Emotions, greed, and reckless decision-making are long-standing roadblocks to profitable trading.
Algorithmic trading software helps eliminate these human impediments from the trading process. These sophisticated computer algorithms execute trades automatically following set rules and predetermined criteria.
The best algorithmic trading software comes packed with pre-built trading strategies that you can backtest, customize and apply in your trading, while others enable you to build your trading rules from scratch and deploy them to execute on integrated exchanges.
In this post, I’ll give you short algorithmic trading software reviews of the best top 10 automated trading platforms that you can use to build an Algo trading strategy.
Best Algorithmic Trading Software 2024
The table below summarizes my top choice of the best algorithmic trading software for crypto and stocks.
| Algo trading software | Best for | Supported assets | Mobile app | Price |
| Pionex | Crypto trading with pre-built strategies | Crypto | Yes | 0.05% spot trading fee; 0.1% futures trading fee |
| Trality | Creating/renting custom crypto bots | Crypto | No | Free basic plan |
| HaasOnline | Pre-built/custom crypto trading bots | crypto | No | Starting at $0.005 BTC/quarter |
| Coinrule | Customizable rule templates/custom bot creation | crypto | No | Basic free plan |
| Interactive Brokers | $0-to-low trading commissions | stocks, ETFs, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds, spot currencies, cryptocurrencies | Yes | Trading fee of $0.0035 and below |
| eToro | Copy trading/smart portfolios | stocks, EFTs, commodities, FX, indices, crypto, NFTs | Yes | Commission-free trading* |
| MetaTrader 5 | Best free algorithmic software for forex trading | Forex, stocks, and futures | Yes | Free |
| QuantConnect | Experienced stock traders and developers | stocks, equities, indexes, futures, forex, CFDs, and crypto | No | Starting at $8 per month |
| Zen Trading Strategies | Free training to learn algo trading | Stocks, crypto, and forex | No | $67/month or $599/year |
| Ninja Trader | C#-skilled traders and developers | Futures, Forex, stocks, CFDs | No | Includes a free plan |
Best Algorithmic Trading Software For Crypto
1. Pionex
Pionex is a top algorithmic trading software for crypto that allows you to trade a wide selection of 340+ coins.
The Pionex exchange also offers ETH staking, and you can easily and quickly buy crypto with a credit card.
The platform comes with 16 pre-built free crypto trading bots, but it also offers a manual trading terminal with TradingView charting tools to switch between algo trading and manual trading.
Apart from its own Pionex exchanges, the platform also partners with other top crypto exchanges like Binance and Huobi to facilitate arbitrage trading.
Top bots on the platform include:
- Grid trading bots: Enable you to buy low and sell high automatically 24/7
- Spot-Futures arbitrage bots: Earn low-risk passive income at an APR of 15%-50% via arbitrage trading.
- Leveraged bots: Trade with margins of up to 3X
- DCA Bot: Automatically buy crypto at varying price points and take profit in one time.
- Rebalancing Bot: Enables you to create your own index
- Infinity Grid Bot: Earn profit while holding your crypto.
- Martingale Bot: Automatically auto-reinvest and auto-compound your earnings
You can access Pionex via its desktop web platform or its free iOS/Android app that enables you to trade and manage your wallet on the go.
Pionex bots are free to use, but you’ll incur a bot trading fee of 0.05% for spot trading and 0.1% for futures trading.
Pros
- Supports over 340+ cryptocurrencies
- 16 built-in free bots
- Low trading fees
- Powerful manual trading terminal
- iOS and Android crypto trading apps
- ETH staking with up to 4.25% APR
- By crypto with a credit card
Cons
- Only supports crypto
- You can’t build your own custom bots
2. Trality
Trality is another algorithmic trading software for crypto that offers algorithmic trading tools to allow Python-skilled traders to automate their trading experience and skills.
The platform offers a Python Code Editor to enable skilled traders and developers to build customer bots and sophisticated trading algorithms from scratch using Python.
Users without coding skills can take advantage of the Trality drag-and-drop Rule Builder to quickly and easily create trading bots from 100+ technical indicators and predefined strategies.
You can also rent trading bots from the Trality Bot marketplace from top bot creators to copy-trade their automated trading strategies.
The platform connects with top crypto exchanges, including Binance, FTX, Coinbase, Bitpanda, and Kraken to enable you to seamlessly place orders using your created bots and algo trading strategy.
