Computer Science for Trading?

Quote from Humpy:

Forgetting that Africa can be crossed East-West in a few hours on foot depending on the latitude. Lateral thinking boys !

This is actually a great point.

It's all about shortcuts...
You have to find 1000s of shortcuts to build a trading business...
Which is the most advanced sort of problem solving.

Geniuses always find shortcuts and move forward rapidly...
The merely highly intelligent cross the street via the North Pole...
And post about it on ET.
 
Quote from DeeDeeTwo:

This is actually a great point.

It's all about shortcuts...
You have to find 1000s of shortcuts to build a trading business...
Which is the most advanced sort of problem solving.

Geniuses always find shortcuts and move forward rapidly...
The merely highly intelligent cross the street via the North Pole...
And post about it on ET.

:D
 
Quote from oldtime:

the problem is, people that want a job usually don't have what it takes to trade

I really respect a guy that did is 4 years at college, got a job, did his 2 yr stint getting his masters, got a better job or a raise, and then went into business for himself

that shows real patience and vision

but I have very little respect for the guy that gets a degree so he can just get a job

the problem isn't high unemployment

the problem is low entreprenurship

Although I support youthful endeavour etc. I do wonder why the 30+ oldies don't merit as much attention. There are loads of oldies out there with bags of energy AND some experience. Don't write us off just yet young things !!
 

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Quote from Doran:

Greetings :) first time posting and happy to be here.

A few months back I found a thread here with a new guy asking a few questions on how to become a stock trader. He was essentially asking what university degree he should get to be a trader, and I was very very surprised by the answers read here.

It seemed as if people were saying to not waste your time getting an MBA or Economics or Finance degree, for it's the act of trading that makes you a good trader. Ah, wise and insightful indeed, thanks. But what surprised me the most was with how many people suggested him to get a computer science degree if anything. Over and over again, people suggested programming, and as I browse the forums here, there are quite a few sections entirely dedicated programming.

But why? I'll be honest, it never occurred to me that stock traders were also programmers. What can you do with programming and/or computer science that makes you a better trader?

And if one were to study computer science with the intent of trading, what language to start with first and what type of programs to write?



If this is your first question, I would say you probably are not ready to write your first code
 
Quote from Humpy:

Although I support youthful endeavour etc. I do wonder why the 30+ oldies don't merit as much attention. There are loads of oldies out there with bags of energy AND some experience. Don't write us off just yet young things !!
there are jobs which behave like businesses. Piece work, a percentage of the profits, commission. No risk, no start up capital. I had one of those once. It was great. I got paid strictly on my performance, regardless of whether it was a profitable month for the company. Eveytime I got a paycheck I thought, "This is great, no worries, just do the job and get paid. Beats the heck out of when I was doing the same thing for myself as a sole proprietor."

Yet there were plenty of guys complaining that the company wanted them to work too hard. And they would rack up all these company expenses, without a care or a thought that their compensation was tied to the profitability of the company.

Some people are just born employees, you can't cure them. And to hear the way they talk now, they are all our problem. And so far the only solution is, send them to school to get a computer science degree.
 
Quote from mgabriel01:

If this is your first question, I would say you probably are not ready to write your first code
typical nerd geek snob. Thinks his knowledge makes him better than someone else. Confuses knowledge with wisdom. Can't understand why in High School when he got the coolest car, he still couldnt get the coolest girls (or any girls for that matter.) Always thinks he should be in charge because he knows more than anybody else. More interested in getting credit for his knowledge than in helping someone else. Views all newcomers as potential future threats. Very important to his self worth to identify with his knowledge.

Oh sorry, I was just completing your employment interview evaluation
 
Quote from Doran:

Greetings :) first time posting and happy to be here.

A few months back I found a thread here with a new guy asking a few questions on how to become a stock trader. He was essentially asking what university degree he should get to be a trader, and I was very very surprised by the answers read here.

