Long answer: not in the beginning, then a long period of breaking even, and eventual profitability.
My algos trade commodity futures(nasdaq, 30-year bonds, etc). My platform is Multicharts.NET, which supports writing your strategy components in C#.NET. I'm not a .NET fan, but the platform is solid and this is about dollars, not language preference.
Also...regarding HFT - those aren't likely what you think they are. In commodity markets, HFT trading typically follows a simplistic algorithm of "above or below XYZ bar EMA", which anyone can do. The HFT portion of it comes in through the process bidding the inside bid(on the way up) or offering the inside offer(on the way down) faster than the other HFT algo. So where a price may eventually see 100 bids on the way up, and 20 of those will be filled, the HFT's goal is to place bid #2 or #3 out of that 100 - competing with hundreds of humans and other HFT's for that spot in the queue. Trying to compete with HFT is very difficult unless you have enough capital to colo next to the exchange(CME in my case), as well as handle commissions(through paying them, or paying for a seat to negate them).
I've attached a screenshot of the chart output from my algorithm today. Assume every time you see "SE" or "LE", that a long(LE) or short(SE) position was established. Positions close when the first of 4 events happens: stop loss, profit target(25pts for today), trailing stop(10pt), or an opposing signal is generated. It's simple, it's not that sophisticated, but it is consistently profitable. You can develop your own similar algorithms, or use many out-of-the-box algorithms from places like iSystems, or strategies that come built-in with your platform(Multicharts.NET has many). The key is backtesting, properly scheduling around economic events, and having enough capital to survive the inevitable drawdowns.
That chart is very interesting. It looks as if you can predict where the trend started and reversed. Any pointers on how to decide the LE and SE points?
Long answer: not in the beginning, then a long period of breaking even, and eventual profitability.
My algos trade commodity futures(nasdaq, 30-year bonds, etc). My platform is Multicharts.NET, which supports writing your strategy components in C#.NET. I'm not a .NET fan, but the platform is solid and this is about dollars, not language preference.
Also...regarding HFT - those aren't likely what you think they are. In commodity markets, HFT trading typically follows a simplistic algorithm of "above or below XYZ bar EMA", which anyone can do. The HFT portion of it comes in through the process bidding the inside bid(on the way up) or offering the inside offer(on the way down) faster than the other HFT algo. So where a price may eventually see 100 bids on the way up, and 20 of those will be filled, the HFT's goal is to place bid #2 or #3 out of that 100 - competing with hundreds of humans and other HFT's for that spot in the queue. Trying to compete with HFT is very difficult unless you have enough capital to colo next to the exchange(CME in my case), as well as handle commissions(through paying them, or paying for a seat to negate them).
I've attached a screenshot of the chart output from my algorithm today. Assume every time you see "SE" or "LE", that a long(LE) or short(SE) position was established. Positions close when the first of 4 events happens: stop loss, profit target(25pts for today), trailing stop(10pt), or an opposing signal is generated. It's simple, it's not that sophisticated, but it is consistently profitable. You can develop your own similar algorithms, or use many out-of-the-box algorithms from places like iSystems, or strategies that come built-in with your platform(Multicharts.NET has many). The key is backtesting, properly scheduling around economic events, and having enough capital to survive the inevitable drawdowns.
Link to screenshot of today's chart output from algo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bms9kuqn529iyqg/Screen%20Shot%2020...
If you go down this road, I wish you the best of luck. It's fun, it's difficult, and incredibly rewarding if you get it right.