I am interested about playing with algorithmic trading strategies. Does anyone know if there exists simulator or benchmark data I could possibly play with offline (without actually making any investments)?
This question is pretty broad; as it is, there is no mention of which instruments you're interested in. For instance:
For the moment, I will assume you're interested in stocks... if so, take a look at Ninja Trader, which offers these features for free. You can get free end-of-day stock data from Yahoo Finance, which is sufficient for longer-term trading timelines; keep in mind that the shorter the trading cycle, the more stringent your data resolution needs to be.
If you are willing to put several thousand into a trading account, any number of brokers will be happy to send you live market intra-day market feeds; but you don't need money in an account for paper trading (at least with my broker). I think the broker that is most flexible for programmers is Interactive Brokers. You can get sub-second data from them via an API, just understand they won't give you Tick-level granularity; they summarize their feeds, the specific details vary so it's better just to talk to them if you have tight granularity requirements. As for off-line simulation, you can do that with Ninja Trader, Interactive Brokers, and many other online brokers (see What online brokers offer APIs?).
Since you're offering +200, I will share a bit more that you might be able to use... Keep it or toss in the trash for whatever value it brings.
As a general rule, the shorter the timeframe, the more difficult the trades, and the harder it is to consistently make money. If you're unsure where to start with timelines, look at trading cycles of days or weeks at a time; then if you see too many opportunities passing you by, refine your system to a smaller timeline. The other thing to consider is how often you want to touch this code and tweak algorithms. The general rule is, as the trading cycles get shorter, you do more calibration and maintenance on your algorithms. It is not that unusual to find an algorithmic trader who wrote a good Swing-Trading platform that has worked as-is for the last decade. On the other hand, Day Trading Algorithms tend to require more care and feeding based on changes in market conditions.
Closely related to timelines are your trading tactics. Are you:
Trade management is a rather big topic, and one you'll find addressed in-depth if you lurk around trader boards like Elite Trader. While it may sound out of place to discuss some of this in the same thread about automated trading platforms, I'm sure you'd agree that your assumptions and attitude have insidious ways of leeching into your code. I will share a few things off the top of my head:
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