The first rule of Reddit Club: you don’t talk about new products!
I thought Reddit could be the place to share a new take on trading automation — and the product it inspired. Turns out, the first rule of Reddit Club is: DON’T. So instead of posting on Reddit, I’ll publish here, calmly, what I had prepared in its shortest version, without filter, as censored immediately (<1 sec. ) by the R-Club.
In a scam-filled world, would you trade a few seconds for proven security and privacy?
I’ve been thinking about this trade-off for a while in my own setups. Speed is often worshipped as the ultimate value, but for some popular trading strategies those few seconds are nearly irrelevant (Day trading, swing trading, index / ETF investing, stock picking, long term) and could still be useful as an automat, with no emotion.
Like in low-cost business strategies where airlines cut what adds little real value to focus on what truly matters, I questioned that “sacred value” and cut it out. That allowed me to rethink the whole approach and design a product centered on security, privacy, and control — at a flat, low cost, and I ended up building Email Trader as a concrete answer for many individuals as well as semi-pros.
It’s a Mac/Win app (distributed on Mac App Store & Microsoft Store) that turns Gmail email alerts into IBKR TWS orders (or IBGW). Distributed under an official Interactive Brokers commercial license, it benefits from the (almost TBH) full TWS API coverage. Latency is ~5–15s, but it runs 100% local — leveraging Gmail’s security stack (OAuth2.0, SPF/DKIM/DMARC, TLS), with no servers, no data leaving your machine, and no external monitoring possible. To grant Gmail read access, Google required strict validation and a full source code audit by TAC Security (maximum rating, covering both security and privacy).
Launch price: $10/mo → $15/mo later, flat (no tiers).
How It Compares
| Tool | IBKR Support | Tech Basis | Security / Auth | Pricing Model | Latency | Logs / Reliability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Email Trader | TWS API (stocks, options, futures, FX) | Local bridge app (Mac/Win, App Stores) | Gmail OAuth2.0, SPF/DKIM/DMARC, TLS, TAC audit, official IBKR license, fully decentralized, runs locally, no third-party in the middle | $10/mo launch → $15/mo flat | ~5–15s | Session + trade logs |
| SignalStack | IBKR WebAPI (stocks only) | Cloud SaaS | API keys stored server-side =single point of failure + wider attack surface | $27 (1st year)–$340/mo (tiers) | <1s | Not disclosed |
| TradersPost | IBKR WebAPI (stocks only) | Cloud SaaS | API keys stored server-side=single point of failure + wider attack surface | $49/mo flat | <1s | Not disclosed |
| XeroLite | TWS API (stocks, options, futures, FX) | Local bridge app | Local keys only, not store-distributed | ~$249 lifetime (promo) | <1s | Basic logging only |
Based on available public information; we will be happy to update if vendors share more details.
Limitations / trade-offs (being transparent):
- Needs TWS running.
- Not designed for HFT, scalping, market making or arbitrage.
- Currently IBKR-only.
- No fancy dashboards — instead detailed focused logs showing what worked and what failed, and why.
👉 In your day-to-day case, does a low-cost decentralized Gmail-secured approach — with external validation by Google, TAC Security, and an official IBKR commercial license — sound more relevant to you than a lower-latency SaaS relay that requires handing over your API key?
Video: https://www.youtube.com/@EmailTRADER
Conclusion
Product launches are never straightforward, and sometimes the strangest hurdles come not from code or design, but from the platforms meant to host conversations.
Reddit Club’s rule is simple: no new products announcements. Still, incumbents slip in 10% of self-promo, or get conveniently mentioned by others — a hypocrisy that keeps real innovation out. Which also means: if you’re curious about what’s next, or if the old tools don’t fit your needs, you won’t find it there. Yet a thoughtful one-off promo of something truly new could add real value — and lead to ad investments later. One day, AI will catch that nuance and let it through the first filter; the second will remain the readers, the third the market. Selection will stay — but less stupidly algorithmic, less a priori. True capitalism runs on freedom — not on clumsy human filters that fear the new.
Give me a few days — I’ll share the second rule of R-Club. Perseverance is my algorithm; curiosity makes me stubborn.