Before late May, my focus wasn’t on building AlgoAI. I was simply searching for a platform that could meet the demands of my own proprietary trading. That search lasted 18 months.
My goal was clear: to automate an options strategy I had seen work with my own eyes—on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. The idea wasn’t theoretical. I watched it mint real money in real time.
Inspired by Market Wizards legend Anthony Saliba, who once told me that if he could automate a single concept, it would be his credit butterfly strategy, I set out to do just that.
Saliba legged into butterfly spreads—normally debit structures—for net credits. I knew this concept could produce a durable edge if automated with speed and precision. But finding a platform to do that, decades later, was far more difficult than I expected.
A Tour of the Retail Landscape
What I found confirmed what I already suspected: in retail trading, not much has changed in 40 years.
Here’s a quick tour through the so-called modern platforms I tested:
1. TradeStation / EasyLanguage (1987–1991)
TradeStation, still widely used today, was built around EasyLanguage—a proprietary scripting language launched in 1987. Despite updates over the years, the platform remains largely tethered to its 32-bit legacy architecture.
In 2023, they quietly removed their own claim of 0.7-second execution latency for stocks from their website. If that’s what they’re admitting to for equities, imagine futures latency. This platform is simply not equipped for serious, low-latency, automated trading in today’s market.
2. MultiCharts / PowerLanguage (2004)
MultiCharts is effectively a TradeStation clone using PowerLanguage—nearly identical to EasyLanguage. While it supports more FCMs and offers some performance gains, it failed my test for execution viability.
A one-tick Renko-based scalping strategy overwhelmed it. It simply couldn’t keep up. At $147/month for the “advanced” version, it still doesn’t deliver the performance or precision I require.
3. NinjaTrader / C# (2002)
NinjaTrader was a step up. Built around C#, it offers more power and flexibility than the legacy scripting languages. But with that power comes complexity—and in this case, a confusing implementation of C# that makes development difficult even for professional programmers.
Moreover, NinjaTrader only supports futures and options through its own brokerage network. No direct securities or security options access. At $99/month, it offers more—but still falls short in execution clarity and control.
4. CQG (Founded ~1980)
CQG offers global market access and a scripting language that’s user-friendly compared to C#. But it doesn’t solve the latency problem. The $1,200/month “Integrated Client” version provides decent access—but not speed.
They do offer a faster institutional-grade gateway for $3,000/month, but I haven’t tested it. In the version available to me, CQG fell short of what’s required to compete at the institutional level.
5. MetaTrader / MQL4 (2005)QL4 is another scripting language—introduced in 2005 for MetaTrader 4. It’s wildly popular in the forex world but notorious for low-quality execution, lack of transparency, and strategy overfitting.
It’s not serious infrastructure. It’s a casino with automation tools.
6. Sierra Chart (1996)
Sierra Chart was built in 1996 and is respected for its speed, cost-efficiency, and connection to high-performance data feeds. It’s closer to what I was seeking—but still lacks core components like modern scripting abstraction, advanced automation frameworks, and integrated fundamental data pipelines.
And Still, Nothing Worked
By the end of my review, I had kicked the tires on every major retail and semi-professional platform. Some were overengineered. Others were underpowered. All of them lacked one or more of the following:
- Sub-millisecond execution speed
- Transparent and flexible scripting frameworks
- True integration with real-world fundamentals
- Direct-market access outside a walled garden
Not one could do what I watched Saliba do—by hand—on the floor of the CBOE.
Nothing New Out of New York
The stochastic oscillator? Released to the public in the 1950s.
Since then, we’ve been treated to a parade of variations:
- Fast Stochastic
- Slow Stochastic
- Percentage Stochastic
- Center of Gravity Stochastic
- RSI Stochastic
- Cyber Cycle, Relative Vigor, Crossover, Functional…
And let’s not forget the RSI itself—only introduced in 1985.
Each new indicator, each shiny package, was just another remix of the same few core ideas. Add a new name, a new user interface, and a few promises no platform can keep—and you’ve got this decade’s “cutting-edge” technical innovation.
Wall Street Built the Rules—Then Built the Walls
Meanwhile, Wall Street’s real innovations remain locked behind access control lists and $500,000+ capital requirements.
They claim to be closing the gap. But look closely. Today’s platforms might have slicker UIs, but their architecture is still running on bones laid down in the early ’90s. Their codebases are fossils in digital clothing.
Retail and semi-pro traders haven’t just been left behind—they’ve been intentionally walled out and they were never meant to catch up.
So If Nothing’s New… What Has Changed?
Now we get to the real story.
The last two decades brought a quiet but seismic shift—not in what traders use, but in the environment we trade within:
- Electronic Infrastructure Became Universal
Everyone’s online, but not everyone’s equal. Fast pipes don’t mean fast fills. - Latency Became a Weapon
Microseconds now determine winners. If you’re behind, you’re prey. - Institutions Got Smarter
Models got tighter. Desks got faster. The rest of us got outgunned. - Algo Trading Became the Default
What was once a curiosity is now the norm—if you can afford to build it. The game is being played at a quant versus quant level at $10 million a pop. - The Gap Became a Chasm
Institutional edge isn’t just capital or research. It’s execution. The game changed—but the tools sold to undercapitalized hedgers and traders didn’t.
Less Is More
TradeMatrix isn’t just an alternative. It’s a departure.
Where others patch over the cracks, we tore the whole thing down and started from bedrock.
- TradeMatrix delivers executions at significantly lower latencies than existing platforms.
- C/C++ is three times faster than C#, twenty times faster than Python, and a hundred times faster than R.
- Direct-to-exchange connectivity reduces quote delivery time.
- Our market scanners return results at lightning speed—meaning less time between insight and action.
- No programming required—less time to develop, test, and deploy strategies.
- We shrink the gap between institutional tools and individual traders, leveling the field.
- We offer institutional-grade performance at a fraction of the cost.
- Millionaire Hedgers Club integrates global fundamentals in real-time, reducing decision lag in volatile markets.
The Fire This Time
The tools didn’t evolve—we did.
We’ve waited long enough. The gap won’t close itself. No one is coming to level the field. So we did what had to be done: We are building the thing they told us couldn’t exist.
No black boxes. No compromises. No excuses.
TradeMatrix isn’t just faster—it’s freer. It isn’t just less expensive—it’s cleaner. It doesn’t imitate Wall Street—it liberates Main Street. This isn’t just about trading anymore; it’s about taking back what was never meant to be given!
The rules were written in towers; we’re writing new ones in code and this time; we will not be locked out!