trading software; but I wanted visual feedback. It's not designed to enter/exit trades, I'd like the soft to do that. But I had to add rectangles and trendlines drawing feature for quickly checking ideas. It is still in its infancy.

I was quickly limited by MT4 and marketscope frameworks. I wanted to draw real range bar charts (built tick by tick not from M1 interpolation), I wanted
to see what a SMA10 daily looked like on the hourly, I wanted to see my H4 chart through the candles of the daily, I wanted to see my weekly trendlines drawn from the real high/low even if I zoom to the minute or a 10 pip range bar chart. I wanted to be aware of a network disconnection.

On the technical side I use open source libraries and code in java. I'm using FXCM API, not because it is the best (!) but it exists, it is in java and it is free with historical data from (up to) 2007 for ticks (1 sec time resolution) and (up to) 2002 for 1 minute resolution.

Some screenshots to show what can be done by a single guy.
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PS: NOT FOR SALE!
No greed. No fear. Just maths.
  • #8
  • Jul 30, 2013 5:56am Jul 30, 2013 5:56am
Quoting CodeMeister
This isn't the kind of work a programmer would undertake on his own. It requires a team of programmers, designers and testers. Multiple programmers are required due to the different skills required, such as user interface, communications, security and database. A month ago, someone was looking for something similar and had come up with an estimate of 10 coders.Sounds optimistic to me, but I haven't actually worked out the details. Using somebody's feed and API is doable, but that cmes with a high cost and/or ongoing fees. Plus the bad features and...
Thanks for your post also Codemesister. It seems so simple yet obviously not quite so!

Quoting PipMeUp
. Some screenshots to show what can be done by a single guy. {image}{image}{image}
Nice one PipMeUp...
Time hides Nothing
  • #9
  • Edited 9:38pm Jul 31, 2013 7:23pm | Edited 9:38pm
OBJECTS
rates feed broadcast
account (bal,profit,equity,marginused)
trades (open and historical)
trading (open,close,modify)
.
OBJECT:RATES FEED BROADCAST
timestamp
symbol
provider
bid
ask
.
OBJECT:ACCOUNT.
account=101
user=edward
cid=ERTYUIO
broker=citifx
broker_account=2089596555
type=demo
balance=100.00
profit=-11.72
equity=88.28
marginused=79.59
timestamp_begin=0731131116
timestamp_hit=0731131116
.
OBJECT:TRADES.
account=101
ticket=28876019
timestamp=0730132001
type=sell
symbol=eurnzd
price_entry=1.66132
price_current=1.66795
price_close=
stop=0
take=1.6500
profit=-5.09
swap=0.04
.
.
.

Inserted Video
contact zero 510-684-1114
  • #10
  • Aug 2, 2013 12:29am Aug 2, 2013 12:29am
Quoting slam.dunk
OBJECTS rates feed broadcast account (bal,profit,equity,marginused) trades (open and historical) trading (open,close,modify) . OBJECT:RATES FEED BROADCAST timestamp symbol provider bid ask . OBJECT:ACCOUNT. account=101 user=edward cid=ERTYUIO broker=citifx broker_account=2089596555 type=demo balance=100.00 profit=-11.72 equity=88.28 marginused=79.59 timestamp_begin=0731131116 timestamp_hit=0731131116 . OBJECT:TRADES. account=101 ticket=28876019 timestamp=0730132001 type=sell symbol=eurnzd price_entry=1.66132 price_current=1.66795 price_close= stop=0...
Thank you for another confusing post Mr. Dunk
How are your programming skills?
Time hides Nothing
  • #11
  • Aug 2, 2013 9:12am Aug 2, 2013 9:12am
Quoting CindyXXXX
{quote} Thank you for another confusing post Mr. Dunk How are your programming skills?
my point is that you do not need ten men to handle this type of job.

my point was that the first thing to do is to design the database upon which the operation will be built.

sitting around and telling each other how difficult the job is is not the first thing to do.

ps, my coding skills are really strong, i just took a freshener up seminar about how to properly use the PRINTF family of functions, so i am good to go.

..topic drift..

my new arsenal of computer crap now includes a new raspberry pi, only eighty five bucks out the door.

i dont have it running yet, but i now understand that it boots from an SD card, it runs linux, it can produce HDMI video out or it can use a composite monitor which means that you can go to ebay and search for CAR TFT and buy some really cheap automotive style video screens that hook up with the one rca cable..
.
.
Inserted Video

.
.
.
.






mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
contact zero 510-684-1114
  • #12
  • Aug 2, 2013 3:55pm Aug 2, 2013 3:55pm
Quoting CindyXXXX
Just an honest question for those who know out there.. What would be involved in a programmer building something like MT4 or some other type of charting platform?In terms of access to data stream as well as the actual platform itself (which would be very basic, bare charts standard time frames, only need vertical, horizontal and trend lines). I'm mainly interested in something for stocks. What kind of prices would need to be paid for not only the programmers work but the data feed it would probably need? Any input would be appreciated thanks.
CindyXXXX-
There are multiple threads on this topic at SHF. Thats one if you navigate around you'll find several more.
  • #13
  • Oct 24, 2013 3:47pm Oct 24, 2013 3:47pm
Quoting CindyXXXX
Just an honest question for those who know out there.. What would be involved in a programmer building something like MT4 or some other type of charting platform?In terms of access to data stream as well as the actual platform itself (which would be very basic, bare charts standard time frames, only need vertical, horizontal and trend lines). I'm mainly interested in something for stocks. What kind of prices would need to be paid for not only the programmers work but the data feed it would probably need? Any input would be appreciated thanks.
CindyXXXX,

This one is a bit dated - last release in 2008, but here is an open source project call QtStalker. Its written in C++ using the QT toolkit so it should be cross platform as well. Works O.K. on Linux but I haven't used it in anger.

http://qtstalker.sourceforge.net/

Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: screen-1.png Size: 119 KB

Screenshot from here: http://qtstalker.sourceforge.net/screen-1.png

ninety47
  • #14
  • Nov 23, 2016 7:15pm Nov 23, 2016 7:15pm
Quoting hanover
{quote} I wrote a specialized charting platform in Clarion for the FTSE (London exchange) back in 2003-4. It took me about 3-4 months to write and test the code. Price data was obtained by using a screen scraper (Kleptomania, which has in-built optical character recognition) on the broker's (CMC markets) trading platform. I say 'specialized' because its main function was analysis by industrial sector, allowing a number of different views...


dear sir,
kindly send me nr4 nr7 indicator for mt4 chart ........
  • #15
  • Edited 11:47pm Nov 23, 2016 7:20pm | Edited 11:47pm
Quoting cvaji79
kindly send me nr4 nr7 indicator for mt4 chart
As explained, this was a specialized platform that I wrote myself. I don't have MT4 versions of these indicators.

[EDIT] Found the attached using Google here. Don't know how/if it works correctly.
Attached File(s)
File Type: ex4 NarrowRange.ex4   4 KB | 375 downloads
  • #16
  • Last Post: Nov 23, 2016 10:20pm Nov 23, 2016 10:20pm
Quoting PipMeUp
I'm currently doing something similar. CodeMeister is correct, it would better fit a team. Hiring people from a software engineering firm will cost you something like $500-$1000 per day per developer --for peanuts you get monkeys!--.....PS: NOT FOR SALE!
Hi Pip,

Out of curiosity what library you using for charting? Assuming you haven't written your own. Also are they interactive.

ninety47
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