Infrastructure & Security

A detailed overview of the server and network infrastructure used to run the autotrading platform.

The Option Alpha bot ecosystem is hosted entirely on Amazon Web Services (AWS), located within the United States. The front-end is written primarily in native JavaScript, with minimal reliance on third-party frameworks. The back-end infrastructure is written entirely in Node.js and deployed across a large, distributed network of servers.

We are proud to say that all of our servers are the fastest available anywhere in the cloud. Each Linux server runs an all-core turbo clock at 4.5 GHz to ensure automations and data are processed as fast as possible.

Bots are stateful and in the unlikely event of a network failure, the entire system can be brought back online in a matter of seconds, resuming the exact state they were in prior to failure.

Pod System

The entire platform is set up to auto-scale as new users join. We use a horizontal scaling paradigm, meaning that each user is allocated resources per bot service instance, with a predefined number of instances per server, across n servers. Each server is referred to as a pod, where each pod can handle m users.

The entire network of pod servers is closely monitored for resource usage, and at any time we can re-scale the total number of users per bot service instance, instances per pod, and/or total pods to maintain network stability.

Browser Compatibility

The autotrading platform offers cutting-edge technology directly inside your web browser. There is no software to download. The trade-off is browser compatibility.

Not all browsers are compatible with the platform. To provide users a consistently fast and extremely powerful web-based software, our developers leverage advanced features available to Google's V8 engine that runs JavaScript.

An engine is underlying code that's used to interpret and execute Option Alpha's JavaScript instructions at the browser level.

Therefore, the officially supported browser is Google Chrome. In theory, any browser running V8 (the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, for example), should be fully compatible.

Users not running Google Chrome or another V8 browser will experience stability issues.

Any user not running a V8-compatible browser will still be able to login to the platform but may experience undocumented stability issues. The user may not even be aware the application is not functioning as intended.

Security

Most platforms are a collection of code from various libraries and scripts that creates an unstable platform and leaves you vulnerable. Instead, we spent five years building the entire platform and network from the ground up with an in-house team of developers.

We wrote every single line of code that runs automated trading which means we control the full software stack from top to bottom. There is an absolute minimal reliance on third-party packages or software.

You won't find this level of commitment anywhere else. Plus, we also...

1. Operate a web-based platform in the cloud, hosted by AWS and monitored by our team inside our Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

2. Require the highest level of TLS browser encryption.

3. Send all requests originating from bots via point-to-point access from our US-based servers directly to your broker.

4. Place multi-tiered web application firewalls (WAFs), in front of all web traffic, to protect against malicious hacking or denial-of-service (DoS) attempts.

5. Use reverse proxying to scalable web server instances to create the fastest platform possible for our traders and ensure uptime.

Broker Connections

The method the bots use to connect to your brokerage account is dictated by the broker. In most cases, they will dictate the use of the OAuth 2.0 standard for access delegation.

When it is time to connect to your broker for live trading, we will present you with a secure login modal for your account to authenticate the bot server with your broker. The broker will provide us with a special token that the bots will use in a very limited capacity.

Bots only use broker connections to submit or monitor active orders and positions. They only access your broker when required. Option Alpha does not have access to your account details.

Bots are not constantly connected to brokerage accounts. Instead, they only submit orders through the API and monitor their status, if required. All tracking that occurs during the lifetime of an open position is done directly through the bots and their live data feed.