FXCM or not, who has the best API?

Hi,

I'm currently testing a new custom trading robot with an FXCM demo account and I'm really struggling with the system. It seems that no mater what I try I can't get FX Connect to give me the prices I'm asking for. The system just ignores my limit orders and hands out prices my robot can't make money with. Sometimes it complains that my order is too far from the market price and it doesn't open a trade. In fact, I have many examples of the system not waiting and just rejecting my orders at 1 pip or less! I'm certain it's not my knowledge of the API that's causing these issues either. IMO, the system is just not doing what the API documentation says it should.

And now I read on these forums that many folks who trade manually have also experienced the same price slippage issue with FXCM.

Maybe these are just the pains that everyone experiences, but there is nothing worse than spending months developing a zero-lag high volatility robot only to have it thwarted by the broker.

What broker would you suggest I try?

You should try LMax or Pepperstone.

Thanks. I'll take a look. Hopefully they have a demo account that allows you to trade with many different pairs simultaneously.

My robot trades up to 28 different pairs simultaneously and is mostly database driven.

Last night I opened a Pepperstone demo account and managed to code in all my custom indicators with cAlgo. That system is awesome! I really didn't expect it to be that easy to develop with. Thanks for the tip. I can't wait to start backtesting and let it run for a few weeks.

Oanda Rest API is good. And Interactive Brokers API.

Yes, I was looking at the Oanda REST API for C# and it also looks quite good. If Pepperstone doesn't workout for me I'll move there next.

Oanda REST API is great... IF... you are willing to position trade only... you can't open 2 trades in the same currency in opposing directions - perhaps you can in some Oanda non-stateside flavour , I don't know.. was just watching what happened in the demo I had.

How does one get an LMAX account that you can hook up to an API? does the API cost money?

This information is posted on their website.

wwwhhhhaaatttt????? who's there....

FXCM also has FIX, or if you are that way inclined you can code your strategy in ninjatrader. Any LMAX account can be used with their API, balance >= $5k or FIX for higher balance accounts.

I'm a resident of the US, and am challenged to find a broker with an API with C or REST connectivity.

It appears that OANDA and IB might be the only ones available.

Anyone know of any others I could consider?

Thanks in advance for your advice and suggestion!

Why not use a broker with an ordinary FIX connectivity and a c implementation of said industry standard? I haven't tried (I'm more a JAVA guy) but libtrading looks promising http://libtrading.org/