[dwright]

Hello

I have been trading the stock markets on and off for a few years now, and it has got to the stage where I would like to be able to automate the trades that I make. I would like to create a program that can run alongside the program that I use to trade the stocks, recognising certain movements on the charts and also automatically make a trade when it recognises that the movements meet certain conditions.

I am guessing that the program I want to create will need to be able to scan the pages of the existing program, recognising and reading numbers in order for it to be able to work successfully. I dont know whether this is possible, but I have heard of programs that have been successfully designed to scan the lines of bookmaker websites to search for good odds. My program would actually need to go a step further and actually press buttons on the software's pages to make a trade (this, I imagine could be a bit tricky).


So, my questions are:

1) Does anyone know if it would be possible to create such a program, and how awkward might it be?

2) Considering I don't have any experience in programming, would it be possible to learn a computer language and create this program myself, or would it take years to learn how to create something like this?

3) If possible, which computer language would be the easiest to learn that could create this program?

Don't laugh, but I have had some experience automating excel spreadsheets with quite complex formulas.
I hope someone can help. Thanks in advance.

D Wright

[Iron_Cross]

Ok, before you start picking language there are a few things you need to consider.

1.) What is the program that you use?
a.) What Language was it made in.
b.) Is it open source? / Is the source available?
c.) What Protocols does this program use?
i.) Does it use some standard protocol for stock market trades

This may be partly because I don't know much about the stock market. If you could post a link to the program you use to trade I may be able answer you question a little better.

Based off of what you said, I do believe it's possible for you to do. In fact, I don't believe it will be that much of a headache. It will take some time, depending on how fast you pick up concepts, but not years...months at the very longest.

I would suggest learning about C# (pronounced See-Sharp) .NET, and the .NET Framework. For what you're wanting to do it sounds like it will work the best. Anyone who suggest you should use visual basic (or any form of basic) should be shot in the knee caps.

If you check the Programming Tips and Tricks forum, you will find two topics, "Programming FAQ" and "Programming Resources" read those for some good websites about C#.

[cakeMate]

the easiest programming language for a total beginner would've been Java. C# costs since it's Microsoft's product, and Java is free and is basically same as C#. I wouldn't argue with either a Sun-crazy or a Microsoft-crazy on this topic, cuz for a beginner there's no difference. I had Java class last semester and there are a lot of beginners in it, and they made it. I still don't understand the specification of this program, I mean what do you mean by reading the pages of existing programs? Are you talking about reading from a text file and then analyzing the data you read?

the time takes to make it, or whether you are going to have it made at all, depends on how determined you are. If you are really a determined person, then you might be able to take out a few hours each day and learn a little bit programming and make everyday the same. But I'm pretty sure that it'll take a loooong time before you get started if you don't have any programming knowledge at the moment, but just like I said before, if you are determined to make it, it's just a matter of time.

[Iron_Cross]

Are you nuts? Making a program like that in Java would NOT be fun at all. Java may be better for a beginner, but that does NOT mean it's better suited for this project.
Don't get me wrong, I like Java, but don't spout stuff until you know what you're talking about.

By the way, C# is free too.

[furtivefelon]

just want to add, languages are free, environment costs, courses costs, but languages should and will remain free..

[Iron_Cross]

If you want to get technical about it, Java is the non free one according to the licensing, even though it's released as free. And C# is the one that's free according to the licensing, even though it's being kept from *nix environments (excluding Mono).

[dwright]

The program that I use is called 'Market Maker v5.0', but I am not sure what language it was made in and wouldn't know how to go about finding that out. The software is owned by a company called 'Deal For Free.' I have an account with these people and they issue this software to all of their customers to enable them to trade the stockmarkets. They are very similar to a bookmaker in a way.

This is a link to their software download page: http://www.deal4free.com/spreadbet/soft_trial.jsp#

You can also run a quick demo of the software on the site. I dont know whether this would be able to give anyone an immediate idea of the language used to program the software.

When you talk about open source I assume you are talking about whether the code used to program the software is accessible or not. Again I am not sure whether it would be open source or not. Sorry for being so vague and generally not a lot of help, but computer programming is an alien subject to me at the minute.

If anyone has time to look at this website and maybe make a few assumptions about the 'market maker' software and maybe then advise me as to whether C# is still the best language to learn for this project, I would be very grateful.

Recapping: Basically I want to create a program that will automate my trades on the stock market. I would like it to be able to notice certain live price changes of various stocks and be able to put on a trade if certain conditions are met. The software would obviously need to be able to press various buttons on the software that you would usually manually press with a 'click on the mouse'.

Thanks in advance.

D Wright

[dnoch]

Don't kid yourself. As a beginner programmer myself, I can tell you strait - unless you are an exeptionally good programmer, you will not just be able to just download a language and create a program that sophisticated. Im sure that such a program could be written, but (comming from a beginner) I seriously doubt you will be able to write a program like that. Do not let me discourage you in programming however. I certainly believe you should learn to program, just don't expect to be able to write anything like that, especially if you intend to teach yourself (without a teacher)

[slymat]

I've always learned more by self teaching than anything. Of course, everyone is different. However, you will need to master one of the C languages before writing an application such as that.