With many choices of programming languages available to interface with brokers or vendors, the question that comes naturally to anyone starting out in algorithmic trading platform development is: which language should I use?

Well, the short answer is that there is really no best programming language. How your product will be developed, the performance metrics to follow, the costs involved, latency threshold, risk measures, and the expected user interface are pieces of the puzzle to be taken into consideration. The risk manager, execution engine, and portfolio optimizer are some major components that will affect the design of your system. Your existing trading infrastructure, choice of operating system, programming language compiler capability, and available software tools poses further constraints on the system design, development, and deployment.