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Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#131

Post by kgwgk »

thrwyaltdata wrote: post #125
kgwgk wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Big moves either up or down would be profitable. The problem is that much more often than not the “only unprofitable move” is the one that happens. Options in general are too expensive and that’s why selling “insurance” is profitable most of the time. Maybe he can identify consistently mispriced vol, though.

> Maybe he can identify consistently mispriced vol, though. This was the method I used, as described in another comment.

Very interesting, thanks for the pointer.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#132

Post by [deleted] »

pingiun wrote: post #117
jmhyer123 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If someone says their algorithm relies on some sort of TA, run for the hills. Care to explain? I'm genuinely curious as I've had some success in this area. Curious if I should be aware of something that I'm not...

Excuse me for being ignorant, but what does TA mean in this context?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#133

Post by equalarrow »

Short answer is - yes.

I have a few buddies using a bot from Crypto Profit Bot (https://cryptoprofitbot.com) and they definitely make profits. Sorta varies though depending on the strategies used.

I played around with this late last year and was able to tune my bot to anywhere from 4% on up. Some trades were ridiculous with 20% or 30% when the bot caught the pumps. Of course, 4% means I was not scalping (a lot of people prefer just 1%-2% on trades) and was in it longer term; trades usually lasted days or longer.

I was with a bot group last year and there were guys that made well over $100k. But, that's all they did, they just had to babysit it and adjust the settings. Too labor intensive for me..

There is an add-on on CPB called Feeder which is pretty cool. It looks at the market and adjusts the settings of the bot it works with (Profit Trailer). It can get a bit complicated tho..

Anyway, this is still an interesting space. I turned my bots off in Feb when things started going south, but I'm thinking of starting them back up now that the market's recovering. I have this feeling that we're gonna beat last year, so now is probably a pretty good time.

Edit: Heh, the CPB guys did an interview on Indie Hackers a few weeks back. Interesting read! https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/8b6064d829

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#134

Post by thrwyaltdata »

ww520 wrote: post #53
windowshopping wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly I believe this too, but I am familiar with some people who can consistently make money year after year. From talking to them it becomes clear that they understand things very, very deeply. See /u/Fletch71011 on reddit-- he's always happy to discuss things. He's made millions trading options, mostly algorithmically as I've understood it. The methods he uses are sufficiently complex that you need to be very well…

Be careful with volatility. I don't know what he's trading on exactly. But a big part of volatility trading is selling insurance, i.e. selling insurance against the direction of S&P. You can make a lot of money collecting insurance premium, but on the event of a payout, like a sudden big drop in S&P, the loss can be very substantial. See XIV and SVXY in February of this year.

On a per equity basis there are reasonably consistent ways to predict near term volatility using sentiment analysis and revenue forecasting ("alternative" data). I would not attempt this with something like the VIX, but for selling options on individual equities it can work.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#135

Post by cryodesign »

iliicit wrote: post #99

I made some good money (millions) in 2017 by algo trading crypto. Now in 2018, the bear market is on, but my pnl is still decent. I collected data, trained models, wrote execution strategies, automated everything. I was successful because I was moving fast, trying things, breaking things, etc. While crypto was and still is my turf, I think I could also do well in the stock market. The problem is that the entry barrie…

Wow, congrats and well done. Looks like you don't have to apply to jobs anymore ;)

- What was your initial investment? - And did you have any trading experience to come up with those strategies or learned on the go?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#136

Post by optimuspaul »

lallysingh wrote: post #113
optimuspaul wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe I'm being naive but "buy very large cap stocks if their P/E goes below 4 and sell if it goes over 10." sounds kind of like an algorithm to me. Maybe it's just a ruleset?

I think they meant that it needn't be a software implementation. You could run that rule by hand.

I suppose you could, but there are a lot of stocks to look at... but that's not the point, thanks for the insight.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#138

Post by jimbob21 »

lisbakke wrote: post #47

Right now I have one of (or the?) fastest HFT bot on gdax -- I define "fastest" as being on average the first bot to re place maker orders at best when the price moves. With 1 being the first order in line it's currently averaging 1.39 on price changes -- so it gets a ton of matches. The bot uses a NN for predicting the price. I've been working on it for 3 months and so far the bot is profitable. If anyone out there…

How do you make any money when spreads are at 1 cent?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making money through algorithmic trading?

#140

Post by seiferteric »

baccredited wrote: post #93
seiferteric wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well good luck. It's just too easy to fool your self in an up market. It would be much more interesting to see your results in a down or sideways market.

A fool would judge their algorithm based on ANY single year's performance--up down or sideways. Moving averages over 5 or 10 years are what matter. Check out Berkshire Hathaway's performance. There are plenty of years they have UNDER performed. But they are doing OK. http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2017ltr.pdf

My understanding is berkshire does a lot more than just buy stocks. They buy companies and actively improve/invest/streamline them to be more profitable. This will obviously increase the value of said company and make them money. Most retail investors can't do this, so it's pointless to compare the two.
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