Trading Technologies Review

Trading Technologies – Our Verdict

Trading Technologies introduce itself 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.

best day trading platform trading technologies review

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

[ps2id id=’about-trading-technologies’ target=”/] History of Trading Technologies

Founded in 1994, Trading Technologies is an independent software vendor with an extremely sophisticated infrastructure that facilitates fast algorithmic trading. HQ in Chicago, TT has almost 1000 employees on LinkedIn.

Trading Technologies has built up a reputation for being the fastest trading platform, in which they have a sophisticated and powerful infrastructure yet is open to retail traders.

Who uses Trading Technologies? Predominantly Professionals, Automated Traders[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1601304600450{background-color: #d9e8f4 !important;}”]

Affiliations and Secondary Platforms

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Trading Technologies has various partnerships, having teamed up with the likes of CN First, HDR Global Trading, CoinFLEX, TradeStation Group, GDAX, Interxion and many others.

TradeStation has a long list of distributors. Some include: ABN AMRO Clearing, ADM Investor Services, Advantage Futures, AMP Global Clearing, Aarna Capital, Bank of America Merrill Lynch + more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#d9e8f4″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1601305107060{padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

1. Trading Technologies Review Summary

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1601304749631{margin-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]Trading Technologies is designed to meet professional traders’ needs, yet it is also available to retail investors. The great user interface and incredible speed make this platform so attractive for professional trading. TT offers access to futures, options, cryptocurrencies, and more.

Trading Technologies is the fastest commercially available platform. 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. Although some users argue that Trading Technologies lack certain features, its simplicity and infrastructure is at least conducive towards a hyper-fast trading experience.

Trading Technologies is aimed at professional traders, so their pricing is a bit high, starting from $50 p/m with $1,000 CAP (transactional). As there is no fundamental data or news feed available and Trading Technologies lacks research capabilities, you might need to rely on the third party for any fundamental analysis.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1605624030893{padding-bottom: 10px !important;}”]

Fastest Trading Platform for Retail Clients

Unlike other Trading Technologies reviewers, Quant Savvy tried nearly all principal brokers, so we are positioned perfectly to give you the best insights. You may also be interested to read Best Day Trading Platform Review, where we compared Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, eSignal, AmiBroker, and NinjaTrader. Quant Savvy has compiled a comprehensive list of features, user reviews rankings, and screenshots. We also provide sources for our information and useful links to help you conduct additional research.

[ps2id id=’platform-tools’ target=”/]2. Trading Technologies Platform Tools

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822423024{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Scanners, Screeners, Watch Lists, Software tools, Alerts

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822431807{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Placing Live Trades and Trading Technology

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822439002{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Portfolio, Risk Management and Software Tools

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822618898{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Research and News Feeds

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599831203018{padding-bottom: 55px !important;}”]When charting, historical prices are available from up to 10 years ago. However, there is no fundamental data available and Trading Technologies lacks research capabilities. There are many great streams of data, but they’re mostly current data, such as anonymized order data in real-time. Trading Technologies doesn’t have a news feed feature, so you’re reliant on third parties for any fundamental analysis.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#d9e8f4″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1601305127350{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

[ps2id id=’charting-and-indicators’ target=”/]3. Trading Technologies Charting, Indicators and Tools

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Backtesting

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822749603{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Live Automated Trading

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822757235{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Trade Management and Historical Trades

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822764473{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Portfolio Testing and Trading

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822771260{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Data Stability and Speed

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”19993″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” qode_css_animation=”” css=”.vc_custom_1599822789569{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 55px !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css=”.vc_custom_1599569438250{padding-top: 35px !important;padding-bottom: 35px !important;}” z_index=””][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#d9e8f4″][vc_single_image image=”19671″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” qode_css_animation=”” link=”https://quantsavvy.com/quant-investing-vs-fundamental-investing/”][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#d9e8f4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1601305139782{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

[ps2id id=’programming-language’ target=”/]4. Trading Technologies Programming Language and Limitations

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Programming Language

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822879562{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Learning Curve

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822888109{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

YouTube Video Channel

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822896140{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Compatibility and Design

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822904620{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Speed and Performance Considerations

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599822913116{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Resilience and Limitations

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”19994″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” qode_css_animation=”” css=”.vc_custom_1599822919528{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 55px !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#d9e8f4″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1601305150945{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

[ps2id id=’mobile-app’ target=”/]5. Trading Technologies Mobile App

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Apple Store Rating: 5 Android Rating: 4.2

*Apple Store has only 2 reviews[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599829304847{padding-bottom: 55px !important;}”]Mobile trading often raises concerns around speed, but Trading Technologies’ colocated servers allow for low-latency trades wherever you are on mobile.

