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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?

#81

Post by daleco »

vinhboy wrote: post #29
jmhyer123 wrote: post #4

Yes. I've developed a simple strategy that algorithmically trades cryptocurrencies (mainly ETH and BTC because volume, but it would apply successfully to any of the others as well). The strategies are simple, they are based on simple technical indicators, and result in about 2 trades executed per day. The strategy can be applied to "normal" equities as well but it performs particularly well on cryptocurrencies due to…

I have a strategy I wanted to try. Look at historical percentage difference between currencies. See if there is any patterns like, every time BTC drop 10%, LTC drop 20%, or something like that... Find those patterns and trade on them. Do you know if people are doing this?

All of these alt coins are tied to just few pairs (mostly BTC or ETH). When I was looking at the relationships in different instances (just eye balling, no statistical analysis), it seems that some the coins are just more or less volatile.

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

#82

Post by dalacv »

lettergram wrote: post #27

I've made roughly 100% yoy returns for the past 5 years. It utilizes a method I developed now partially implenebted on: https://projectpiglet.com/ Basically, it tracks experts and makes decisions on investments given what the experts say. Think about how many times you've seen someone say: "I work at Google, our cloud is doing X" or something like that. The fact insiders talk, let me track them and make money. Unfort…

did u just admit to insider trading?

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

#83

Post by ruok0101 »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #13

I lost about $100k doing algorithmic trading. I spent the better part of 2 years after work immersing myself in algorithmic trading, understanding the architecture of the stock market, and getting very very deep into the topic. I found an algorithm that was wildly positive, and traded it on 3 separate markets every night. I learned a lot and I love everything I learned, but it was a very expensive lesson. The #1 thin…

I wrote a few indicators on Tradestation back in the mid 2000's and had a similar result after using them with an automated trading strategy, albeit less loss (somewhere around $10k). I was trading on 3-1 margin and closed all positions before the end of the day. Very stressful, I too let emotion interrupt trades, etc. Fun to develop, painful to execute. I'm much happier creating startups! =)

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

#84

Post by ARussell »

timothylaurent wrote: post #25
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.

You can also plug Quantopian into RobinHood for $0 trades.

Wasn't support for that removed?

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

#85

Post by BeetleB »

My question for everyone: Where do people get reliable data for back testing? Ideally I'd like data that goes back over 20 years. And with relatively few data integrity issues (e.g. does not exclude companies that no longer exist).

Even more important: How do I know my data is accurate?

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

#86

Post by samfisher83 »

kornish wrote: post #62
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/

If you bought and held an index fund for a year you got taxed less as well.

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

#87

Post by seiferteric »

baccredited wrote: post #74
seiferteric wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic, the S&P was up slightly more than that in 2017...

Not being sarcastic or proud, I know I (barely) lost. Just stating the facts. Obviously over a long term horizon of like 10 yrs I expect to beat the S&P or I would be spending my time elsewhere.

Well good luck. It's just too easy to fool your self in an up market. It would be much more interesting to see your results in a down or sideways market.

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

#88

Post by starpilot »

drumttocs8 wrote: post #67
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?

This is one of my pet peeves about self-reported returns on the internet. It's always the case that, if they report absolute returns, they're starting from huge capital and getting 0.00001% gains. If they give relative returns, then its miniscule trades with no market impact and no slippage.

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

#89

Post by nostromo »

ww520 wrote: post #53
windowshopping wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Be careful with volatility. I don't know what he's trading on exactly. But a big part of volatility trading is selling insurance, i.e. selling insurance against the direction of S&P. You can make a lot of money collecting insurance premium, but on the event of a payout, like a sudden big drop in S&P, the loss can be very substantial. See XIV and SVXY in February of this year.

Trading volatility might imply that he's buying options in both directions.

Big moves either up or down would be profitable. The only unprofitable move here would be no substantial moves in either direction. (In which case you lose your entire bet, but no more.)

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

#90

Post by carbocation »

dalacv wrote: post #82
lettergram wrote: post #27

I've made roughly 100% yoy returns for the past 5 years. It utilizes a method I developed now partially implenebted on: https://projectpiglet.com/ Basically, it tracks experts and makes decisions on investments given what the experts say. Think about how many times you've seen someone say: "I work at Google, our cloud is doing X" or something like that. The fact insiders talk, let me track them and make money. Unfort…

did u just admit to insider trading?

That is absolutely not within the definition of insider trading.
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