KaiTrade's APIs

We are nearing the end of a sprint to bring extensions to our APIs - our APIs fall into two groups:

* Support for developing drivers(exchange connections), plug-ins and extensions to KaiTrade, These APIs let you rapidly develop trading applications that work directly with KaiTrade on your desktop.

* K2 Remote services, these provide a full set of services to let developers write applications that work with server editions of KaiTrade(K2StratoServer).

We use these API's internally to develop all new applications like our PreTrade Allocator and PairsTrader, we are working on a RIA console for the K2StratoServer - this will make extensive use of the remote services.

For more information take a look at our docs on: http://www.kaitrade.com/K2/k2api/doc/

KaiTrade Accelerator System Overview

Many new improvements have been made to the new K2Accelerator aimed at developers:

*The open API is in use and has been extensively widened and available to developers.

*A complete set of remote services are available to developers that need to use the KaiTrade K2StratoServer.

*A new release of the KaiTrade high performance RTD server to provide Excel users with powerful access to a range of brokers.

So get coding! more information can be found at: http://www.kaitrade.com/doc/KaiTrade%20Overview.pdf

Latest view of KaiTrade's pre-trade allocator

If you trade on behalf of many accounts and you need to reduce the cost of give ups and post trade allocations either from exchange clearing systems or your clearing firm this tool is for you.

Take a look at our short demo of the pre-trade allocator at http://www.screencast.com/t/NGYwNzIwN

Revised pairs trading application

We have now revised our pairs trading application - check out the video to see more. Our next release(May2010) will have improved support for futures and will allow an arbitrary number of legs. KaiTrade will strengthen our server based offering (StratoServer) by the mid of 2010.

Good News

A short post with two snippets of good news.

KaiTrade is now a profiled Start-up at Microsoft Bizspark program - this a great program for Hi-Tech startups, see more here.

Kaitrade has also become a CQG partner - partnering with this well regarded provider will help push our products to new levels - see more here.

Event Processing

KaiTrade introduces a range of high performance event processing tools which are now available for beta. The new tools add on to the TS Data (Time series data) processing already in KaiTrade and include:

• A price aggregator to aggregate data into time/volume bars
  
• Calculation library to enhance the bar data with moving averages, Bollinger bands, etc.
  
• Pattern matching algorithms to make sense of the data and identify trading opportunities.
  

 

Since these functions will work with KaiTrade's existing strategy processing, a trader can compose and execute complex strategies across multiple asset classes with ease.

 

The price aggregator is able to work from the last price and volume, and so the system works with a wide range of brokers offering real power at a reasonable price.

1. Price Aggregation
   

   The price aggregator takes raw data and converts it into a set of bars based on time or constant volume.
   

   Where a broker or vendor provides time series data, the aggregator works directly with the information from the vendor.
   

   Usually, the broker or vendor provides the last trade price and volume. In this case the price aggregator puts the data into bars based on the period requested — for example, a stream of last price values can be built into two-minute bars with all the usual datapoints (e.g., Open, Close, High, Low, HLC3, etc.).
   

   Since the aggregator works with the existing KaiTrade TS Data Set, existing applications can make full use of the data we provide.
   

   
    

   
   
   

2. Calculations Library
   

   A calculations library is available to provide some of the common functions needed — for example moving averages, Bollinger bands, ATR, etc. — we have designed the system to allow the end user to add their own calculations using our API.
   

   The calculations are invoked using the expression evaluator; these calculations are called when bars are added to a set or are updated, and publish their results as curve values in the TS Data Set containing the bar and curve data.
   

   
   

3. Pattern Matching
   

   Pattern matching lets the trader identify trading opportunities. Individual pattern matchers work on bar data generated by the price aggregator and curve data added, using the calculation library.
   

   We have a set of commonly used pattern matching algorithms such as cross detection and bar counts, and as always, the user can add their own pattern matching algorithms to the system using the API. We will have the option to use C# script in Q1 2010.
   

   
    

   The pattern matchers can publish their results as:
   

• Conditions (or triggers) that are used in KaiTrade's strategies to enter and exit trades.
  
• Inputs to other pattern matchers, in this way you can chain more complex matching schemes together.
  

 

Since you can easily associate a trading strategy (for example, a bracket order) to a pattern matcher, it is simple to provide automated trading and order management to provide a complete trading solution.

 

 

1. Putting it all together
   

   These features give a trader enormous power. Let's say they want to use moving averages to trade the S&P eMini
   

   
    

   
   

   It's as simple as ABC — see above:
   

   1. Choose the product and click on the subscribe — this will access the last price and volume to create a set of bar data
      
   2. Choose and configure the calculations you want — in our example we have added moving averages
      
   3. Choose and configure the pattern matchers — in our example we are looking for crosses
      

   
    

   You can add strategies to the computation; these will then automate your trading. When you run the strategy, by subscribing to the data, a chart is generated and triggers are fired according to your settings — see below.
   

   
    

   
   

2. Multiple vendor
   

   A major advantage is that in most cases the trader can choose the firm or vendor they wish to trade through. Since KaiTrade does the heavy lifting, the vendor does not need to provide charts or historic data.
   

   
    

   Unlike other solutions, KaiTrade already provides cross-asset support — you can trade futures, stocks and FX from a single platform.
   

   
    

KaiTrade StratoServer in development

We are working on the first release of the KaiTrade StratoServer due out by the early fall, this will provide a range of functions and event processing based on tick and bar data.

The product will build on the exiting K WCFServer thats provides routing and remote excution to the existing KaiTrade Accelerator. Using propreiteary processing for temporal data , event stream processing and pattern matching our aim is to deliver function at a fraction of the existing price that gives traders far faster processing than the systems currently available.

When combined with the Strategy pad traders will be able to link trade signals from the StratoServer to execute their order managemet staretgies running on thier desktop or remote on the server.