You can manage your algos using ADL, place and manage orders, view market data, use the auto spreader and benefit from collocated execution.

This means that chart trading is possible, as well as managing your algorithmic trading strategy. Furthermore, there’s real-time data and a portfolio view.

“Unable to save instruments (ES, ZN, CL) on the market list section. Once you log off and log back in all your instruments will be removed. It will revert back to the Default blank market list with the “+“ symbol in the middle where your are instructed to add new instruments. The feature ultimately becomes useless.”

“I’d like to start this review by pointing out its a beautiful looking app. The platform overall is second to none for commodity traders. My biggest gripes with the Android and iOS versions… No alerts for when a price point is hit? I cant be logged into the desktop app and phone app simultaneously?”

[ps2id id=’market-access’ target=”/]6. Market Access for Live Trading

“Stocks”

“CFDs”

“Futures”

“Bonds”

“Options”

“Crypto”

“Stocks: B3, Euronext, ICE_L (common stocks), ICE (7x) stocks”

“Futures: EEX, MX, CME, Eurex, ICE, OSE, NFX, JSE, ASX, B3, BIST, BitMEX, CFE, TOCOM, TFX, TFEX, SGX, and more”

“Options: SGX, OSE, NFX, NDAQ_EU, MX, MOEX, MEXDER, MEFF, LSE, JSE, IDEM, ASX, B3, BIST, CME, EUREX, and more”

“US Treasury bonds: KCG, FENICS, NFI, BrokerTec”

“Crypto: CoinFLEX, BITSO, Coinbase, DERIBIT”

Direct Market Access

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Trading Technologies provide DMA in one of four exchange-supported network configurations using the BVMF gateway. The four models of connection are explained here.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823071206{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Account Types

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599833490905{padding-bottom: 55px !important;}”]Trading Technologies offers two accounts: Standard and Pro

Standard is priced at $700 p/m (subscription) or $50 p/m with $1,000 CAP (transactional), and is aimed at professional traders. This plan includes most features, such as browser-based access, live trading, real-time market data and third-party algos.

Pro is priced at $1,400 p/m (subscription), or $400 p/m with $1,800 CAP (transactional), and is aimed at an advanced traders who wants more customization, powerful tools and APIs. This plan has access to the autospreader, autotrader, aggregator, ADL dashboard and TT .NET SDK.

[ps2id id=’market-data-and-costs’ target=”/]7. Market Data and Software Costs

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Data Feeds Compatible

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823462052{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Time to open account

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823473565{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Trading Technologies Desktop Trading

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823512848{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Trading Technologies Mobile Trading

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823523496{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Trading Technologies Web Trading

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599829478483{padding-bottom: 55px !important;}”]Web trading with browser-based access is available on both Trading technologies Standard and Pro. All you need is a mobile, laptop or tablet that will connect to the internet, and you can log-in.

Colocated execution means that you’re using servers providing low-latency execution in order to trade fast.

Various chart types and a wide variety of technical indicators are available on the web version, as well as mobile.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#d9e8f4″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1601305203017{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

[ps2id id=’customer-support’ target=”/]8. Trading Technologies Customer Support and Learning Resources

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Online, Telephone, Email and Account Services Support

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823563641{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Forum and Community Support

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823574964{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Opening an Account

Opening an account is supposed to be fast at Trading Technologies, but many users experience issues with verifying emails, logging in and general bugs in the process of opening an account.

“Slow logins and once you switch out to another app. It does not maintain in the background, having to force close and reopen the app. Can you do something about it. Very challenging to use…”

“Very Impressed I was out and used this app to check on markets during the BREXIT fallout and the DOM’s didn’t skip a beat.”

[ps2id id=’platform-security’ target=”/]9. Trading Technologies Platform Security

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823829273{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Monitoring, Encryption

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]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.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599823839239{padding-top: 25px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Two Factor Authentication

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599833523074{padding-bottom: 55px !important;}”]Two factor authentication is possible with Trading Technologies, in which users must submit their SMS number correctly.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#d9e8f4″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css=”.vc_custom_1599660773729{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 55px !important;}” z_index=””][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1599833530748{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]

Recommended Reading

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[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Which broker has the highest fees? Who offers the highest quality data? Which platform is the best for day traders and beginners?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1603456169220{padding-top: 10px !important;}” offset=”vc_hidden-sm vc_hidden-xs”][vc_column_text]

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[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1598266931290{padding-top: 35px !important;}”]Mobile trading apps become increasingly popular among young people and inexperienced traders. But are they really trustworthy and able to generate profits?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]

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[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]We provide a breakdown for software comparison between NinjaTrader, TradeStation and MultiCharts which is intended to help you make the right choice.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]