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Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

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Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#681

Post by roguas »

doovd wrote: post #590
hydershykh wrote: post #444

I have about 6 years of applied AI experience and I have been trying to work on something that can use that experience and be useful to others. Ended up building an analytics based platform that uses data analysis techniques to generate trade ideas for retail investors [0]. Started it as a hobby July 2019, but it ended up growing quite big. The plan was to generate about $1k/mo but we are generating about $120k/mo th…

How do you answer the following inevitable questions? If you have good trade ideas/signals, then why do you not use them yourself? I assume you do not use them yourself because it' does not make sense to share your edge (if you have one). If you do not have an edge, how can you be offering "trade ideas"?

Same could be said about a concept of solo traders. If you are as successful as you claim why don't you run a fund? However, a lot of people do solo trading as its more of job/hobby where the only thing you risk is your capital. Plenty of people don't have stomach to deal with others lifetime savings? (or even potential of such person in your client pool)

Its different. Not everything scales as nicely and dealing with responsibility is going to become a burden soon. Here you are selling your advice, most likely all traders have similar access to this advice and can perform trades with their own judgement.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#682

Post by galvin »

daveguy wrote: post #667
littlestymaar wrote: post #659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, the EU requires every single individual business with any stock located on EU soil to register and file individually in every single country where the stock is distributed regardless of revenue. I can only assume this is to create jobs for bureaucrats. You've just misunderstood what EU was it's not a . You have to file individually in every country because they are individual countries: you wouldn't expect…

Well, if there was a standard VAT across all of Asia because of an economic alliance... Yeah.

The EU does not have a standard VAT rate, each country sets their own rates.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#683

Post by sneilan1 »

to1y wrote: post #327
sneilan1 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that trading is ultimately a creative endeavor and no matter how one trades whether it's based on phases of the moon or insider information, one needs to know when they are entering and exiting the market. Trading is an incredibly fun and creative endeavor and as long as one takes the time to precisely define what they are doing, it is great <3

Strange, I would have thought the stock-market would be the opposite to a creative endeavor. Can you expand on how that works for you?

There's so much to study and learn.

Trading algorithms are often implemented in Python/Pandas so learning hackerrank problems about stacks/queues can make one better at implementing trading algorithms. Some hackerrank problems involve hashes which are verified empirically which calculus. Studying calculus can lead to better understanding of the black-scholes theorem and brownian motion.

There's even an aesthetic nature to really good trades which can lead down an interesting path on gestalt theory and composition. Drawing charts is an art form too. Check out https://www.tradingview.com/u/tntsunrise/ for examples of minimalism in the stock market.

A previous commentor on this topic wrote that I'm studying tea leaves but what if for fun I wrote an image processing algorithm that processed the position of tea leaves in a cup and traded small amounts based on that?

Even something like moving averages has applications in programming language theory. It's easier to implement a moving average in a stateful rather than functional way. It's fun to figure out faster ways of cranking out new algorithms to trade markets which leads to better productivity. Markets move really fast. Old algorithms quickly become outdated.

As long as one does not make huge risks (that aren't well thought out), one can trade based on whatever their imagination leads them to. Anything can be tried and systematically backtested. Most traders won't think outside the box but it's so much more fun when you do.

There's so much synergy between math, computer science, betting strategies, art, drawing, data science and visual theory. Everything one studies in trading can lead to 10 insights in other areas. It's just a genuinely fun topic that can lead to a lifetime of happiness.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#684

Post by sneilan1 »

bmitc wrote: post #315
unwoundmouse wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the reasoning behind why Fibonacci retracements should work? Did you backtest it?

Do you know of any studies or articles that shows why backtesting actually works or is useful? I have been reading up on automated and systematic trading, but I do not yet understand how backtesting gives one anything more than warm fuzzies. For backtesting to work, wouldn't one need to re-run (i.e., playback and not simulate) all inputs from what the real data was (instrument pricing, the weather, social media senti…

I'm not sure. I haven't found much on whether or not backtesting works in general. It definitely has its caveats. I think it really depends on what you're backtesting.

Backtesting definitely reveals ways in which trading algorithms can fail though. It can reveal more scenarios than one would initially consider which is super helpful.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#685

Post by oidar »

candiddevmike wrote: post #48

Homechart ( https://homechart.app ) is my solution to "app fatigue": too many productivity apps (todos, calendar, recipes, shopping, budget, etc), no integrations, few self hosted, painful monetization. Take every personal productivity app and put it into an all in one, integrated experience. Available for free (self-hosted container) or in the cloud. No ads, written in Go/Typescript. I look at working on Homechart a…

Docker Link is broken.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#686

Post by the-alchemist »

Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #373

I helped my wife (a primary school teacher) start a social emotional development book & activity subscription service. https://mybookbag.com.au/ It's slowly growing, but to be honest the pricing needs to be increased. Profit margins are paper thin (ha!). Still though, it's been fun putting together the website, integrating Stripe etc. Biggest issue is book publishers. Wow their ordering systems are archaic! We can't…

Love it (as a parent)! And, wow, it sounds complicating (as a business owner)!

Wonder if there's an indie children's book writers guild you can tap into instead of having to go through publishers, which you can then print yourself from places like https://www.lulu.com/

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#687

Post by deanmoriarty »

sydthrowaway wrote: post #577
deanmoriarty wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No tips, it’s truly all about luck. My job is not particularly difficult or anything, I mostly herd cats all day without producing much, as I am at the whims of massively over engineered systems that are almost impossible to comprehend. The only thing I would say that can affect your luck is to always say yes to any opportunity that has a chance of taking you forward, even if it is incredibly uncomfortable. A couple…

Thanks. I'm mid career in FAANG, don't make nearly as much as you.. how did you negotiate such a good compensation package?

It’s really just average for L6 compensation and stock appreciation over the past 12-24 months. Look on levels.fyi.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#688

Post by mariushn »

timmaah wrote: post #181

My side project of screen scraping campground websites and alerting people of availabilities has taken off to the point of making more a month than the day job. https://wanderinglabs.com/

Congrats! How did you manage to support so many camps? Do they use just a few reservation engines that you had to code for? There's no credit card requested for reservation?

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#689

Post by fm2606 »

sjg007 wrote: post #5
plasticbugs wrote: post #2

My 'side project' is pretty conventional, but it surprises people to learn how much I've earned from it with very little effort. At least once or twice a week, I use my lunch break to walk to the local thrift store. I look up items on eBay as I browse and buy anything that would net me $20+ (basically to cover my lunch). I stick to the 'hard goods' section (things like electronics, games, DVDs, home appliances, books…

I know someone who does something similar from estate sales and has cleared 100k+

In Florida, estate sales price their stuff such that it is hard to flip. And by estate sale, I'm talking about the companies that come in and price everything, organize the items and are running the cash register.

If it is an estate sale run by the individual owner this is usually good and nothing more than a garage sale where everything is sale including the proverbial kitchen sink.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2021 – Show and tell

#690

Post by fm2606 »

to1y wrote: post #334
sneilan1 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have finance and quant in your profile bio. Is quantitative finance not a form of technical analysis?

The difference is quantitative finance uses mathematical models where-as when 'technical analysis' is talked about in the (youtube)stock market it generally refers to opening up mspaint and using the line draw tool to 'find patterns.'

Great explanation, thank you
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