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Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#61

Post by ataturk »

module0000 wrote: post #18

Short answer: yes. Long answer: not in the beginning, then a long period of breaking even, and eventual profitability. My algos trade commodity futures(nasdaq, 30-year bonds, etc). My platform is Multicharts.NET, which supports writing your strategy components in C#.NET. I'm not a .NET fan, but the platform is solid and this is about dollars, not language preference. Also...regarding HFT - those aren't likely what yo…

I always thought HFT profits were a parallel construction for people who were either insider trading or front-running orders and it was an easy dodge to explain their consistent gains as "we have an algorithm."

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#62

Post by kornish »

baccredited wrote: post #54

Yeah I made 21.4% in 2017. I wrote my own algorithms and did back-testing with custom ruby code and data from ycharts.com ($) and brokerage.tradier.com (free if you have an account). Ruby is a weird choice in this area as most probably use r or python, but I love ruby. The key for me is to focus on long-term trading strategies that are at least a year long. The HFT guys and people who spend their time on quantopia an…

Interesting note: the S&P 500 with dividend reinvestment returned 21.14% in 2017 [1].

[1]: https://dqydj.com/2017-sp-500-return/

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#63

Post by pphysch »

jmhyer123 wrote: post #42
thisisit wrote: post #34

When trades are placed using a fixed setup of rules or algorithms it is called algorithmic trading. HFT is a type of algo trading where latency is one of the important rules. So, while all HFT trades are algo trades, reverse isn't true. AFAIK some(maybe a lot) of algorithm or quant firms hire people who can read the latest investment research, form a hypothesis and test out the hypothesis to see whether there is a wi…

> If someone says their algorithm relies on some sort of TA, run for the hills. Care to explain? I'm genuinely curious as I've had some success in this area. Curious if I should be aware of something that I'm not...

Fundamentally, the history of a price has nothing to do with its future price. The laws of nature do not care if you are on a bull run. So TA is completely bunk in that regard.

However, obviously many people do rely on TA, which means TA is influencing the price (you can beat their TA algo with your own TA algo). The problem is, you never really know what everyone else is doing. Relying on TA amounts to playing rock-paper-scissors, blindly, with 1000 opponents, and hoping you choose the winning move against most of them.

Keep in mind there are only 2 outcomes, win or lose, and they occur randomly, so it’s really easy to fall victim to selection bias and think you have a winning TA-based algorithm.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#64

Post by Retric »

windowshopping wrote: post #22
mbroshi wrote: post #17

I wonder whether the premise of your question is faulty. If you ask enough people: "In your last 100 flips of a coin, did you get more than 60 heads?" some will truthfully say "Yes." Unfortunately, that does not mean there's anything special about their coin-flipping strategy, or that you will be able to generate a successful coin-flipping strategy. My guess is what you really want to know is "What is my expected gai…

Mostly I believe this too, but I am familiar with some people who can consistently make money year after year. From talking to them it becomes clear that they understand things very, very deeply. See /u/Fletch71011 on reddit-- he's always happy to discuss things. He's made millions trading options, mostly algorithmically as I've understood it. The methods he uses are sufficiently complex that you need to be very well…

A 50% chance to lose money per year still allows for very long strings of success. Some strategy's trade ~80% chance of a small win for a ~20% chance of a large loss which means lucky streaks could last for decades.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#65

Post by InterestBazinga »

hliyan wrote: post #16
samfisher83 wrote: post #3

You probably can't do HFT trading because you need to have capital to reduce latency. Maybe you can rent servers very close to the trading centers, but this still will cost money. You can use http://www.quantopian.com to try out different algorithms. It will tell you how well your strategy works.

Concur. You won't be able to beat players whose HFT systems are colocated in the same datacenters as the exchange. And you will not be able to beat those systems built using lower level languages like C++ or, worse yet, dedicated hardware. Source: 5+ years in HFT development

Why does a programming language matter in terms of algorithms? Can you elaborate on that?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#66

Post by baccredited »

cirgue wrote: post #50

The problem with these questions is that those who talk don’t know and those who know don’t talk. No one who has a working strategy wants to say anything interesting about it in public.

This guy talks:

  Gary Antonacci
  book: Dual Momentum Investing
  http://www.optimalmomentum.com/gem_trackrecord.html
Great algorithm. Great book. I have a big chunk of my own money in this.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#67

Post by drumttocs8 »

herve76 wrote: post #24

I built my own intelligent algo trading platform for node.js. It uses market data from Binance and Bitfinex. My best strategy uses unusual volume amounts on Bitfinex to trade on Binance (mostly BTCUSDT and other USDT pairs), an advanced dynamic arbitrage. It can make up to 500-1000 usd per day but not really much more. I started testing a LSTM neural network to optimize the gains and reduce the risks, still early but…

500-1000 usd generated from how much existing capital? What kinds of return?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#68

Post by dllthomas »

InterestBazinga wrote: post #65
hliyan wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Concur. You won't be able to beat players whose HFT systems are colocated in the same datacenters as the exchange. And you will not be able to beat those systems built using lower level languages like C++ or, worse yet, dedicated hardware. Source: 5+ years in HFT development

Why does a programming language matter in terms of algorithms? Can you elaborate on that?

A lot of algorithms are dependent on the ability to execute quickly. If yours is not, then PL doesn't matter (at least, in the respect the parent was discussing).

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#69

Post by ataturk »

rabidrat wrote: post #56
the_cat_kittles wrote: post #21

wouldnt you rather do something to earn money?

Doing things doesn't really earn money these days. Perhaps someone is better off playing the game to earn money and then doing something positive for no money.

I strongly agree. Workaday job? YOU WILL NEVER GET AHEAD.

Have to create income that doesn't multiply by hours spent, period.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#70

Post by chad_strategic »

I have been building a variety of algorithms for myself over the years for my own person enjoyment. Currently a developer and significantly under challenged, so in the evening I build algos. But before I became developer, I have a significant background in traditional finance.

A little selfless promotion, but I can build algo and API for brokerages. https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~0143cef0c7093f242d...

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