Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

inspectd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 53 posts

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#11

Post by mdemare »

ssanders82 wrote: post #2

I just launched on Saturday and have already had more than 10,000 trades "executed". Your comments are much appreciated. (Note: if you think reading stock charts is a bunch of crackpot hooey, feel free to flame.)

Reading stock charts is a bunch of crackpot hooey. I'm nr. 2 on your site with my highly sophisticated "always buy" strategy.

However, it might be an excellent tool to help technical analysts (gamblers) discover their own lack of skill.

I like your execution - it is indeed addictive.

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#12

Post by astine »

emmett wrote: post #9

I'm currently at the top of your leaderboard after issuing nothing but buy orders for about 5 minutes. I didn't even read the charts. This confirms my opinion that chart reading is nonsense.

Actually, considering that on average, the stack market has grown over the years, this seems like a good strategy. It's why mutual funds and the like exist: individual enterprises come and go, but the economy is constantly growing. If you you invest widely across the economy, you should see fairly consistent growth (with a few spikes and dips which cancel each other out.)

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#13

Post by joshwa »

emmett wrote: post #9

I'm currently at the top of your leaderboard after issuing nothing but buy orders for about 5 minutes. I didn't even read the charts. This confirms my opinion that chart reading is nonsense.

...or we've stumbled on a really good investment strategy:

1. buy a random stock

2. hold for 20 days

3. profit!

currently #2 on leaderboard before I got bored.

I wonder what the capital gains impact would be...

I suppose it's rather like investing in an index fund, with a bit more volatility :)

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#14

Post by llimllib »

astine wrote: post #12
emmett wrote: post #9

I'm currently at the top of your leaderboard after issuing nothing but buy orders for about 5 minutes. I didn't even read the charts. This confirms my opinion that chart reading is nonsense.

Actually, considering that on average, the stack market has grown over the years, this seems like a good strategy. It's why mutual funds and the like exist: individual enterprises come and go, but the economy is constantly growing. If you you invest widely across the economy, you should see fairly consistent growth (with a few spikes and dips which cancel each other out.)

Right, but the default stock order only lasts 20 days. Surely the small delta up trend of the market doesn't affect a 20 day order in any significant way?

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#15

Post by astine »

I like the concept. While short term stock exchange is usually a risky waste of money, this does help illustrate certain principles.

The number of people suggesting that 'always buy' works shows us something: that the economy on average has grown over the past century. Reason being of course that, when one person succeeds, he provides means for another person to succeed. Thus growth begets growth, especially capital growth. Investing broadly in the stock market is almost always sure to bring modest gains over the long term.

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#16

Post by astine »

llimllib wrote: post #14
astine wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, considering that on average, the stack market has grown over the years, this seems like a good strategy. It's why mutual funds and the like exist: individual enterprises come and go, but the economy is constantly growing. If you you invest widely across the economy, you should see fairly consistent growth (with a few spikes and dips which cancel each other out.)

Right, but the default stock order only lasts 20 days. Surely the small delta up trend of the market doesn't affect a 20 day order in any significant way?

Yes it would. Think mathematically:

Whatsay over a given year the entire stock market grew 10%. Then the average rate of growth for every stock is 10% per year and so for any given stock for any given period over a period of 20 days the average growth would be 10%/18.25, or .0054. So, if you consistently buy, you will on average, profit about that much per trade.

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#17

Post by joshwa »

ojbyrne wrote: post #8

The fact that someone named "RightClickCheater" is at the top of your leaderboard (and way out in front) raises some concerns.

That'd be right clicking to snatch the chart URL, which contains the stock symbol and date parameters. Peeking into the future would certainly help one's rate of return a bit :)

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#18

Post by webwright »

emmett wrote: post #9

I'm currently at the top of your leaderboard after issuing nothing but buy orders for about 5 minutes. I didn't even read the charts. This confirms my opinion that chart reading is nonsense.

Efficient Market Hypothesis FTW.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_market_hypothesis

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#19

Post by ssanders82 »

astine wrote: post #16
llimllib wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but the default stock order only lasts 20 days. Surely the small delta up trend of the market doesn't affect a 20 day order in any significant way?

Yes it would. Think mathematically: Whatsay over a given year the entire stock market grew 10%. Then the average rate of growth for every stock is 10% per year and so for any given stock for any given period over a period of 20 days the average growth would be 10%/18.25, or .0054. So, if you consistently buy, you will on average, profit about that much per trade.

Yep, that's what a lot of people are seeing. Just execute a bunch of buys, and watch your account grow! I'm going to add an APY feature, so whoever has the highest percentage gain per time in the market will be the leader. This will take away the "I bought 500 stocks and now I'm in the lead" account. (And the trade length is in trading days, 20 roughly = 1 month)

Re: Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".

#20

Post by ssanders82 »

joshwa wrote: post #17
ojbyrne wrote: post #8

The fact that someone named "RightClickCheater" is at the top of your leaderboard (and way out in front) raises some concerns.

That'd be right clicking to snatch the chart URL, which contains the stock symbol and date parameters. Peeking into the future would certainly help one's rate of return a bit :)

Yes, I thought of this but didn't think someone would go to the trouble to look at the stock and date, then look up the price N-days after that, then go back and trade it. Apparently I was wrong! I could solve this by dynamically creating an image w/ PHP and trimming the stock & date, but my poor shared CPU wouldn't like that...
Post reply on HN