Comments on: Is now the right time for open source in hedge funds?

Marketcetera's market opportunity is ripe with hedge funds.

[ITRebel]

It would not work for their trade secrets involving their trading strategies, so a closed source solution is at least required for that. However, for a commodity application like executing trades, it is a possibility if we assume that the open source solution is just as fast. The problem is that some open source installations lag badly on basic benchmarks such as speed - see my earlier post on how this is a substantial problem in the R language for advanced analytics. In fact, I was at a conference a couple of years ago and the speaker said that they gave up on using R because it was so slow and actually used Fortran to solve their problem (talk about going back in time). The other problem is that many complex trading platforms involve advanced analytics, so one would need to be very careful about what open source application is employed.

[MSSlayer]

Trading strategies have nothing to do with the equipment and software used to carry them out.

[ITRebel]

MSSlayer,

As a former Commodities and Futures trading software developer and attendee at major hedge fund conferences, I would have to tell you that you once again that you are the one who is clueless. Many strategies critically depend upon speed of equipment and software. Also, if one has an effective trading strategy, then one likes to keep it a trade secret. Whether it will continue to be an effective trading strategy or something known to everybody will depend upon using a closed and secure software solution. Once again, please give specific examples because your naysaying without any information is what is absolutely clueless.