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Show HN: Cointrol – Bitcoin trading bot written in Python

64 points by jkbr 11y ago

makaronin 11y ago
Good work done, though Python may not be the best choice as it is a bit ancient programming language.
- RussianCow 11y ago
  Since when is that a bad thing? (And Python really isn't that old.)
  - TylerE 11y ago
    For algorithmic trading, speed is life.
    - BuckRogers 11y ago
      Top parent was flagged and can't be seen now. But stock Python 2.7 code can be run under PyPy and it's very fast if speed is a concern. PyPy3 is in beta essentially so that's not a production-ready option if you're into Python3. I'm a Python2 programmer who is making my "Python3 transition" over to Go. So I don't have much attachment to it, but Python code isn't slow. I'm moving because of the language leadership towards conservatism towards the language which is my philosophy rather than feature-creep and technical churn. The CPython implementation is, and it's still always been fast enough for everything I've written, so the meme is slightly overblown as far as I'm concerned.
      - ForHackernews 11y ago
        The top parent said: > Good work done, though Python may not be the best choice as it is a bit ancient programming language. So they weren't complaining about Python being slow (it is) but rather about it being "ancient" (not compared to C, or Fortran)
- username 11y ago
  >ancient Not really...
  - infinite8s 11y ago
    Well technically speaking it is about 25 years old. But modern python is maybe only 5 years old
    - ForHackernews 11y ago
      Technically speaking, Python 3 is always about 5 years in the future...
      - haack 11y ago
        This.
- theVirginian 11y ago
  Ancient, you mean like C, C++, Java, Javascript, those languages?
  - teraflop 11y ago
    Funnily enough, Python is actually older than both Java and JavaScript.
  - makaronin 11y ago
    The programming languages you mentioned dominate their niches. What is left for Python? Being a former Python programmer (5+ years) i really don't see any reason to use it now.
    - theVirginian 11y ago
      There are excellent libraries for data analysis, I know some people who use it in finance. It's still widely used for web applications. There are new features for asynchronous programming. Not to mention it's used by tons of major companies. Linkedin, Reddit, Youtube, just to name a few all use Python.
      - makaronin 11y ago
        Of course some legacy software is still in use. But i'm in doubt that python can be a good choice for today's startups.
        dikaiosune 11y ago
        Instead of a blanket criticism, perhaps you'd like to suggest some alternatives that: - Have simple, pseudocode-ish syntax - Are useful for exploratory programming with good speed of development - Have a comparable amount of high quality libraries available along with tooling for their installation and management (standard and third part) - Have large talent pools available with experience ranging from fresh graduates to grizzled veterans, and backgrounds ranging from science and statistics to journalism to finance ?
fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
Any plans to implement other exchanges?
- jkbr 11y ago
  Not at the moment.
hamiltonians 11y ago
How would you even begin to code such an ambitious undertaking? How do you start? Is there a library that does most of the work?
- jkbr 11y ago
  Cointrol is built for Bitstamp exchange and leverages their REST API [1], so the blockchain-related heavy lifting is done on their end. Besides that, Cointrol relies on a bunch of frameworks (Tornado, Django, Django REST Framework) for DB persistence, HTTP, REST, WebSockets, and such. [1] https://www.bitstamp.net/api/ https://www.bitstamp.net/api/
- minitech 11y ago
  “Such an ambitious undertaking”? Not to dismiss the author’s effort at all, but that seems a bit exaggerated.
theearlyadopter 11y ago
the only supported "trading strategies" are (a) buy at fixed price points and (b) buy at specified percentage moves of the price. LOL, LOL, LOL. It's more efficient to simply throw the money out of the window.
AustinScript 11y ago
Looks Nice. Do you find yourself trading bitcoin often? I am unfamiliar with the bitcoin bot atmosphere but I am guessing it isn't a stretch to assume that other bots exist, what made you decide to write your own?
- jkbr 11y ago
  I built this bot during the winter of 2013/14. Back then I remember being able to find open source bots only for cross-exchange arbitrage. What I needed was something simple and purely for speculation (plus for Bitstamp). Nowadays the bot scene might be very different, and also BTC price is much more stable.

