The LSE Directory / Charting platforms
Sterling Trader Pro is a professional, low-latency desktop trading platform for US equities, listed options and futures, built by Sterling Trading Tech (STT), a Chicago-based trading-technology vendor. It gives users direct market access to US exchanges, ECNs, dark pools and other alternative trading systems, real-time Level I and Level II market data, a charting package with dozens of studies and indicators, configurable hotkeys, and smart order routing. Its options module supports single-leg and complex multi-leg strategies, including pre-configured spread structures such as butterflies and iron condors, with live Greeks and volatility analytics. STT does not operate as a broker-dealer itself; it licenses Sterling Trader Pro and companion products, including Sterling Trader Elite, Sterling Trader Web and Mobile, Sterling VolTrader, Sterling Manager, the OMS 360 order management system, and a real-time Risk and Margin System, to broker-dealers, clearing firms, proprietary trading firms and hedge funds, who make the platform available to their own trader clients. End users typically reach Sterling Trader Pro through one of these broker partners (Lightspeed, Alaric Securities, Vision Financial Markets and Capital Markets Elite Group among them; at Lightspeed it is currently priced around $240 to $260 per month with a $25,000 account minimum) rather than opening an account with Sterling directly, and it can also be connected to an existing Interactive Brokers account. This broker-neutral, licensed distribution model is the platform's main structural difference from consumer-facing charting and trading tools sold directly to retail traders. The Sterling Trader platform originated with Sterling Trader Inc., a Chicago firm founded in 2001. Professional Trading Solutions (PTS), which had acquired Lightspeed Financial in October 2010, went on to acquire Sterling Trader in 2014, then combined its trading-technology assets under the Sterling Trading Tech name in February 2017; at that point the company reported more than 100 clients across over 30 countries. The same year STT bought the Livevol X options-analytics platform from Cboe and rebranded it Sterling VolTrader. In 2018, PTS sold its separate Lightspeed brokerage business to Wedbush Securities, so Lightspeed today operates independently while continuing to distribute Sterling Trader Pro to its own clients. In June 2020, STT was certified by FINRA as an authorized Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) reporting agent, letting its broker clients meet their CAT submission obligations through Sterling's infrastructure. Private equity firm L Squared Capital Partners acquired Sterling Trading Tech in 2021; the leadership team listed on the company's own site is headed by Jennifer Nayar as President and CEO.
