Investments and software: 5 trading terminals for trading on the exchange
Hello! For a couple of years now, as a hobby, I have been experimenting with free finance and exploring available opportunities and tools. Trading on the stock exchange (not forex!) Is a very interesting topic, and as it turned out, extremely technological.
Today I prepared an overview of five interesting trading terminals - from instruments of professional investors to those that can be used to trade on Russian exchanges.
Bloomberg terminal
Perhaps the symbol of the phrase "trading terminal", which has existed for 30 years. When Bloomberg arrived, there was no PC yet. The terminal used to be a hardware product, but today it is a hardware-software complex. In addition to the actual software for trading, traders can also use specialized hardware - the keyboard became the most famous such element (there is good material on the Habr’s about how it has changed over time).
The Bloomberg terminal is used exclusively by professionals - a subscription to the platform costs $ 24,000 (according to Investopedia). The program provides access to a huge amount of data, so it is usually used in combination with several monitors.
According to official statistics on the manufacturer’s website, 325 thousand financial market professionals in the world use this tool.
Thomson reuters eikon
Bloomberg's main competitor is Eikon from Thomson Reuters. It is also a professional system for monitoring and analyzing financial information. Traders use Eikon to access real-time financial market data and analytics.
One of the interesting functions of the terminal is the built-in analysis of investor sentiment. The system analyzes Twitter messages on given topics and looks for indicators of positive or negative mood of the audience. Based on this information, traders can hypothesize about further movements on the exchange.
Eikon developers used a modular approach, so the cost depends on the terminal's final functionality. A fully “charged” version costs $ 22 thousand, and the basic version is available from $ 3600.
Metastock
Another legendary tool that has existed for several decades. MetaStock is a market analysis platform developed by DataLink. This is a tool for private traders, which is especially famous for its graphical components for drawing charts.
It also uses a modular approach, there are many elements of the system that are purchased separately. It is also possible to purchase a subscription to the service. The basic version will cost $ 499, the PRO version will cost $ 1395, you can purchase data subscriptions for various regions of the world.
SMARTx
A terminal for working on Russian exchanges with a rather interesting history. It was created by Russian developers, while the development was carried out not from scratch, but based on the M4 platform from the Americans from Modulus FE.
Among the interesting “features” of the terminal is the ability to create trading robots right inside the program. To do this, use the specialized programming language TradeScript (here is an article with code examples).
The functionality of the terminal can also be expanded with various plug-ins - for example, to trade options or automatically delete orders that have not been completed in the allotted time. The program is available only to customers of the development company, you do not need to pay for a license separately.
QUIK
According to Wikipedia, the most popular trading terminal in Russia and Ukraine. It is used in more than 270 financial institutions that serve several tens of thousands of customers.
QUIK consists of a server part and workstations - a broker company installs the server, and then its clients can trade on the exchange through the terminal and they do not need to pay for access.
The focus of the terminal is on speed, hence its name. The program has an API that allows you to connect third-party programs, for example, to analyze market data (MetaStock, Wealth-Lab, Omega TradeStation).
And what other trading terminals for working on Russian and foreign exchanges do you know and use?