64 points by jkbr 11y ago

makaronin 11y ago

Good work done, though Python may not be the best choice as it is a bit ancient programming language.

RussianCow 11y ago
Since when is that a bad thing? (And Python really isn't that old.)
- TylerE 11y ago
  For algorithmic trading, speed is life.
  - BuckRogers 11y ago
    Top parent was flagged and can't be seen now. But stock Python 2.7 code can be run under PyPy and it's very fast if speed is a concern. PyPy3 is in beta essentially so that's not a production-ready option if you're into Python3. I'm a Python2 programmer who is making my "Python3 transition" over to Go. So I don't have much attachment to it, but Python code isn't slow. I'm moving because of the language leadership towards conservatism towards the language which is my philosophy rather than feature-creep and technical churn. The CPython implementation is, and it's still always been fast enough for everything I've written, so the meme is slightly overblown as far as I'm concerned.
    - ForHackernews 11y ago
      The top parent said: > Good work done, though Python may not be the best choice as it is a bit ancient programming language. So they weren't complaining about Python being slow (it is) but rather about it being "ancient" (not compared to C, or Fortran)
username 11y ago
>ancient Not really...
- infinite8s 11y ago
  Well technically speaking it is about 25 years old. But modern python is maybe only 5 years old
  - ForHackernews 11y ago
    Technically speaking, Python 3 is always about 5 years in the future...
    - haack 11y ago
      This.
theVirginian 11y ago
Ancient, you mean like C, C++, Java, Javascript, those languages?
- teraflop 11y ago
  Funnily enough, Python is actually older than both Java and JavaScript.
- makaronin 11y ago
  The programming languages you mentioned dominate their niches. What is left for Python? Being a former Python programmer (5+ years) i really don't see any reason to use it now.
  - theVirginian 11y ago
    There are excellent libraries for data analysis, I know some people who use it in finance. It's still widely used for web applications. There are new features for asynchronous programming. Not to mention it's used by tons of major companies. Linkedin, Reddit, Youtube, just to name a few all use Python.
    - makaronin 11y ago
      Of course some legacy software is still in use. But i'm in doubt that python can be a good choice for today's startups.
      - dikaiosune 11y ago
        Instead of a blanket criticism, perhaps you'd like to suggest some alternatives that: - Have simple, pseudocode-ish syntax - Are useful for exploratory programming with good speed of development - Have a comparable amount of high quality libraries available along with tooling for their installation and management (standard and third part) - Have large talent pools available with experience ranging from fresh graduates to grizzled veterans, and backgrounds ranging from science and statistics to journalism to finance ?

fnordfnordfnord 11y ago

Any plans to implement other exchanges?

jkbr 11y ago
Not at the moment.

hamiltonians 11y ago

How would you even begin to code such an ambitious undertaking? How do you start? Is there a library that does most of the work?

jkbr 11y ago
Cointrol is built for Bitstamp exchange and leverages their REST API [1], so the blockchain-related heavy lifting is done on their end. Besides that, Cointrol relies on a bunch of frameworks (Tornado, Django, Django REST Framework) for DB persistence, HTTP, REST, WebSockets, and such. [1] https://www.bitstamp.net/api/ https://www.bitstamp.net/api/
minitech 11y ago
“Such an ambitious undertaking”? Not to dismiss the author’s effort at all, but that seems a bit exaggerated.

theearlyadopter 11y ago

the only supported "trading strategies" are (a) buy at fixed price points and (b) buy at specified percentage moves of the price. LOL, LOL, LOL. It's more efficient to simply throw the money out of the window.

AustinScript 11y ago

Looks Nice. Do you find yourself trading bitcoin often? I am unfamiliar with the bitcoin bot atmosphere but I am guessing it isn't a stretch to assume that other bots exist, what made you decide to write your own?

jkbr 11y ago
I built this bot during the winter of 2013/14. Back then I remember being able to find open source bots only for cross-exchange arbitrage. What I needed was something simple and purely for speculation (plus for Bitstamp). Nowadays the bot scene might be very different, and also BTC price is much more stable.