I just noticed it has been a whole 8 years since I started working for Trading Technologies. I was hired fresh out of college and began my journey on May 15, 2006 (well, I did some consulting on the side before coming to ChiTown).
Company logo when I started
New TT logo
During my career at TT, I pretty much worked on everything the company has to offer.
I spent countless hours massaging our flagship X_TRADER product. I was a key player in bringing .NET into the program and integrating it with native C++ and MFC. This really made adding new windows easier (have you ever had to deal with Win32/MFC?!) and allowed for tight X_STUDY integration.
X_TRADER's .NET toolbar. Click for larger image
In order to achieve maximum performance, I completely rewrote the Time & Sales window. Both the stand-alone and one integrated into MD Trader. While working on T&S I learned a lot about grids and data virtualization.
Blazing fast Time & Sales window with the default (butt-ugly) X_TRADER color scheme
Every trader who’s copying/pasting links to and from Microsoft Excel goes through my Link Manager. That was a very fun project which definitely provided a ton of value for our customers. There are thousands of traders who design their strategies in Excel spreadsheets and want their numbers to be shown on grids, charts, ladders and algos. And this works both ways – I allow them to copy cells from X_TRADER and insert them into Excel. The data flows flawlessly and everything just magically works.
Look ma! I has Excel linkage! (Click for larger image)
For fun I also added preview to the Color settings window, which finally made it usable. I wrote so many things for X_TRADER that I actually lost track. Not to mention countless prototypes to fool around with new features. Definitely good times 🙂
I am the architect and author of TT API – our high performance trading API for Windows. It was a great few years designing and implementing all the different features. I certainly learned a lot. TT API lets you trade any exchange that TT supports, including Autospreader SE and Synthetic SE engines. You can really go to town. Just check out TT API samples on GitHub.
It’s also worth mentioning that internally our Algo SE server and ADL (Algo Design Lab) are both powered by my TT API.
Two years ago I was selected to start on TT’s future platform. The codename for it used to be “Nextrader“, but due to trademark conflicts a new name was chosen. I coined the name and designed many low-level communication and security details (EdgeServer-to-client path, authorization, protocols, etc) which are now the foundation of the new system. I also led and directed the client-side team. The TT platform is written from the ground up using modern technologies. It’s optimized for speed. Trust me – you will feel it 🙂
In addition to web-based interface, TT Platform will ship with an Android mobile app. That’s another one of my babies. I designed the flow and general layout of the main screens for both phone and tablet form factors. Our in-house designer Kevin made them look awesome. I’m sure you will love it! Working on mobile is challenging, as it forces you to think from a different perspective and face a whole new set of problems. Limited screen real-estate, battery life, disconnect scenarios, butt dialing (or shall I say: butt trading) are all issues you have to deal with. I had a blast 🙂
“Nextrader” for Android prototype. Side menu. Click for larger image. The name has since been changed to “TT Mobile”.
TT Mobile for Android. MD Trader on a phone. Click for larger picture.
I started writing iOS version of TT Mobile with my team, but I didn’t get too far (enough to master Objective-C). I was needed on the new Algo project. Currently I am working with Andrew Gottemoller on our next-generation trading API, which we internally call TT SDK. The plan is to allow our customers to hand-craft their algos and run them in our co-lo facilities for minimum latency and maximum speed.
TT SDK is lean. It is fast. Linux and plain C. It is powerful, yet feels delightfully simple. In addition to C we will eventually provide wrappers for higher-level languages. I, naturally, already have a C++14 and Mono C# version going. Stay tuned!
As you see, I’ve been having fun. Trading Technologies is a great company, but its most important asset are definitely the people. Everyone is smart and easy-going. I made many good friends at TT and I’m happy to see them every day. Let’s see what the future will bring 🙂