Post this on an offshore freelance website like Upwork (I have used them before), try the others because I have no been using freelancers for some time. In India or Paki etc. there are lots of talented coders who are very knowledgeable with Python.
Advice for finding a developer
- Thread starter he_honesuki
- Start date
Word of advice as a software developer who has developed many profitable algos for myself and others.
Make sure you are very clear on exactly what you want. There are plenty of programmers that can do the coding part but very few who understand the nuances of trading. That makes all the difference. I can't tell you how many times traders say: "This makes money. I trade this strategy all the time." And when I implement it exactly and back test it, it is a loser. Non programmers take a lot of stuff for granted that is intuitive to them but when it comes to coding, EVERYTHING has to be specified. Do not go down this road unless your trading methodology is extremely systematic and nothing is left ambiguous. You will save yourself a lot of time and money the more you can define your algo up front before you even start talking to developers.
Hope that helps.
Make sure you are very clear on exactly what you want. There are plenty of programmers that can do the coding part but very few who understand the nuances of trading. That makes all the difference. I can't tell you how many times traders say: "This makes money. I trade this strategy all the time." And when I implement it exactly and back test it, it is a loser. Non programmers take a lot of stuff for granted that is intuitive to them but when it comes to coding, EVERYTHING has to be specified. Do not go down this road unless your trading methodology is extremely systematic and nothing is left ambiguous. You will save yourself a lot of time and money the more you can define your algo up front before you even start talking to developers.
Hope that helps.
Great advice, thank you. I've made a pdf writeup with diagrams and examples and such. Hope that is enough.
I have good experience using Upwork/Guru, but be aware of language barriers and make sure you screen the developer accurately in advance - both on his skills and understanding of the project.
I did not use the absolute cheapest programmers except for some trivial stuff.
I did not use the absolute cheapest programmers except for some trivial stuff.
Since you are using your own criteria for scanning and spitting out symbols to trade into a text file. Here are a few things to consider:
How much buying power is available and how much to use.
How to allocate it among all the symbols that match.
Is there a way to prioritize among the symbols.
When you enter the orders at a limit price, how do you handle partial fills or unfilled
orders.
Do you just enter simple orders or do you have a stop loss and target (OCO) orders.
Do you need simple stops or trailing stops etc.
Do you want to be market neutral by entering equal number of long/short orders.
What is the duration of the trades.
Do you want to enter all at once to reduce market impact or it doesn't matter.
When and how do you want to close positions.
Those are some great thoughts. I've added the missing ones to my writeup. Thanks for the heads up!
Over the years, I've had about 30 projects done here https://www.freelancer.com/ back in the day it was called Scriptlance before renamed or bought out. Your mileage can vary a ton in spite of your best efforts to research the providers past work. Good USA and UK workers are usually very expensive. All things considered, I had the best luck with workers based in Canada, Israel and Russia. My projects were not trading related. It may be like looking for a needle in a haystack, to find the person you need.
I recommend you open a TradeStation account and use Easy Language. It's cheap (free data and commissions), the data is good, and there are many Easy Language coders (or you can learn it, yourself). If your algorithm isn't too complex, I might do it for you. There is an Easy Language forum on TradeStation where lots of coders post every day.
I've written actually exactly that for E-Trade. Python full implementation of their API, and used it for myself - mostly for automating options trading. Give me a shout if you like.