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Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

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Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#201

Post by tjs8rj »

aliquotchris wrote: post #175
boringg wrote: post #174

Super interesting - like the clean aesthetic of the website. I realize this questions is super early but it is an important one given the current debacle with Robinhood. How do you plan on funding the product as you go to market and undwind VC positions? Is this a subscription model, is this going to be something that is funded through selling data on the backend to keep costs low for the trader, portion of trades, M…

This is a great question that we've put a lot of thought into, since we share the same concerns you do. We currently monetize via a subscription model for premium features, such as unlimited private indexes and access to full version histories of your and other users' indexes. However, part of what appeals to us about bringing more of the financial stack in-house is exploring innovative models beyond PFOF & MER. Lots…

What does the legal of this look like? Presumably if you are managing others money you’d count as a roboadvisor?

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#202

Post by tjs8rj »

Ntrails wrote: post #193
YuriNiyazov wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read Matt Levine's money stuff: a new favorite thing amongst financial products (currently only available to hedge funds, but on its way to becoming retail) is the following: The default investment should be "the diversified market portfolio", e.g. S&P500. Then, if you have opinions (especially negative ones) about companies (e.g. if you are a perennial Tesla bear), you want to invest against those companies.…

To be clear, that is active investment 101. You start by taking a portfolio matching your benchmark, then you apply an "overlay" which expresses your view. If you have no views, you match the benchmark (a good start- that's what you get judged by!), if your views are good (more x, less y) you make your alpha. Excellent. If your views are bad, said alpha is negative. Sad. But you probably retain a high Beta to the ben…

The S&P is stock-picking by that logic.

Rank all the public equities by revenue, select the top 500, then weight them by market cap. Sounds pretty arbitrary doesn't it? Why not rank by profit? Or weight by years in existence?

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#203

Post by wheybags »

matthewpick wrote: post #143
Jommi wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a product that already does this https://passiv.com

I think M1 Finance is also very similar. https://www.m1finance.com/

Just tried both of these. Passiv requires me to link a broker account, and doesn't support my broker. M1 is US-only. Both non-starters. I just want to enter my trades by hand, I don't need a fancy auto-buy broker integration.

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#204

Post by Ntrails »

tjs8rj wrote: post #202
Ntrails wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, that is active investment 101. You start by taking a portfolio matching your benchmark, then you apply an "overlay" which expresses your view. If you have no views, you match the benchmark (a good start- that's what you get judged by!), if your views are good (more x, less y) you make your alpha. Excellent. If your views are bad, said alpha is negative. Sad. But you probably retain a high Beta to the ben…

The S&P is stock-picking by that logic. Rank all the public equities by revenue, select the top 500, then weight them by market cap. Sounds pretty arbitrary doesn't it? Why not rank by profit? Or weight by years in existence?

No, it isn't. Not clear if you don't understand or you are being glib.

Passive investing logic is simple. You want to invest in stocks. Say you want to invest in the US market. You want a portfolio that represents, to some extent, the market. How do you get that? There is a benchmark index that weights by "how large a proportion of the market is". That seems pretty sound and consistent with the ideal?

The issue at hand is an attempt at rebranding a micromanaged portfolio as "index investing" - a term used interchangably with passive investing.

I don't mind stock picking. It is a negative sum game and people can play it if they want. But it is irresponsible imo to pretend you are offering something other than what you actually are

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#205

Post by Tostino »

takeiteasyy wrote: post #91
w1 wrote: post #74

Have you considered allowing the creators of a popular index to receive a small fee, similar to current ETF commission structures? Y’all seem like you’re in a great position to create a vibrant community for the next generation of investors, and giving financial influencers a return could help bring people to your platform.

This is a fun idea, it would let anyone be a hedge fund manager. List the managers own money invested, other's money invested, commision rate, associated social media accounts, "risk"/diversification metrics, proportional and absolute gains/losses since inception (for what it's worth). Personally I would still keep the majority of my investments in an index fund, but for a particular kind of person I can see the soci…

I could see this going terribly wrong with the cult of personality that people are able to cultivate organically being so massive compared to the past.

As I'm typing this out though I realize that there's no difference between individuals wielding that type of influence over people, and the existing power structures who are doing the exact same thing for their own benefit right now.

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#206

Post by _eb13 »

wheybags wrote: post #203
matthewpick wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think M1 Finance is also very similar. https://www.m1finance.com/

Just tried both of these. Passiv requires me to link a broker account, and doesn't support my broker. M1 is US-only. Both non-starters. I just want to enter my trades by hand, I don't need a fancy auto-buy broker integration.

That’s great feedback, thank you!

We believe we’re differentiated in being both social and prosumer. E.g. we give advanced risk and performance metrics on every index, and are building a lot in-app for folks to collaborate.

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#207

Post by londons_explore »

I'd like the ability to see a stock or indexes historical "total return". That should include dividends. It should include currency fluctuations of whatever currency it's traded. It should take into account taxes on dividends Vs capital gains. It should take into account stock splits, etc.

Today, answering the question "If I had bought FTSE100 50 years ago, would I be better off today compared to buying Gold", is too hard

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#208

Post by jdthedisciple »

wheybags wrote: post #124
knjmooney wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware of the S&P 500 ESG index?

There are various "ethical" indexes, but pretty much none of them exclude google or facebook (which would be at the top of my cut-list). I want to do my own individual research on each company, and come to my own conclusions.

I can identify fully with your investing needs and am looking for exactly the same as you - some sort of custom etfs that fully comply with my ethics and morale. Just wanted to mention that :)

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#209

Post by yowlingcat »

smabie wrote: post #146

Very awesome work guys. A lot cool things could be done wrt to portfolio optimization. Not sure if you have this already, but being able to specify optimizers (BL model, min variance, EF, risk parity, etc) would be super cool. Like support stuff from https://pyportfolioopt.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ Also classic academic portfolios would be interesting as well, like a betting against beta or a multi factor portfolio.…

How do you like `pyportfolioopt` compared to other libraries? Seems a lot more batteries-included in a good way compared to most other stuff I've seen.

Re: Launch HN: Enombic (YC S20) – Create your own stock indexes

#210

Post by aliquotchris »

cphoover wrote: post #148
aliquotchris wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! We are. :) Looking in particular for a strong backend engineer. Tech stack is python, aiohttp, redis, postgres (& timescaledb), k8s, terraform, aws (react, nextjs, swr on the frontend). Know anyone?

I'm interested in learning more

Would love to chat. Email us at hello [at] enombic [dot] com and we'll find a time
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