Maximum Alpha -- Alternative to Glean

[TechTradingCorp]

Dear TradeLink Users: For the users of TradeLink who desire an alternative to a $3,000 Glean in order to view source code of the trading systems we are building, I am contributing a system which I designed and assisted in the development of, spent more than $50,000 from my pocket in development expenses.    This system will be modified for use with TradeLink, and it will sold as a low-cost, better designed, and feature rich alternative to Glean. This system was written in C# and WPF. I am looking for (6) C# developers to assist in this conversion effort.  Once the product is complete, it will be sold and the proceeds of the sales will be used to repay the developers who assist in this effort.  Developers will be paid for their efforts financially, and will receive a licensed copy of the finished product, and will be recognized as a contributing developer to an advanced trading app; which will be the crown jewel to TradeLink. I will manage this project to make sure that my system contribution is used as intended, providing the TradeLink user community with a low-cost, better alternative to Glean.  The product is called,  MaximumAlpha. The system has the following features: * Bulk data downloader from Yahoo.com (allowing you to download tens of thousands of symbols of data very quickly) * Advanced charting w/ drawing toolkit * Application launcher, allowing you to open webpages, or external apps.  Used to organize investing research sites and apps. * RSS News reader. Fully customizable. * Media player, allowing pop-up TVs.  Similar to what Sink or Swim offers with their app. * Trading system development kit -- for construction of trading systems.  similar to MetaTrader.   w/ integrated help and manuals. * Quote grid for displaying market quotes. * Alert manager. Some screen shots of the app are attached. Full description of the features are downloadable here: http://www.maximumalpha.com/MaxAlpha_Features.pdf Requirements To Be a Developer for this Project:  (looking for 6 developers) 1) You have knowledge and experience w/ TradeLink.  The more the better. 2) You are NOT an employee of PracPlay, or affiliated in any way with PracPlay.   3) You are an experienced C# developer.  Experienced w/ finance/trading apps a plus. 4) You are willing to invest 160 hours to this effort (one man month).  Please reply if interested in being a contributing developer for this effort.  We are looking for 6 developers. Max rough estimate of the amount of developer time to complete this app. is 6 man months = 160 hours x 6 = 960 hours.  TradeLink-Free, where your posts will not be restricted as they are on the Tradelink-users group.  We believe in free speech and open dialogue to improve and expand the functionality of TradeLink.

[Ted Penner]

The same potential exists as a non-open-source dev effort.  I can't get behind that.

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[TechTradingCorp]

Ok Ted,

Suggest a plan of action that:  gets a replacement built quickly, and is an organized effort.

I want the PracPay assault on this app to be put in the drawer it belongs.

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[Ted Penner]

I agree.  I wish I knew the answer to that.  

I suggest an open-source effort with the absolute promise that nothing will ever be charged for the product.  If it isn't open-source, it won't work.  You can simply open another development thread inside the current trade-link project and make the source code for it freely distributable.  If you want it to be part of something separate, then open your own open-source thread in this group and do it the same way Tradelink has, just don't allow folks like those at Glean to manufacture anything that isn't open source.

[Ted Penner]

Another thought is that Open Source does not have to mean free.  Many open-source projects are developed with the caveat that on commercial use, you must pay for it.  I'd explore the open-source models others have used.

-Ted R Penner
www.tedpenner.com
(254) 214-3013

[Pi]

Unity 3-D is an interesting example.

You can use the free license until you're making $100 K per year.  Then you have to buy pro which costs $2K.

This way it spreads like wildfire amongst little fish, and every one that grows pays up.

Psychologically it's difficult to pay up front for something where you're going to have to putting a lot of effort to maybe make some money.

How about a six month grace period: you can use the product for free for the first six months, then you get an e-mail saying "so, did it work out for you? If so you need to pay up to keep using this software."

And the software could give a stinky warning that kicks in after six months: "If you're using this software without paying then be advised that is ilillegal and if you don't sort it out we will try and sue you and get back all of the money you're illegally making with our product"

Obviously not with that wording, but with that basic idea.  And it will plant a seed of doubt -- someone will think "what if I get investigated? I gave my E-mail address when I got the software... They could investigate me and sue me for all this money I am making"

Like modern self service checkout supermarkets --people could just walk out of the supermarket without paying. But they don't! Not because they are great people, but because there is a value to peace of mind.

It would be interesting to see how many people pay up.

π

[tl lover]

anybody who has ever talked with us knows we look at all oss models, from redhat to R, from android to unreal.   

finance has a smaller user base than commercial solutions.  this changes the economics because it's harder to monetize a single user... both because of the learning curve (which we try to minimize for people via glean), but also because it's not enough just to have good software.  you must also have capital or access to capital.  if you don't have this, you are simply a hobbyist which we are fine to have you use TL but without capital or patches you are unable to help the community.  regarding 3d oss it's very interesting to us but it's a retail model that is based upon selling games, and if you sell a huge volume they not only want a fee they generally want a royalty.   this doesn't translate well to finance.   all these things together require a different solution, unless you want to work for a hedge fund or firm that provides our services (which we are happy to introduce you to if you can't be bothered to decide any of this).

because of this, what we did with glean builds on the same principles of letting small people experiment.   we give every community user a minimum level of buying power to make money without paying, and then assuming your strategy makes money where scaling your buying power up makes sense, and assuming you can access such buying power.... you only pay for what you need and it's based on the amount of capital and your proficiency working in the [glean] system.  see here : http://www.pracplay.com/products/glean/purchase/questions

always interesting to catch up with people who don't follow tradelink.org regularly.  keep glean-ing your way to success and have a great weekend...