4 ms·

I'd like to know how an individual can do this, 1) And avoid some code bug causing them to lose all their money, and 2) Not get lose all their money to some com

I'd like to know how an individual can do this, 1) And avoid some code bug causing them to lose all their money, and 2) Not get lose all their money to some company's API fees...

MonkeyClub 4y ago
For (1), test profusely beforehand, and apply your algos in paper trades first (demo APIs without real market execution). And of course, hedge your bets, don't put all your cash on one algo/instrument in one go, and do at least some DD. For (2), there are zero-fee brokers (e.g. those mentioned by downvoteme1 earlier) that you can use, so you don't have to keep feeding the broker.
robswc 4y ago
> And avoid some code bug causing them to lose all their money Well, everything has a non 0 chance but you can code certain conditions that have to be met before an order goes through. IMO, you would have to have significant capital to even end up in a situation where a bug causes lots of loss. Here is an example of something you might be thinking of. https://www.henricodolfing.com/2019/06/project-failure-case-study-knight-capital.html https://www.henricodolfing.com/2019/06/project-failure-case-... > Not get lose all their money to some company's API fees It's not too bad these days. A lot of brokers offer "zero-fees" which really just means you only have to pay the SEC ones which aren't too bad.
taeric 4y ago
I suspect the biggest catch for 1, is that you do it from an account where losing all of the money is an acceptable outcome. Clearly not the preferred outcome. But will not destroy you financially. Which leads in to 2. The idea is that you are aiming for algorithms that take into account the API fees. If you didn't account for that in the price of business, than this is the same as not accounting for taxes in how you pay for things. That is, you did it wrong.

4 ms·

I'd like to know how an individual can do this, 1) And avoid some code bug causing them to lose all their money, and 2) Not get lose all their money to some com

by ari_giblets 4y ago

I'd like to know how an individual can do this, 1) And avoid some code bug causing them to lose all their money, and 2) Not get lose all their money to some company's API fees...

MonkeyClub 4y ago
For (1), test profusely beforehand, and apply your algos in paper trades first (demo APIs without real market execution). And of course, hedge your bets, don't put all your cash on one algo/instrument in one go, and do at least some DD. For (2), there are zero-fee brokers (e.g. those mentioned by downvoteme1 earlier) that you can use, so you don't have to keep feeding the broker.
robswc 4y ago
> And avoid some code bug causing them to lose all their money Well, everything has a non 0 chance but you can code certain conditions that have to be met before an order goes through. IMO, you would have to have significant capital to even end up in a situation where a bug causes lots of loss. Here is an example of something you might be thinking of. https://www.henricodolfing.com/2019/06/project-failure-case-study-knight-capital.html https://www.henricodolfing.com/2019/06/project-failure-case-... > Not get lose all their money to some company's API fees It's not too bad these days. A lot of brokers offer "zero-fees" which really just means you only have to pay the SEC ones which aren't too bad.
taeric 4y ago
I suspect the biggest catch for 1, is that you do it from an account where losing all of the money is an acceptable outcome. Clearly not the preferred outcome. But will not destroy you financially. Which leads in to 2. The idea is that you are aiming for algorithms that take into account the API fees. If you didn't account for that in the price of business, than this is the same as not accounting for taxes in how you pay for things. That is, you did it wrong.