7 ms·

I lost a shit ton of money at the firm where I work right now almost a year ago. I wrote software that began issuing trades outside of where it was expected to

I lost a shit ton of money at the firm where I work right now almost a year ago. I wrote software that began issuing trades outside of where it was expected to and did not stop. In a panic, I forced the server it was running on to terminate its process but trades were still open in the market. They had to be manually closed. I feel sick to my stomach even writing this right now, that hour I was trying to fix the problems sticks out as the worst moment in my life. I am glad whoever wrote this can be so nonchalant about it, if you have a strategy for forgetting I would love to hear it.

javert 12y ago
Were you able to keep your job after that? (If you're willing to talk about it; if not, I understand.)
- lmartel 12y ago
  From his phrasing ("firm where I work right now") it sounds like he was :)
- ycombobreaker 12y ago
  If the firm did not go under as a result, it doesn't make sense to fire the individual. An event like that is a valuable (and expensive!) training lesson, and a mistake that probably won't be made twice.
j_lev 12y ago
Well, for starters it sounds like you didn't act maliciously. You acted based on the sum total of your training and experience to that point. If your training or experience was lacking then this is an issue for which the company needs to take some responsibility.
mathgenius 12y ago
Yeah, I think all of us HFT programmers have war stories like this. I got a friend that had his program take out the entire market... Usually it's best if the programmer is separate from the ops guy, but in this case it sounds like you got stuck doing both. That sucks. I've done a bit of trading myself and it's both boring and terrifying. The two worst emotions.
- joezydeco 12y ago
  Your friend wasn't at Knight, was he? I'd love to have an insider's tale as to what went on that day. http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/3525.html http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/3525.html
jacquesm 12y ago
FWIW: Whoever allowed you do to that unsupervised is just as guilty as you. Separation of duties and all that.
collyw 12y ago
To me there seems to be a certain sort of karma in this. HFT doesn't really add value to anything in my opinion (cue the arguments that HFT somehow adds real value to our society). Yet HFT creams a profit by shuffling money around very quickly. So if there are sometimes big losses like this from a bug, then it seems to even things out somewhat.
- phyalow 12y ago
  To me there seems to be a certain sort of karma in this. Momentum prop trading doesn't really add value to anything in my opinion (cue the arguments that momentum prop trading somehow adds real value to our society). Yet some momentum prop trading creams a profit by shuffling money around very quickly. So if there are sometimes big losses like this from a bug, then it seems to even things out somewhat.
  - byEngineer 12y ago
    The profit to the society is from regular guys like you and me not partaking in the scam anymore. Not spending money on it. Distrusting the game. Long term it makes sense: people will start investing long term based on fudamentals vs wanting to get rich quick on hocus locus TA. Short term trading is losers game. You will always loose against HFT. So instead of doing that, read the companies fundamentals. Learn about their debt levels. Earnings. Read their books. And only then invest with 1-2 year time horizon minimum. HFT is valuable to the society as it makes the society understand that treating Markets like casino gambling isn't working.
  - tomp 12y ago
    "Anything of value" is a subjective measurement - you could say that stock markets don't add anything of value, or you could say that they enable more investments, since you're able to liquidate your investment whenever you want. Trend following, and mean-reversion following (what this article describes) are techniques that counteract the basic human irrational/emotional biases. Ideally, they should prevent bubbles and stop crashes. They make markets more rational.
    - 12y ago
JabavuAdams 12y ago
Meh. You're still working there. If you forget, you'll get dumber.

javert 12y ago

Were you able to keep your job after that? (If you're willing to talk about it; if not, I understand.)

lmartel 12y ago
From his phrasing ("firm where I work right now") it sounds like he was :)
ycombobreaker 12y ago
If the firm did not go under as a result, it doesn't make sense to fire the individual. An event like that is a valuable (and expensive!) training lesson, and a mistake that probably won't be made twice.

j_lev 12y ago

Well, for starters it sounds like you didn't act maliciously. You acted based on the sum total of your training and experience to that point. If your training or experience was lacking then this is an issue for which the company needs to take some responsibility.

mathgenius 12y ago

Yeah, I think all of us HFT programmers have war stories like this. I got a friend that had his program take out the entire market... Usually it's best if the programmer is separate from the ops guy, but in this case it sounds like you got stuck doing both. That sucks. I've done a bit of trading myself and it's both boring and terrifying. The two worst emotions.

joezydeco 12y ago
Your friend wasn't at Knight, was he? I'd love to have an insider's tale as to what went on that day. http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/3525.html http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/3525.html

jacquesm 12y ago

FWIW: Whoever allowed you do to that unsupervised is just as guilty as you. Separation of duties and all that.

collyw 12y ago

To me there seems to be a certain sort of karma in this. HFT doesn't really add value to anything in my opinion (cue the arguments that HFT somehow adds real value to our society). Yet HFT creams a profit by shuffling money around very quickly. So if there are sometimes big losses like this from a bug, then it seems to even things out somewhat.

phyalow 12y ago
To me there seems to be a certain sort of karma in this. Momentum prop trading doesn't really add value to anything in my opinion (cue the arguments that momentum prop trading somehow adds real value to our society). Yet some momentum prop trading creams a profit by shuffling money around very quickly. So if there are sometimes big losses like this from a bug, then it seems to even things out somewhat.
- byEngineer 12y ago
  The profit to the society is from regular guys like you and me not partaking in the scam anymore. Not spending money on it. Distrusting the game. Long term it makes sense: people will start investing long term based on fudamentals vs wanting to get rich quick on hocus locus TA. Short term trading is losers game. You will always loose against HFT. So instead of doing that, read the companies fundamentals. Learn about their debt levels. Earnings. Read their books. And only then invest with 1-2 year time horizon minimum. HFT is valuable to the society as it makes the society understand that treating Markets like casino gambling isn't working.
- tomp 12y ago
  "Anything of value" is a subjective measurement - you could say that stock markets don't add anything of value, or you could say that they enable more investments, since you're able to liquidate your investment whenever you want. Trend following, and mean-reversion following (what this article describes) are techniques that counteract the basic human irrational/emotional biases. Ideally, they should prevent bubbles and stop crashes. They make markets more rational.
  - 12y ago

JabavuAdams 12y ago

Meh. You're still working there. If you forget, you'll get dumber.