MT4/5, Multicharts or Interactive Brokers API for Forex Automated Trading?

Question

I've been very interested in algorithmic trading in Forex and I'm not sure where to start.

I would prefer to use C++, so I was looking into Interactive Brokers C++ API but I'm not sure it would be a good idea to lock myself to Interactive Brokers.

Would it be better to use Multicharts or MT4/MT4 and go through learning and using their programming language or should I stick with C++/Interactive Brokers? What are some disadvantages to each?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You don't need an API, you need to get into FIX http://www.fixtradingcommunity.org/. These days all the major banks and brokerages speak FIX. If you want C++ then use http://www.quickfixengine.org/ (or you can use Java or other) to capture your market data, do your analysis, submit your orders, and manage your risk with the bank or broker you choose.

That is unless you want charts based API stuff. For that, IB seems to be a good place to start although, as you say, a lot of people use MT4.