Two weeks after announcing it had integrated with InteractiveBrokers (IB) to offer live equities and forex trading from their algorithmic trading platform, QuantConnect has launched its own brokerage services. Like a growing list of technology providers, QuantConnect has partnered with Tradier and its API brokerage, to offer direct stock trading on their platform.

In the previous connectivity partnership with IB, a gateway was created to connect QuantConnect users and IB account holders. The new partnership allows QuantConnect to offer its own stock trading services that are powered by Tradier.

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Speaking with Jared Broad, CEO of QuantConnect, he explained to Finance Magnates prior to the current news that they view “Algo trading is one of the hardest challenges in the world” due to the data challenges of constantly changing markets. But, he added, “We love the challenge.”

Available as a free platform for developing strategies and backtesting, the platform also offers a cloud-based solution for deploying live automated trading. Being made available for free to their brokerage customers, the cloud product is also offered with a monthly subscription to users desiring to trade with other brokers.

Using C# as its development language for creating strategies, QuantConnect does require users to have programming experience to use the product. Broad explained that while a ‘drag and drop’ offering for building strategies would open their solution to non-programmers, he didn’t believe such strategies were sustainable for long-term success due to the need to constantly adapt to changes in the market. In this regard, Broad explained that QuantConnect allows users to connect external sources to analyze market conditions, and that learning to code integrate such data improves the likelihood of success.

Currently, QuantConnect has built a community of over 12,000 users, with 55% from the US. Looking to the future, QuantConnect is aiming to partner with more brokers to increase the size of their user community, while they are also actively seeking funding to build the required technology infrastructure to continue their growth.