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Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

#41

Post by nasir »

backtestingmofo wrote: post #37

I’ve been writing algorithmic trading software and back testers as a hobby for a couple years now, and what surprises me most is how it is possible to have decent profits without mad financial skills. The trick is good quality data and a couple spare hours a week! A rooky mistake I have made is losing too many days trying to hack myself a good source of data, so I can only recommend paying a few bucks for a reliable…

I've had a similar problem to find proper data for cryptocurrencies while I was writing my trading tool. It was quite some work to set up a proper infrastructure to get the data. Though eventually I turned that into a full service. You can check it out on https://coinograph.io

Re: Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

#42

Post by andysinclair »

bra-ket wrote: post #24

Quantlib api as a hobby: https://quantra.io Backtester by author of quantstart: https://github.com/mhallsmoore/qstrader

Looks good. If you don't mind me asking, what did you use to build you web application (at https://terminal.quantra.io/)?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

#43

Post by proverbialbunny »

ununoctium87 wrote: post #25
proverbialbunny wrote: post #21

I'm the odd one out. I've been writing automated trading software since 2007 as a hobby. However, I'm not looking for a job doing that. 1) It's profitable enough to do it on my own. 2) I have a gig right now doing time series analysis for a company that isn't financial, which imho is just as fun (if not more), but has a bit more potential to benefit the world. 3) When I get a job doing a hobby it has the potential to…

PhD in signal processing, amateur algo trader & economist and software engineer by day (not in the finance field unfortunately). I want to live your life!

Then go do it!

For me, I like doing the impossible. If no one has done it before, I don't need to get bogged down by books or stackoverflow. (And, you don't need a degree.) I have to figure out new ways to solve a problem. That's what makes programming fun and that is what makes this sort of stuff fun.

Like just the other day I figured out how to compress arm movement down to, so far, 4 variables (all floats atm), for every reasonably large change of movement. (Though, for small tremors while walking and other kinds of movements I'll need to output some more data.) My goal is to increase the accuracy of the signal beyond the initial noisy accelerometer data. The pain is going to be proving it through a high speed video camera or something else (Got any ideas? lol) because I'm designing this to be accurate to real life arm movement, not accurate to initial data. (If you're curious, an ellipsoid, plus an axis for like looking at a watch, and possibly a magic number or a large radius for a straight line.)

Does HN do PMs? If you want to hang out we probably have a lot in common. Though, I'm untrained and just kind of unusual.

Oh btw, I'm not sure if it is obvious, and not like I've read a book on the subject, but as far as economics goes I would think meta macro economics would help day trading. But what do I know? I'm just a rabbit.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

#44

Post by backtestingmofo »

tudelo wrote: post #38
backtestingmofo wrote: post #37

I’ve been writing algorithmic trading software and back testers as a hobby for a couple years now, and what surprises me most is how it is possible to have decent profits without mad financial skills. The trick is good quality data and a couple spare hours a week! A rooky mistake I have made is losing too many days trying to hack myself a good source of data, so I can only recommend paying a few bucks for a reliable…

Is there any way you can give more details on... Where you trade? What sort of trades? How much capital to start doing something like this?

I have been using Questrade for a while (I’m from Canada) but they are closing their API so I will have to switch to Interactive Broker...

My algorithms are mainly swing/long term, so making a few trades a month. I like to trade and back test ETFs like SPY and SPXL since they have high volumes and are more easy to « predict ».

I started with 10k and it didn’t feel risky at all since it was post 2009 :)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

#45

Post by backtestingmofo »

nasir wrote: post #41
backtestingmofo wrote: post #37

I’ve been writing algorithmic trading software and back testers as a hobby for a couple years now, and what surprises me most is how it is possible to have decent profits without mad financial skills. The trick is good quality data and a couple spare hours a week! A rooky mistake I have made is losing too many days trying to hack myself a good source of data, so I can only recommend paying a few bucks for a reliable…

I've had a similar problem to find proper data for cryptocurrencies while I was writing my trading tool. It was quite some work to set up a proper infrastructure to get the data. Though eventually I turned that into a full service. You can check it out on https://coinograph.io

Oh nice! I will give this a try

Re: Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

#46

Post by somberi »

mattz0rt wrote: post #28

A bit different from what most financial engineers are interested in, but I'm in the process of developing a linear programming model for the US tax code so you can do long term tax optimizations based on your financial profile and goals. It was a lot harder than I anticipated but got a PoC working recently. Ugly landing page at https://smarterpath.co

Signed up. I have been on working on something similar for my own use. Would be glad to chat with you. Email in my profile.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

#49

Post by lefstathiou »

We created a tool used in niche fixed income asset-backed securities (which are heavily engineered). We crawl EDGAR for ABS-EE filings which are posted in XML, clean and standardize them, drop them into a data base and then allow users to create instant stratifications of the portfolio (rather than having to download the 80k row loan file and run pivot tables).

This allows someone buying the B tranche of FORDO 2017-B to see how many people in Florida are 30-60 days delinquent, what model car they drive, the LTV, etc.

100% free: https://finsight.com/product/us/abs/ee

Note: this is not exactly a "hobby" but we offer all of these services 100% for free without restriction so thought I would share regardless.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone designs financial engineering tools as a hobby?

#50

Post by trials »

proverbialbunny wrote: post #43
ununoctium87 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PhD in signal processing, amateur algo trader & economist and software engineer by day (not in the finance field unfortunately). I want to live your life!

Then go do it! For me, I like doing the impossible. If no one has done it before, I don't need to get bogged down by books or stackoverflow. (And, you don't need a degree.) I have to figure out new ways to solve a problem. That's what makes programming fun and that is what makes this sort of stuff fun. Like just the other day I figured out how to compress arm movement down to, so far, 4 variables (all floats atm), fo…

Could you list your email address in the "About" section of your profile? I'd like to contact you. Thanks!
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