About Us

The MicroTrends Difference

MicroTrends was built on genuine financial-technology experience rather than theory, imitation, or repackaged ideas. Tom’s journey into technology followed an unconventional path and began long before computing became part of everyday life.

His introduction to computing began at school, where he used BBC Micro and Acorn computers and started learning BASIC programming. After saving money from his weekend job, he bought his first computer—a Sinclair home computer—at the age of 14 and continued teaching himself programming.

Tom left school at 16 with no formal higher education. He progressed through self-directed study on PCs using MS-DOS and, later, Microsoft Windows 3.11. During the early 1990s, as personal computers became increasingly important to everyday business, he began providing independent technology services to small businesses, including PC installation and support, networking, operating-system troubleshooting, repairs, and technical problem-solving -trading as ‘Soft-Tech’ to local business in the UK East Sussex Free-ads.

From Software Tester to Senior Enterprise Solutions Consultant

Determined to build a professional career in software development, Tom began applying for junior programmer positions. After years of applications and repeated refusals due to his lack of formal education beyond secondary school, he approached FDM Group plc but was initially turned down and advised to return after gaining another year of experience. Tom spent the following year working during the day and studying programming at night. When he returned, FDM gave him an opportunity through a one-year internship, initially employing him as a software tester within its Enterprise Solutions division, which provided technology and consultancy services to major corporations throughout the United Kingdom.

Although testing provided his entry into the technology industry, Tom remained determined to become a developer. He continued working during the day and studying programming at night, expanding his technical knowledge while gaining practical experience through each assignment. He progressed from software testing into programming and consultancy roles, eventually becoming a Senior Consultant. However, his ambitions extended beyond providing enterprise solutions to major FTSE 100 companies—his sights were firmly set on building a financial-technology career in the City of London.

FDM deployed Tom on a succession of fast-moving troubleshooting assignments, typically lasting no longer than six months. These projects placed him in a wide variety of roles, including software testing, programming, systems support, and technical problem-solving across numerous technologies, industries, and client environments.

This intensive experience enabled him to develop an unusually broad technical skill set and the ability to understand, diagnose, and improve complex systems quickly—qualities that would later become central to MicroTrends and its approach to financial-technology development.

Financial Technology in the City of London

Tom began working in the City of London in 1996. His first financial-sector assignment involved developing a G&S stock portfolio-trading system that scanned thousands of stocks using Excel and VBA. Based on Golden Ratio pullback qualifications, the system could select and trade up to 200 stocks per day, allocating up to £100,000 of risk capital to each position.

Tom’s final assignment with FDM Group was at Cable & Wireless in 1999, where he worked on STP and SCP telecommunications systems as part of its Millennium Bug testing programme. After completing the assignment, he left FDM to concentrate on freelance software-development and financial-technology roles in the City of London.

His career progressed through the development of some of the earliest online stock-trading and financial-education systems, including work connected with Cahoot, Stock Academy, Bank of America, Chase Manhattan, and Freeserve. This included developing C++ server-broker objects and server-side web applications using ASP.

From 2006 to 2009, Tom’s final institutional engagement was with State Street Global Link and CLS. Using C#, Message Queuing, and T-SQL, he worked on high-value interbank financial messaging, SWIFT enrichment, and message-acceleration technology.

Trade sizes on the CLS exchange began at approximately $150 million and extended considerably higher, requiring the technology to meet exacting standards of performance, reliability, and quality. The work achieved a 100-fold increase in message throughput without causing a single bank-system failure.

This institutional background provided the engineering discipline, financial-market knowledge, and technical foundation behind MicroTrends. It represents decades of real-world experience developing systems for demanding environments where accuracy, performance, reliability, and effective risk controls are essential.

From Institutional Technology to Independent Innovation

MicroTrends Ltd was established in 2006 and became Tom’s full-time independent development company when he left the corporate financial-technology world in 2009. He exchanged the financial-district environment for independent development, international travel, and island life while continuing to design and develop financial-market technology.

Rather than entering retail trading as an inexperienced software vendor, MicroTrends brought institutional development experience and engineering standards into the NinjaTrader ecosystem. The company has since specialised in NinjaScript technology, algorithmic trading frameworks, indicators, strategies, trading interfaces, order-management systems, and automated and hybrid trading applications.

From 2015 to 2017, Tom worked on-site in Australia as Head of Algorithmic Trading Systems for CPC Futures Fund, with responsibility for its trading systems, technical infrastructure, and related development. He continued providing systems and technical consultancy to the fund remotely until 2022. Although Sydney and Surfers Paradise offered attractive locations, Tom ultimately preferred the island lifestyle and more suitable working time zone available in Asia—one of the many advantages of online trading and technology development. It provided the freedom to live and work in paradise, trade the markets, and develop innovative solutions without returning to the corporate rat race, rainy city life, and daily commute.

Real-Deal Commitment: Over the years, MicroTrends has provided tens of thousands of software licences free of charge and and spent countless hours assisting traders for free. This helped people access indicators, strategies, trading technology, and practical support that might otherwise have remained beyond their financial reach.

That experience also revealed an important reality: only a small percentage of traders develop the focus, discipline, time, and mental commitment required to pursue trading seriously. Many continue to jump between systems or search for a “holy grail” indicator instead of developing a consistent approach.

There is no magical indicator or shortcut. A genuine trading edge comes from learning the market, following a structured routine, managing risk, developing the correct mindset, and applying a proven approach consistently over time. MicroTrends now concentrates its time and expertise on serious traders who understand that lasting progress requires commitment, patience, and focused practice.

MicroTrends has long supported the NinjaTrader vision and its potential to make professional-grade trading technology more accessible. That same principle continues today: combining genuine experience, original development, and modern technology to help serious traders develop the knowledge, tools, and structured processes needed to pursue their trading goals.

From 2009 onwards, MicroTrends successfully delivered hundreds of NinjaTrader projects across the ecosystem. From 2022, the company shifted its focus towards proprietary internal development, specialist trading projects, and its own trading objectives. MicroTrends is now available for select commercial projects of a distinctive and technically challenging nature for discerning professional traders, trading organisations, and software vendors.

During MicroTrends’ specialism in NinjaTrader and retail futures trading has resulted in the invention and development of numerous original trading methodologies, indicators, bar types, algorithmic trading frameworks, and hybrid algorithmic trading technologies, methods, and systems. More information can be found in Algorithmic Trading Systems and The History and Evolution of Hybrid Algorithmic Trading Systems for the NinjaTrader Futures Platform.

MicroTrends Company Information