Financial Software Development Question

[Brent_Ritterbec]

This is my first post, so let me begin by describing myself before asking my question because I believe you might then better understand where I am coming from.
I am twenty years old. I recently graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in finance. I am interested in developing computer programs that will possibly revolutionize the way financial matters are done from the trading of securities to the personal money management.
I have very basic knowledge of Java and C++, but nothing to brag about. My knowledge of computer programming is very limited at the moment, but I need to learn all I can because I see myself using my finance knowledge in a computer setting.
The first project I would like to work on, after having learned the essential knowledge, whatever that is, is a program that does the following: The stock market is a gold mine of data. For each company there are thousands, if not millions of different numbers and calculations to look at that all should have an impact on how you invest and what you invest in. For this I imagine that I should be using a database to store all this information in. What I would like to do is have this database in essence hidden (unable for the end user to access/toy with any of the data, simply read only). The user will interact with this data by accessing the database over the internet through a platform that I would like to design myself. Once the end user has acquired the data, the end user can then create pro forma (future looking) calculations using a spreadsheet type setup.
Should I be using a database for this, and if so, what is recommended in this area? What programming languages would allow a user to retrieve data from that database? What programming language would be used to write a platform on which the user can interact with the data in a spreadsheet form, etc?
I know that C++ can do many things, but can C++ draw out things from a database, ship it across the internet, and then be used to create a spreadsheet?

[Chainsaw]

"I know that C++ can do many things, but can C++ draw out things from a database, ship it across the internet, and then be used to create a spreadsheet?"

MS Office is written in C, C++, and its variants, so sure. A carpenter can build an entire house using only one kind of hammer, too.

Probably the best thing to do is to partner with someone with the server-side knowledge; there's a bunch of databases available, some free some not, and certainly lots of server stuff around that can access those databases. Then find a friend who can build web pages, because with XSL and XML and the like you can create spreadsheet-looking pages and supply whatever data you want to them.

It's a tall order to learn it all yourself quickly, though.

[denon]

This is my first post, so let me begin by describing myself before asking my question because I believe you might then better understand where I am coming from. I am twenty years old. I recently graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in finance. I am interested in developing computer programs that will possibly revolutionize the way financial matters are done from the trading of securities to the personal money management. I have very basic knowledge of Java and C++, but nothing to brag about. My knowledge of computer programming is very limited at the moment, but I need to learn all I can because I see myself using my finance knowledge in a computer setting. The first project I would like to work on, after having learned the essential knowledge, whatever that is, is a program that does the following: The stock market is a gold mine of data. For each company there are thousands, if not millions of different numbers and calculations to look at that all should have an impact on how you invest and what you invest in. For this I imagine that I should be using a database to store all this information in. What I would like to do is have this database in essence hidden (unable for the end user to access/toy with any of the data, simply read only). The user will interact with this data by accessing the database over the internet through a platform that I would like to design myself. Once the end user has acquired the data, the end user can then create pro forma (future looking) calculations using a spreadsheet type setup. Should I be using a database for this, and if so, what is recommended in this area? What programming languages would allow a user to retrieve data from that database? What programming language would be used to write a platform on which the user can interact with the data in a spreadsheet form, etc? I know that C++ can do many things, but can C++ draw out things from a database, ship it across the internet, and then be used to create a spreadsheet?

I am suggest you to use C# in this case.
It it more usefull for such things

[freesoft_2000]

Hi everyone,

Use Java - You'll never be sorry

Richard West

[ringy_thingy]

Hi,

Nowadays, with the advent of fast HTML/XML parsing, I would say there is no need to duplicate company details in your database. You may write a crawler that can visit edgar, msn, yahoo finance sites and get the company info. It is quite easy to do that. Nevertheless, if you want to do the complete approach, Java/C# will work great! I would ask you to try the former approach, first. Good luck.