LMAX Launch MultiCharts (In Beta!)

If you've been a retail FX trader for a while, and you've got a sneaky suspicion somewhere in your subconscious (SSSS for short) that MetaTrader 4 is possibly not the best tool for the job of "FX trading for a living" then the headline above should already have caused you to have taken your eyes off your multiple screens because you've fallen off your swivel chair with the excitement of it all.  This is how LMAX "soft launched" the Multicharts platform for their multi-lateral trading facility (MTF for short) last week:

LMAX MultiCharts is a professional charting and automated trading platform, designed for futures and forex traders.  A key feature of LMAX MultiCharts is its compatibility with the industry-standard TradeStation EasyLanguage.

EasyLanguage studies can be customised, optimised and back-tested prior to their implementation in the real market.

LMAX MultiCharts includes very powerful and flexible tools which are able to handle multi-symbol and multi-timeframe charts.

Many more features are available…

The news gets even better. The "beta launch" itself is due to arrive later today or early tomorrow Greenwich Mean Time, without too much fanfare. After that, and subject to satisfying certain qualifying conditions, from January 2012 you will be able to use your existing automated trading strategies written in TradeStation's EasyLanguage (EZL for short) on the LMAX MTF free of charge. Currently these conditions are:

• Minimum account balance of $5,000
• Minimum of 250 LMAX sized lots per month

although this may of course have changed by the time January 1st 2012 eventually arrives.

The news gets better still. If you are currently an EZL trader and you are prepared to help LMAX polish their shiny new platform by acting as a beta tester those minimums will be significantly reduced from the time of launch until the end of this year. Note also that if like me you don't enjoy sitting on a swivel chair in front of multiple screens for hours and days on end, and if like me you are not a big fan of TradeStation's EasyLanguage and therefore currently trade with your existing broker(s) using a FIX, .NET, RESTor Java API, then LMAX already allow you to do that free of charge also, albeit currently still also "in beta".

That was the not inconsiderable good news, but now it is my sad duty to inform you about the accompanying bad news. The only reason that you might possibly have for not already being on the phone to your shiny new LMAX account executive at this very moment is that they speak with an English accent, whereas you speak with an American one.