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Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

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Re: Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

#12
I checked one of their backend engineering job postings, using Python and Go... mostly python? Probably should have chosen something ~~boring~~ safe, like Java. A dynamic language like python/ruby doesn't seem to be a good choice for critical financial applications.

I'm know it can be done in python, but its about curbing any potential for human errors. Interested in seeing the RCA for this.

Re: Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

#14
post #2

I'm pretty ignorant of investing services/brokers... Is this a case of people putting all their eggs in one basket? Does Robinhood have a "guaranteed" 99.9xxx% uptime guarantee? Sucks for a lot of people who evidently are putting a lot of money in the market and couldn't do anything due to a technical issue.

This is what $0 commissions gets you...

[deleted]

Re: Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

#15

I'm not a Robinhood user -- do they have guaranteed stop losses? This is something that could appease lots of users (assuming it's used correctly) even in this kind of situation (since _guaranteed_ stop losses exist pretty much for exactly this eventuality).

Stop losses are a feature you can use on the platform, but I don't know if they were executed on time if the whole platform was down...

Re: Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

#16

I checked one of their backend engineering job postings, using Python and Go... mostly python? Probably should have chosen something ~~boring~~ safe, like Java. A dynamic language like python/ruby doesn't seem to be a good choice for critical financial applications. I'm know it can be done in python, but its about curbing any potential for human errors. Interested in seeing the RCA for this.

Changing languages doesn't fix bottlenecks, it just moves it. A good team can make a high perf system in near any language, some will just require more $ per month in hardware...

Re: Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

#17

I checked one of their backend engineering job postings, using Python and Go... mostly python? Probably should have chosen something ~~boring~~ safe, like Java. A dynamic language like python/ruby doesn't seem to be a good choice for critical financial applications. I'm know it can be done in python, but its about curbing any potential for human errors. Interested in seeing the RCA for this.

Why is an "exciting" (antonym to boring) language bad for this, and what makes a language "exciting"?

Re: Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

#18
I saw a tweet that showed they didn't 'account for' leap years.. And by account for I mean: use a standard date library to handle dates. I too have made this mistake when younger and tried to be smart with dates, but not on a f'ing multi million dollar service >_<

Re: Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

#19
I would love to get on RH put down train, but my not no name 401k provider had issues with their website entire Thurs morning last week.

It is kinda like a bank rush, only really well heeled institutions can survive everyone and their mother jumping in the fray.

Now.. the common question is whether the company should have an infrastructure that can support its customer load at times like this.

Re: Robinhood trading site seizes up, customers miss stock rally

#20
post #17

I checked one of their backend engineering job postings, using Python and Go... mostly python? Probably should have chosen something ~~boring~~ safe, like Java. A dynamic language like python/ruby doesn't seem to be a good choice for critical financial applications. I'm know it can be done in python, but its about curbing any potential for human errors. Interested in seeing the RCA for this.

Why is an "exciting" (antonym to boring) language bad for this, and what makes a language "exciting"?

Static typing makes it easier to discover errors before the code is running in production.
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