Algo trading for free with AngelBroking SmartAPI

Published on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 by Angel Broking | Modified on Thursday, May 13, 2021

Have you ever wondered where all the trading volume in the market comes from? When markets around the world open for the day, thousands and millions of investors start placing their trades on a variety of execution engines. Apart from these traders, there are institutional investors and the big players that place enormous bets in the form of large, market-moving orders. But that's not all - in fact, in the stock markets of the United States, these sources account only for a small fraction of trades. Because the rest are placed by computers on their own.

If you are reading this right now, you probably already know what algorithmic trading is. But if you were just curious, here it is for you: algorithmic trading is a type of trading where computers execute trades on their own, by making their own decisions in the market - whether it is stocks, commodities, or even currencies. Now, decisions in the stock markets are made on the basis of some factors - in algorithmic trading, the algorithms are made aware of these factors through the input data - that is, real-time market data streams.

Imagine how you place a trade. You look at some of the technical indicators, candlestick patterns, and the fundamentals of a stock - its price, trade volume, P/E ratio and so on. Algorithms make their decisions on the basis of your strategy, which means that whenever the criteria for placing a trade are met (based on your strategy) the algorithm automatically executes a trade, or simply sends a signal in the form on an executable trade on your trading platform. This is what algorithmic trading is essentially about.

Now, in order to crack algorithmic trading, there are a few checkboxes you need to tick:

1. Firstly, you must be able to think of your strategies in an algorithmic manner. This might sound difficult at first - but if you think about it, algorithms are simply a process. Therefore, think about your strategy in the form of a step-by-step process - this is what algorithms are in essence.
2. The next prerequisite for algorithmic trading is being able to tell your strategy, or your algorithm to a computer - if you can code in some language, algorithmic trading will not prove a tough nut to crack for you. And if you can't code, you can simply collaborate with a friend who does, or hire a developer to code stuff for you.
3. Now comes the last part - once you have got your algorithms in the form of code, you need to be able to stream market data and execute your trades on a trading engine.

This is where Angel Broking's all-new SmartAPI comes in. Very simply put, SmartAPI helps you fulfil this last requirement. But that's not what SmartAPI is all about.

SmartAPI is an API, or an Application Programming Interface, that facilitates algorithmic trading for retail investors, advisors, startups, or essentially anyone who wants to get into the algorithmic trading game - for free. Do you know what an API is? APIs basically let you access the functionalities of one program through another. In your case, if you are planning to set up an algorithmic trading program on your home computer, SmartAPI lets you access Angel Broking's trade execution ecosystem - or at least some of its basic functionalities through small snippets of code in a language you are familiar with. So what functionalities are we talking about here?

SmartAPI let's you do the following stuff with almost zero coding effort:

1. Stream historical market data and live market data to your program. This forms the basis of decision making for your algorithms.
2. Execute trades through Angel Broking's trade execution engine as and when your algorithms pick a signal.
3. Manage accounts - sounds surprising? Well, not if you are aspiring beyond individual trading. Have you found a game-changing model of trading in the market? You can now monetize it by opening it up to others. That's right - SmartAPI lets you manage user portfolios, retrieve and update their account information through well-documented and easy-to-understand documentation.

Starting algorithmic trading with SmartAPI is a piece of cake - all you need to do is to sign up for free here. After signing up, you can reinvent your digital trading in multiple ways:

1. You can simply start creating APIs to connect various functionalities of your programs to the real market.
2. If you are feeling skeptical of letting your algorithms run wild in the real market, you can even back-test your algorithms, or simply make them generate signals that can be fed to your trading account.
3. Imagine if you wanted to share your advice on trades with your friends - or if you are an advisor, with your clients. SmartAPI lets you build apps that inject actionable advisory to your client's brokerage platforms.
4. SmartAPI simplifies algorithmic trading, and the entire ecosystem around it, while letting you take care of the important stuff. That's why, SmartAPI is also for startups that aim to disrupt the digital trading landscape in India.

While writing codes for automating your trade might look like the dexter's lab to you on first sight, it really isn't all that difficult. Moreover, if you continue to feel intimidated by the complexity of all the jargon of technical documentations, then go check the SmartAPI forum - sign up for it, ask questions, talk to others and discuss how to plunge into this new exciting evolution of stock market trading.

Algorithmic trading holds an edge above manual trading on many fronts - it is unbiased, always-on, scalable and efficient. To explore algorithmic trading further, visit the SmartAPI website, sign up for free today, and start building already - as a wise greek man had said, there is no better way to learn things than by doing them.

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