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It’s common for a programmer to want to write an algorithm that tries to beat the market. For better or worse, that’s what motivated me to want to learn how to

It’s common for a programmer to want to write an algorithm that tries to beat the market. For better or worse, that’s what motivated me to want to learn how to code. The wisdom of driving people away from trading does make sense however

HenryBemis 8y ago
Did you learn MQL5 language or something different?
- dont-trd-charts 8y ago
  No I was a beginner and collected futures tick data and used C++ and Qt to make OHLC data, hack together testing algorithms and charts. This was years ago. It was crude as I was a beginner.
janee 8y ago
Haha so true. I found coding my own, albeit stupid, trading strategies quite fun back in the day...sortta similar kind of fun building a borked poker bot. Think it's the combination of money, a bit of math and some cool algos that make it so fun
AznHisoka 8y ago
Instead of writing code to beat the market, they are better off writing code to create valuable datasets they can then sell to wall street. Or applications to help Wall street analyze huge datasets, sentiment or news feeds. Selling shovels, so to speak.
- orojackson 8y ago
  Those same programmers would be better off just following Munger's advice and putting money into index funds. Doesn't require writing any code; all it takes is a few minutes to place an order. I'm not exactly sure why the general sentiment here on HN discourages index funds. It's pretty jarring coming from /r/personalfinance and Bogleheads.
  - AznHisoka 8y ago
    There's nothing wrong with index funds, and I think most people should dump the majority of their money into them as well. However, for those people who feel the obsessive need to game the system, and make money faster, I would suggest not trading, but rather developing tools and gathering data to sell to Wall Street.
JohnFen 8y ago
> It’s common for a programmer to want to write an algorithm that tries to beat the market. Is it? I'm pretty sure that I don't personally know a single programmer who has done this.
meesterdude 8y ago
I built a backtesting platform and my own DSL to interface with TA I created in SQL. Great learning experience - and humbling.

HenryBemis 8y ago

Did you learn MQL5 language or something different?

dont-trd-charts 8y ago
No I was a beginner and collected futures tick data and used C++ and Qt to make OHLC data, hack together testing algorithms and charts. This was years ago. It was crude as I was a beginner.

janee 8y ago

Haha so true. I found coding my own, albeit stupid, trading strategies quite fun back in the day...sortta similar kind of fun building a borked poker bot. Think it's the combination of money, a bit of math and some cool algos that make it so fun

AznHisoka 8y ago

Instead of writing code to beat the market, they are better off writing code to create valuable datasets they can then sell to wall street. Or applications to help Wall street analyze huge datasets, sentiment or news feeds. Selling shovels, so to speak.

orojackson 8y ago
Those same programmers would be better off just following Munger's advice and putting money into index funds. Doesn't require writing any code; all it takes is a few minutes to place an order. I'm not exactly sure why the general sentiment here on HN discourages index funds. It's pretty jarring coming from /r/personalfinance and Bogleheads.
- AznHisoka 8y ago
  There's nothing wrong with index funds, and I think most people should dump the majority of their money into them as well. However, for those people who feel the obsessive need to game the system, and make money faster, I would suggest not trading, but rather developing tools and gathering data to sell to Wall Street.

JohnFen 8y ago

> It’s common for a programmer to want to write an algorithm that tries to beat the market. Is it? I'm pretty sure that I don't personally know a single programmer who has done this.

meesterdude 8y ago

I built a backtesting platform and my own DSL to interface with TA I created in SQL. Great learning experience - and humbling.