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How I Built a Startup High Frequency Trading Firm

howtohft.blogspot.com

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Re: How I Built a Startup High Frequency Trading Firm

#3

Well you've whet my appetite - I look forward to learning more, particularly to see if you managed to overcome the dual chicken-and-egg problems before going out of business.

His firm already went out of business. He states that he will write a post-mortem at some point in the future.

I like the post-mortem meme sweeping startup world; I find them very enlightening.

Re: How I Built a Startup High Frequency Trading Firm

#4

Well you've whet my appetite - I look forward to learning more, particularly to see if you managed to overcome the dual chicken-and-egg problems before going out of business.

His firm already went out of business. He states that he will write a post-mortem at some point in the future. I like the post-mortem meme sweeping startup world; I find them very enlightening.

Yes, he said that in the post. I was wondering if he solved the problems before going out of business, or if it contributed to going out of business.

Re: How I Built a Startup High Frequency Trading Firm

#5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His firm already went out of business. He states that he will write a post-mortem at some point in the future. I like the post-mortem meme sweeping startup world; I find them very enlightening.

Yes, he said that in the post. I was wondering if he solved the problems before going out of business, or if it contributed to going out of business.

I believe he solved them both at least temporarily, but if either Egg 1, Egg 2, Chicken 1 or Chicken 2 ceases to be true for long, then the business won't survive.

Egg 1: trading lots of shares (check, tens of million shares daily)

Egg 2: track record on trading strategy that is scalable and profitable (probably was profitable then stopped once volatility disappeared or the market changed, but definitely scalable, trading tens of millions daily).

Chicken 1: Volume-based discount (we don't know for sure, but tens of millions of shares daily is enough to qualify as a high-tier class on many houses)

Chicken 2: Clients (check, billion dollar hedge fund)

True: Egg 1 and Chicken 2

Probably true: Egg 2 and Chicken 1

Re: How I Built a Startup High Frequency Trading Firm

#8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His firm already went out of business. He states that he will write a post-mortem at some point in the future. I like the post-mortem meme sweeping startup world; I find them very enlightening.

Yes, he said that in the post. I was wondering if he solved the problems before going out of business, or if it contributed to going out of business.

From what is written in the post it seems that they managed to solve both problems.

"Fresh out of college... trading tens of millions of shares daily for a billion-dollar hedge fund." "The mid 2000's when I finished college..." "My firm finally went out of business in 2010 for a number of reasons."

Re: How I Built a Startup High Frequency Trading Firm

#9
I think HFT is quite hard and challenging for individuals. I won't feel comfortable trading huge amounts of money that can disappear in a second because of an algo mistake.

I'm looking for some tutorials and may be strategies to make money from Forex. Anyone know a good blog or book?

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