Programming something like JQuantTrader against IB API

[Adamus]

How easy or difficult would this be?

I created a few systems on an old version of TradeStation and I run it to get my signals everyday, but then I type them in manually into IB's TWS platform.

I can easily get the TradeStation signals into a Java program, so I figured I could then have the program post them through the IB API and save me the 20 to 30 mins it takes everyday by hand.

Any opinions? If it's going to take a day or two, then I'll do it, but I couldn't justify taking much longer than a week or so. My programming proficiency at Java is good / professional.

It's a kind of temporary solution - either I'm going to blow up or I'll make enough money to warrant buying a proper solution in the long term.

 

[tradelink-opensource]

If you're proficient in java, you could do it in a few days easily. The IB api is pretty straightforward and there's java interfaces available.

As a side note, I have clients who do this already with TradeStation and 3rd party brokers (including IB). You wouldn't need to write any new code, you'd just be inserting a couple of lines of code into your tradestation strategy. You can then send orders to IB, Assent, Echo or any of the supported brokers. The software is open-source and free to use. Here are the instructions :

TradeIdeasTradeStationConfig - tradelink - Using 3rd party brokers with TradeStation - Google Code

you can download it here: tradelink - Google Code

 

[rnicoll]

Depends.

If you just want to have it pull data from IB, and spit out the trades you need, with you watching; fairly easy. A week sounds about right, probably less if you're good and doing it full time. You can have it spit trades into TWS without submitting them, and you can then just check them and transmit them to IB.

If you want a fully automated solution, it's a lot more work, as there's a lot of different scenarios you need to deal with. JBookTrader might rather help as a skeleton to work from, though.