Trality doesn’t offer a mobile app and is only accessible via its online desktop platform. Their Pawn plan is free but limits you to 1 bot and €5,000 monthly trading volume.
If you want to unlock more bots and higher trading volume, you can upgrade to any of their 3 paid plans, including:
- Knight: €9.99/mo; 1 rented bot, 2 created bots, €25,000 trading volume
- Rook: €39.99/mo; 1 rented bot, 5 created bot; €250,000 trading volume
- Queen: €59.99/mo; 1 rented bot; 10 created bots; Unlimited trading volume.
Pros
- Tools to build custom bots
- Multiple pricing plans, including a free plan
- Partners with several exchanges
- A marketplace to rent bots
- Unlimited paper trading and backtesting of strategies
Cons
- No mobile app
- Only supports crypto
- Premium price to access all the features
3. HaasOnline
HaasOnline is one of the best algorithmic trading software for crypto that’s packed with about 15 pre-build crypto trading bots.
It also comes with a powerful backtesting engine to allow you to optimize your bots and trading strategies using historical data and simulated paper trading with live crypto market movements.
There’s also the HaasScript Code Editor that offers algorithmic trading tools to enable experienced traders and developers to hand-code complex algo trading strategies from scratch using the HaasScript language or C#.
Top pre-build bots on the platform include Inter-Exchange Arbitrage, Advanced Crypto Index, Scalper Bot, Trend Line, Intelli Alice, Mad Hatter, Standard Trade Bot, and others.
The platform integrates with over 20 exchanges to let you set your proven bots and automated algo trading strategy run in your favorite exchanges.
However, HaasOnline is not a free algorithmic trading software, so you should be prepared to pay to play. To that end, the platform offers 3 plans priced in BTC as follows:
- Beginner: $0.005 BTC/quarter; 10 active trading bots
- Simple: 0.007 BTC/quarter; 20 active trading bots
- Advanced: 0.012 BTC/quarter; Unrestricted trading bots
Pros
- Up to 15 pre-build crypto trading bots
- Code custom bots using C# or HaasScript
- Free backtesting and paper trading
- Integrates with 20+ crypto exchanges
Cons
- No free plan
- No mobile app to trade on the go
4. Coinrule
Coinrule is a top algorithmic trading software for crypto that’s packed with more than 200+ rule templates that users can backtest using historical data to create their own algo trading strategy.
It also enables crypto traders to create their own trading algorithms from scratch using popular indicators.
The top trading rules on the platform include:
- Trend-Following Rebalancing: Sells poor performing coins to buy top performers
- Stop Loss: Protects you from loss when a specific coin experiences a severe price drop
- Price-Based Accumulation: A long-term strategy to periodically accumulate a coin below a set price.
- Accumulate The Daily Top Performer: Periodically move funds to coins that are performing better
The platform integrates with 10+ cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Bitstamp, Kraken, Coinbase, FTX, KuCoin, and Bitpanda, among others, and you can set your rules to run 24/7 in your favorite exchanges, so you never miss a trading opportunity.
With the Free Starter plan, you get 2 live rules, 2 demo rules, and 1 connected exchange. To unlock more features, you may consider upgrading to any of their paid plans, including:
- Hobbyist: $29.99/mo or $359 billed yearly; 7 live rules, 7 demo rules, 3 connected exchanges.
- Trader: $59.99/mo or $719 billed yearly; 15 live rules, 15 demo rules, 5 connected exchanges
- Pro: $449.99/mo or $5,399 billed yearly; 50 live rules, 50 demo rules, unlimited exchanges.
Pros
- An easy-to-use platform for beginners
- Integrates with 10+ exchanges
- Free Starter plan
- Access more than 2000 rule templates
- Ability to build your own custom trading rules
Cons
- No mobile app
- Supports only crypto
- Premium price tag to access all features
Stock Advisor Canada
Unlimited access to expert stock recommendations
Almost doubled the S&P/TSX Index over last 9 years
New stock picks every month
50,000+ members
$1.90 weekly (66% discount)
Best Algorithmic Trading Software for Stocks
5. Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) offers a top algorithmic trading software for stocks. It is known for its low trading commissions and wide selection of market securities.
The platform operates in 150 markets in 33 countries and offers different investment accounts to individuals, businesses, and institutional investors.
Users can invest in a wide list of financial assets, including stocks, ETFs, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds, spot currencies, cryptocurrencies, etc.
