The Story Of How Delphi Became A Real Game Changer For This Financial Software

In this new TCoffee and Code session, we a fact-packed conversation on how stock market trading drastically evolved over the years and how Delphi became a game-changer for real-time financial software development. In this video, hosts Ian Barker and Jim Mckeeth are joined by a long-time Delphi developer Jim Ferguson who professionally developed a Real-time Stock Market Software in 1992 with Turbo Pascal 6. Here, he shares all his experiences on how he managed to embrace the rapidly evolving technology especially in the field of windows program development, and how Delphi helped him overcome these challenges.

How did Delphi change the game for Jim Ferguson?

Jim Ferguson takes us down to memory lane as he shares his experiences on developing real-time stock market software. Here, he shares his humble beginnings and the challenges he faced in gathering stock market data during a time when the Internet was not yet a thing. The interview introduces us to the stock market industry and Jim walks us through the differences in the process at the time and the cost of collecting real-time stock market data compared to today. From radio signals to the earliest days of the Internet, we will see how Jim managed to embrace the evolution while he shares how Delphi (Pascal) made a huge impact on his very own Real-time Stock Market Software.

How did the Transition to automated trading take place and what part did the Delphi Compiler play in that?

From manual trading, we learn how Jim Ferguson and his team adapted their engine to automated trading. Jim also shares with us how he managed the risks of dealing with high-profile clients and traders in a fast-moving environment, the importance of unit testing, and his use of Delphi language to pull market data in real-time.

To learn more about Jim’s Stock Market software development and how to make the most out of Delphi’s compiler, feel free to watch the interview below.