Quantopian suffers from a few problems (not unlike Access or the other 4GLs):
1) platforms like thinkorswim get you 90% there (and have an associated brokerage so you can also run it). You can write powerful trading scripts using a wide variety of signals, but for the last 10% you will need something more powerful like C or matlab or excel.
2) terms of service are always shaky -- if you have alpha, you want to guard that like a first born child.
3) other people (http://tradingphysics.com/) offer market data at very low prices, which is far better than trusting a third party with your code
4) oftentimes strategies don't directly translate to production profits, and to a great extent they depend on simulator assumptions (let's say that there are 10K shares offered at the best selling price what happens when you try to buy all of them? What happens if you are stopped due to RegNMS or some other oddity? What happens if the quote is fake or will be canceled by the time your order reaches the exchange -- a common tactic of Chicago firms like GETCO?) for which you have no control. But now, given that they don't have a BD license, you need to go through someone else (adding another layer and process that potentially could cause problems later on -- I've seen a similar situation happen where a person leaves one company to join another, only to find out his trading strategies don't work in the new place )
Tl;dr: there are better platforms for getting your feet wet, and if they aren't good enough you are better off going with a real solution.
What happens if the quote is fake or will be canceled by the time your order reaches the exchange -- a common tactic of Chicago firms like GETCO?)
I'm curious - which FIX command is used to send a fake quote? And which exchanges support this feature?
Also, how does GETCO cancel an order before your order reaches the exchange? I.e., how does GETCO know to send it the exact instant before you send yours?
...but for the last 10% you will need something more powerful like C or matlab or excel.
Pandas can stand up to any of those. And you make the (incorrect) assumption that the features that Quantopian is offering now are the same features we (I work for Quantopian) will be offering in six months or a year. The product will grow. We will give users what they want and need to be successful.
oftentimes strategies don't directly translate to production profits, and to a great extent they depend on simulator assumptions...
No more or less true of Quantopian than of any other platform, off-the-shelf or home-grown, for quantative trading.
1) platforms like thinkorswim get you 90% there (and have an associated brokerage so you can also run it). You can write powerful trading scripts using a wide variety of signals, but for the last 10% you will need something more powerful like C or matlab or excel.
2) terms of service are always shaky -- if you have alpha, you want to guard that like a first born child.
3) other people (http://tradingphysics.com/) offer market data at very low prices, which is far better than trusting a third party with your code
4) oftentimes strategies don't directly translate to production profits, and to a great extent they depend on simulator assumptions (let's say that there are 10K shares offered at the best selling price what happens when you try to buy all of them? What happens if you are stopped due to RegNMS or some other oddity? What happens if the quote is fake or will be canceled by the time your order reaches the exchange -- a common tactic of Chicago firms like GETCO?) for which you have no control. But now, given that they don't have a BD license, you need to go through someone else (adding another layer and process that potentially could cause problems later on -- I've seen a similar situation happen where a person leaves one company to join another, only to find out his trading strategies don't work in the new place )
Tl;dr: there are better platforms for getting your feet wet, and if they aren't good enough you are better off going with a real solution.