To enable you to automate your trading activities, IBKR offers more than 100 order types and algos that you can use for free to build an algo trading strategy.
Top IBKR order types and Algos on the platform include Adaptive Algo, Accumulation/Distribute, Arrival Price, Percent of Volume, IBKR ATS Retoute to SMART, Dark Ice, Balance Impact and Risk, Variant Algos, TWAP, and others.
They also offer a large selection of third-party algorithmic order types from innovative Algo providers like Fox River, Quantitative Brokers (QB), CSFB, and Jefferies.
IBKR trading fees for stocks/ETFs are among the lowest in the industry, ranging from $0.0005 to $0.0035 per share, depending on your monthly trading volume.
Pros
- A myriad of IBKR and third-party order types and algos
- A wide selection of market securities
- Access to 150 global markets
- Low trading fees
- $0 account minimum and account maintenance fees
Cons
- You can’t build your own custom trading algorithms
- A complex pricing structure that may vary from market to market
6. eToro Copy Trading
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform that offers free algorithmic software for copy trading. The platform has a large community of over 25 million users from over 100 countries and puts itself forward as the world’s social investing platform.
Users can invest in a wide selection of assets, including stocks, EFTs, commodities, FX, and indices starting with as little as $10. It also offers access to 60+ cryptocurrencies and the ability to explore NFTs using the Delta app.
eToro Algo trading strategy works in two ways:
eToro’s innovative CopyTrader: This feature enables you to find top-performing investors you believe in and automatically copy their trading moves in real time. The minimum investment requirement for copy trading is $200.
eToro’s Smart Portfolios: eToro offers diversified, tailor-made portfolios to enable you to put your money on autopilot and invest with less risk and zero management fees, starting with $500.
They employ data-driven investment strategies created using cutting-edge algorithms built using machine learning and data science from millions of metrics.
Regarding trading fees, eToro offers commission-free trading of stocks and ETFs, but you’ll incur a fee of 1% when buying and selling crypto on the platform.
Pros
- A wide selection of assets
- Automatic copy trading
- Put our money on autopilot with Smart Portfolios
- Commission-free trading of stocks and ETFs
- Mobile app to trade on the go
Cons
- You can’t build custom trading strategies
- High fee for crypto trading
Related: You also have options to trade in eToro alternatives.
7. MetaTrader 5
MetaTrader 5 is the best free algorithmic trading software for trading forex, stocks, and futures that offers powerful algorithmic trading tools to enable professional traders and developers to create, test, and execute algo trading strategies.
Skilled traders can use the MetaTrader5 IDE and the MQL5 programming language to create custom Algo strategies from scratch, while beginners can take advantage of the MQL5 Wizard to build simple trading bots with a few clicks.
The platform also features thousands of free and paid signals from successful traders for copy trading, powerful charting for comprehensive technical analysis, and connects with top brokerage firms like AvaTrade to enable you to execute automated trading operations directly from the charts.
Top algorithmic trading tools offered by MetaTrader 5 include:
- MQL5 IDE: Allows experienced and professional traders to create, test, and execute trading bots.
- MQL5 Wizard: Allows beginners to create a simple trading bot with a few clicks.
- Meta Trader Market: Allows you to purchase or rent Algo trading strategies from top traders.
- MQL5 Code Base: Download thousands of free trading bots and indicators.
- MQL5 Freelance: Order a custom trading algorithm from a professional programmer.
There’s also the MQL5 showcase, which features hundreds of free and paid trading signals that you can use for automatic real-time copying of trading operations from successful traders.
MetaTrader 5 is free to download for desktop and mobile, and the only fees you’ll incur are the trading fees charged by your broker.
Pros
- A free algorithmic trading software
- Available for desktop and mobile
- Integrates with multiple brokers
- Large user community to gain insight into trading ideas and strategies
- Powerful charting with real-time market data
Cons
- Only supports stock, forex, and futures
- Can be overwhelming for beginners
8. QuadConnect
Quant Connect is one of the best algorithmic trading software that offers an open-source cloud-based research terminal to enable experienced trades and developers to research, code, backtest, and optimize algo trading strategies with a range of parameters.
So far, the platform hosts more than 250,000 live trading Algos, and anyone interested in algorithmic trading can use the platform’s free backtesting tool to create and optimize their algo trading strategies using different programming languages.
Users can research and build trading algorithms for multiple assets, including stocks, Equities, indexes, futures, forex, CFDs, and crypto. The platform also supports options trading, hence one of the best automated options trading software on our list.
