Trading Technologies – Our Verdict

Trading Technologies introduce themselves as being the fastest trading platform, designed to meet the needs of professional traders but open to retail traders as well. In addition to providing access to the world’s major international exchanges and liquidity venues via its TT® trading platform, TT offers domain-specific technology for cryptocurrency trading and machine-learning tools for trade surveillance.

* Trading platforms achieved above ratings in Best Day Trading Platform Review, where we compared several trading platforms and brokerages

Trading Technologies has a great user interface in which many widgets are available.

The watchlist widget allows you to see the contract, pos, last, bid/ask, vol and many more data points.

The Strategy Creation widget allows the user to create a watchlist based on their strategy. It submits the strategy to the exchange and then it can be watched in your workspace.

Placing trades is intuitive and fast with Trading Technologies. Order parameters include Basis, Best Limit, Cross, Fill and Save, Iceberg, Limit, Market Limit, Stop Limit, OCO and many others.

There are many features that are conducive to risk management on Trading Technologies.

Firstly, users are able to combine order activity across all execution platforms. This means you can get the bigger picture using the order book for an overview of all positions and orders.

Prices can be configured so algos and traders do not submit undesirable orders. Other Trading Technologies features include pre-trade risk checks, order cross prevention, post-trade risk and portfolio analysis.

There’s a risk matrix available that allows the user to assess multiple scenarios at the same time for changes to price and volatility.

Backtesting was never available with Trading Technologies, until at the end of 2019 where a Beta version was announced. Now, the ADL developers out there can backtest their algos by executing multiple instances of the strategy with unique parameters, testing before and after changes and evaluating the execution behaviour of the Proof of Concept strategies. Users can also train and learn with no risk.

Autotrader allows the user to develop and execute strategies with an interface similar to Excel. There’s some great features too, such as multiple levels of automation, Excel integration, built-in formula engine, strategy prices deriving from the market/theoretical values.

There’s also an auto spreader which has multiple MD trader windows, allowing the user to auto trade calendar and inter-product spreads.

Historical fills can be viewed quickly which allows users to track past performance. Users select a date range and all trades are displayed clearly.

The order toolbar is a means to manage current trades, in which you can cancel, inquire, pause (algo), cancel bids, and cancel offers. There’s also a “?” feature where you can read the original order details.

There aren’t many features to perform portfolio testing on Trading Technologies, other than the ADL backtester which allows users to train, learn and execute algos to validate proof of concept.

The Colocated servers of TT mean that, whether you’re building your algo or trading on your phone or desktop, you’re accessing super low-latency trading potential.

The C++ programming language along with these Colocated executions mean that TT is arguably the fastest trading platform available to retail traders.

For all of Trading Technologies’ lack of certain features, its simplicity and infrastructure is at least conducive towards a hyper-fast trading experience. However, if you are not a professional trader, then there are quite a few alternatives to choose from which we’ve discussed here. For instance, TradeStation can offer much better data stability and more features for lower prices.

Trading Technology uses Linux C++ API within their secure development environment in which traders can build and test trading strategies.

Users can however avoid writing syntax by using the ADL, which is a drag and drop environment.

C++ is one of the most difficult programming languages due to it being an old language, with some flaws, as well as being stripped back. But this has its advantages, if you’re a good programmer.

However, the ADL environment means you don’t have to write any code yourself. Whilst the capacity and potential for TT’s development environment is high, getting started is slow, as there’s a slight learning curve. The drag and drop nature of the environment however is useful in saving time, and can become efficient once users get to grips with it.

Trading Technologies has a reasonably large back catalog of Youtube videos, most of which are educational. Videos are still being uploaded, around once a month, and generally, show how to manage and use the Trading Technologies trading platform. 

Whilst it takes a while to get used to ADL, it’s an extremely visual way to build a trading algo. You can see the nodes, rules and flow of logic in one picture along with an error list, variables, breakpoints and so on.

There’s also a useful dashboard in which the user can view all algos, their status, P/L and other data.

Trading Technologies uses C++ because it’s perhaps the most efficient at processing lots of data, meaning it’s great for high-frequency trading. The low-latency means speed is optimal.

Trading technologies is the fastest trading platform that’s on the commercial market. Autospreader for example is extremely fast, and Trading Technologies in general is being leveraged by speed-sensitive traders.

Trading Technologies’ X_Trader performs orders extremely quickly; perhaps outcompeting many other trading platforms on the market.

Testing with 5 users on the Trading Technologies Gateway 7.15, gateway message delivery is 150 microseconds for the first and 5th user.

It’s not only the execution of trades that’s fast either, but the search functionality and the autoroll feature too, which make using the platform a time-efficient experience.

Drag and drop methods are always going to have limitations because they’re already pre-packaged. In this sense, they’re less customizable than if you were to use coding syntax. We believe that for some users the lack of customization might be a major issue, so we would recommend choosing other trading platforms, such as Amibroker.

Apple Store Rating: 5  Android Rating: 4.2

*Apple Store has only 2 reviews

Trading Technologies supplies market data for over 40 exchanges and execution venues. Users can connect FIX applications if they wish to use FIX market data.

Or, custom solutions are possible through developing API applications that can be normalized between exchanges. Trading Technologies does offer the potential to avoid market data subscriptions, but they can be easily integrated if the user wants to use a third party.

Opening an account is a fast process, and you can be up-and-running on the same day. There’s a 30-day free trial, making the process very welcoming and accessible. However, many reviews on the Play Store (app) claim difficulties logging in and opening an account suggesting slow logins and bugs.

Tested today, the verification email did not arrive immediately.

Desktop trading with Trading Technologies can have huge customizability potential. Users can make use of up to 16 monitors in their market visualisation with the highly intuitive and powerful UI, that’s designed with advanced traders in mind.

The desktop version is software, and thus doesn’t use a web browser.

Trading Technologies uses a multi-processor design that creates a more optimal platform. Back-end Trading Technologies can be accessed on desktop where you can use very low latency execution of your algo trading strategy.

The Trading Technologies mobile trading app has relatively positive reviews. Whilst this is a piece of software on your phone, the servers used by Trading Technologies are powerful enough to provide very fast trades no matter where you are.

Trading Technologies asks customers to open a ticket on the website if the issue is a non-emergency. Customer support will then reach out in their own time to resolve the issue.

If the issue is more urgent, there is a phone line for the US, Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe/Middle East and finally, Japan. Phone lines are staffed from 12pm Sunday to 5pm Friday (CT).

The website is written in English, but there is a Japanese translated site too.

Trading Technologies have their own community section of the website. Within this there is a forum in which posts are regular. Most are regarding users’ requests for advice in building their algorithms, or issues they come across. Most posts receive at least one reply, so this can certainly be a helpful resource.

Trading Technologies uses Diffie-Hellman encryption for their network security. This means users passwords are automatically encrypted and secured when using the gateway.

The DH parameters file is a file that’s encrypted, containing all common parameters used in calculating the secret keys.