They are for systematic quants who write their own code and trade mid-frequency strategies on bars, held from minutes to days, whether independent or employed at a firm. They are not for high-frequency or order-book strategies, options modelling, or traders who want to work without code.
A good fit
- You trade rules, not judgement calls, and you write them in code: Python, C++ or another language that can call C.
- Your strategies run on bars, intraday to multi-day. Time bars are the usual case; tick, volume or dollar bars also work if you build them yourself.
- You want to check results, not trust them: the same seed gives the same bytes, and the fill rules are written down.
- You want everything on your own machine, with nothing uploaded.
- For Reamer Server in particular: you are taking strategies live at your own broker, and you or your team can write the broker connection and the pre-trade check in C, C++, Rust or Go.
Independent quants and firms buy the same products at the same prices. A Reamer Research key bought online is personal to the one person named at checkout, so each researcher on a team needs their own.
Not a fit
- High-frequency or order-book strategies. Both products work on bars and order intents, not on level 2 or level 3 data, and are not built for the latency race.
- Options. There is no options pricing, greeks, exercise or expiry modelling.
- Discretionary or point-and-click trading. There is no charting interface or strategy builder; you write code.
- You want data included. No market data ships. You bring your own bars, and equities must already be adjusted for splits and dividends.
- You want it hosted. Both run on your own machines; there is no cloud version.
- You want a broker connection out of the box. Reamer Server connects to any broker you write a connector for. The kit has a worked FIX 4.4 example, not a certified connection.
- Windows. Reamer Research runs on Linux x86-64 and macOS on Apple Silicon; Reamer Server on Linux x86-64 only.
If you are unsure, the 30-day trial ($225 for Research, $900 for Server) is the way to check fit on your own strategy before buying a year. See pricing.