What do Angry Birds™, World of Warcraft™, and Tbricks have in common? They all utilize the powerful and lightweight scripting language called Lua. As with other scripting languages, Lua allows the end user to write simple code to automate tasks and calculations that would otherwise be done by hand. This makes it an ideal tool for traders to augment their off-the-shelf trading system.
Lua smartly simplifies the complexities of coding. It removes common beginner frustrations such as rules based on whitespace or dealing with a main function. In addition, all values can be stored for later utilization by the end user. These attributes allow the scripter to focus on human readable instructions, making it easy to get up to speed on the language for those with and without extensive programming backgrounds. For a trading system like Tbricks that has embedded Lua as a first-class feature, it opens up a wealth of data to the end user.
"For a trading system like Tbricks that has embedded Lua as a first-class feature, it opens up a wealth of data to the end user."
Many users leverage platforms external from their trading system to run calculations. These platforms range in complexity from Excel to in house systems. These platforms, along with their trading system, are all vying for valuable screen real estate. For example, a user could have calculations on an instrument based on its theoretical value, current exchange rates and positions.
Using Lua, this can be easily integrated into Tbricks to eliminate the need for multiple platforms and allow your calculations to be more than a referential value. This value can now be seen next to market data in trading sheets and leveraged to create custom highlighting. Further integration of such scripting throughout the system is what takes this feature from a nice-to-have to a powerful value-add–a feature that is only possible if Lua is embedded in the trading platform from the onset.
