Good broker with programming API?

My first post! Greetings.

So I have read the babypips school section - there is a lot of info there, very well laid out and accessible. Thank you very much to the folks who wrote that!

So now I want to start playing around with a demo account… and to do so I need to choose an FX broker. However, in my day job I am a programmer (C++ and Python on linux). I have it in the back of my mind that I want to focus on leveraging my programming knowledge, and build mechanical trading systems.

As such, can anyone recommend a good FX broker which offers a programming API and access to running trading strategies against historical data?

I am looking into writing some mechanical/automated trading systems and back-testing them against historical data. I would like to experiment with various different inputs, such as varying the stop levels and/or changing the periods of moving averages. This is trivial with any programming language, hence the desire to use an API.

What I would aim to do is to be able to run a back-test against historical data with input 1, and generate a PNL report; then repeat with input 2, and generate another PNL report; and so on.
In this way I can automate the generation of reports and let the system run several times through a series of inputs with little intervention on my side.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Skebanga

You can just program an EA in Metatrader or create a program in Forex Tester 2. I’m not sure how far the MT data goes back, but you can get free data from FXT2 going back 10 years.

Brokers who have API usually offer the most popular platform MT4. It is the best platform for EA and automatic trading. In order to make a reliable back test, you should trade with brokers that have real quotes and data. I would check Alpari or sunbirdfx for this kind of trading.

Have u tried lmax? They have the lowest spreads around and i ca n arrange for the best rates with min deposit as $1000…u can check their spreads (along with those of others) here: Spreads | Myfxbook

u can see that their spreads are way lesser than the others…

they also allow API trading…lemme know if u r interested and i can recommend ur account to them…