Once your trading strategy is ready, you can deploy it to execute trades directly via any of the 15 integrated brokers and exchanges or EMSX Net’s 1,3000 liquidity providers.
Top brokers and exchanges on the platform include Binance, Coinbase, Benzinga, Kraken, Nasdaq, Bitfinex, Smart Insider, and others.
Students with .edu email can access and use the platform for free, but other users have to subscribe to any of their paid plans, starting at $8 per month.
Pros
- An open-source algorithmic trading engine
- Supports a wide selection of financial assets
- Free backtesting tool
- Integrates with top exchanges and liquidity providers
Cons
- Only great traders and developers with coding experience
- No mobile app
9. Zen Trading Strategies
Zen Trading Strategies is a top algorithmic trading software for stocks, crypto, and forex.
The platform prides itself as “a quantitative algorithmic trading research firm and educator” that offers TradingView indicators and fully customizable Algo strategies custom-made and mathematically tested by the company’s experts.
Its strategies are visualized directly on your TradingView chart, and you can backtest and customize various strategies with historical data before applying them to determine and optimize their performance.
Top strategies on the platform include:
- Complete Volume Pump
- Ultimate Trend Following
- Perfect Momentum
- Extreme Break + Price Action
- Manual Trade Helper
- Virtual Private Server Alert
The platform also offers algorithmic trading education and lots of tutorials to learn how to build and customize trading algorithms and trade with fewer risks for more profits.
Zen Trading Strategies is not a free algorithmic trading software, but offers a free trial for each strategy.
They offer a monthly and yearly subscription plan priced as follows:
- Monthly subscription: $67/month
- Yearly subscription: $599/year
Pros
- Customizable strategies for a fully automated, hands-off trading
- Free training to learn algo trading
- Free trial to test strategies before using them
- Free trading signals
Cons
- No mobile app
- Limited strategies
10. NinjaTrader
Ninja Trader is a free algorithmic trading software for futures and forex trading, but users can trade more assets, including stocks, CFDs, and others, via third-party brokerages, add-ons, and data packages.
The platform offers a C# framework to enable C#-skilled traders and developers to build automated trading strategies, integrated indicators, trading apps, chart drawing tools, chart styles and bars, social sharing services, and more.
Users can also access thousands of third-party apps, indicators, and strategies that are fully customizable to create a personalized trading setup that meets their specific requirements.
It also offers advanced charting, market analysis, and trade simulation to enable users to discover trading ideas and verify them with backtesting and market simulation.
The platform is free for Ninja Trader users, but when trading with a third party, you can either lease the software at $720 per year or purchase a lifetime license for $1,099.
Ninja Trader futures trading fees come in as follows:
- $0.35 per micro contract with the free platform
- $0.25 per contract with the “lease” license
- $0.09 per micro contract with the platform’s lifetime license
Pros
- A C# framework to build algo strategies
- Free market simulation and backtesting of ideas
- Powerful charting and futures analysis
- Thousands of 3rd party trading apps and add-ons
- Integration with third-party brokers and data providers
Cons
- Algorithmic trading requires C# coding knowledge
- No mobile app
Methodology:
We chose the best algorithmic trading software based on supported market securities, pre-build Algo strategies, the ability to build bespoke algorithms, availability of mobile apps, pricing, and our assessment of what each platform is best for.
FAQs
Algorithmic trading is the use of sophisticated trading software to automate trading activities and strategies. It helps remove emotions and biased decision-making in the trading princess, helping traders save time and increase their profit potential.
There are several factors you should consider when choosing algorithmic trading software. The top ones include:
1. Availability of real-time market/company data and price quotes
2. Supported markets and financial assets
3. Integration with top brokers and data providers for live trading
4. Ability to configure and customize in-build trade algorithms
5. Ability to code customer Algo strategies
6. Backtesting and simulation to optimize and assess the performance of strategies using historical data.
7. Availability of mobile apps to trade on the go
Absolutely! Algorithmic trading software can help you save time and money by offering you an automated, emotion-free investing process. That said, using algorithmic trading software requires some level of technical knowledge and, sometimes, coding knowledge.
Before you jump in, make sure you do your own research and thoroughly backtest your pre-built or custom-built trading algorithms to assess and ascertain their performance. Don’t forget that trading comes with risk, and you should always invest what you can afford to lose.
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