It seemed as if people were saying to not waste your time getting an MBA or Economics or Finance degree, for it's the act of trading that makes you a good trader. Ah, wise and insightful indeed, thanks. But what surprised me the most was with how many people suggested him to get a computer science degree if anything. Over and over again, people suggested programming, and as I browse the forums here, there are quite a few sections entirely dedicated programming.

But why? I'll be honest, it never occurred to me that stock traders were also programmers. What can you do with programming and/or computer science that makes you a better trader?

And if one were to study computer science with the intent of trading, what language to start with first and what type of programs to write?

For stock or any type trading, the trader has to put his imprimatur on his approach for partnering with assorted markets.

A few steps are involved. Below you see the topic and the related resource for that topic. From this a conclusion can be drawn about college. College is a place to grow and mature so you can create a strong family.

1. Create a full and complete algorithm of the market's operation. (Keynes. Carnap, Boole, and Mandlebrot.)

2. Create a way to partner with the market (avoid Boyd and Thomas X and use Diodge, Chopra, Tufte and Cabot-Zinn)

3.
learn about making money (learn why John Bogle owned his corporation's stock instead of his corporation's mutual funds. Learn from Willaim J. O'Neill how to start with 500 bucks and in 27 months have the funds to create the IBD empire of financial information)

I just finished writing the chapters of part of a book that included the role of college. I went six years and got 7 letters to append to my name. But one day my instructor job department head read me the WSJ for an hour page by page. I learned that a salary was not the main event but trading was.

To trade while using your own fully complete system to take the full offer of the market, you need only to learn the following techniques:

1. criteria

2. filters

3 formulae

4. rules

5 strategies

6. baskets,

7. libraries.

For the CW all of this has been done and is available in two forms:

1. drag and drop, and

2. look up and, under instruction, completing panes that create the 1 through 7 above.

Three days of formal instruction will get this to a place where you can use the phone and gotomeeting and turn your computer over to an IT technician who can solve any problem you create from lack of facility.

For CW, the work to get either 1 or 2 above was created by teams using C++ type programs. But both 1 and 2 can do the correct alternative to the CW which is RDBMS. I dropped learning both SQL and Haskell after I got three days of training. using C++ user disguised friendly items 1 and 2. Worden has the best Drag and Drop. I used the second alternative.

So the prep for expert non-CW money making comes down to training on how a platform creates the ingredients of trading systems. Almost no one uses trading systems that are based on fully coded systems of how the market operates (algorithms plus market specific applications)

To do this you get libraries from library creators. You find these people by networking. You have to pass the test of the creator. I use checklists in the ends of chapters of the trading book text I wrote for doing the test.

Go to college to major in something you like; change majors as you go through college. Meet a like minded female or male. Then go to a three day course on using the tools of programming trading systems. Or go to the next three day course and then go to college. The people taking the course are there for a reason; one or more will live near you.
 
Quote from Shanb:

There are so many little nuances that a trained human mind can process, its still the best machine out there to do the job!

Agree. Machine that would replace good professional trader has not been invented yet. Machines are dumber but there is more of them trading against smart people. Machines can aid in automating many tasks and doing some searches and number crunching letting traders to concentrate on market action.
 
Quote from vicirek:

Agree. Machine that would replace good professional trader has not been invented yet. Machines are dumber but there is more of them trading against smart people. Machines can aid in automating many tasks and doing some searches and number crunching letting traders to concentrate on market action.
heck, if it wasn't for my Texas Instruments calculator, by the time I figured out with pencil and paper the proper size, the trade would have already come and gone.
 
Quote from vicirek:

Agree. Machine that would replace good professional trader has not been invented yet. Machines are dumber but there is more of them trading against smart people. Machines can aid in automating many tasks and doing some searches and number crunching letting traders to concentrate on market action.

Machines opened up a whole new set of trading possibilities.
Machines haven't 100% replaced human intuition, but it's replaced a lot of it.

Even value investing used to be about keeping track of financial ratios in ones head. "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham talks about using books (really tomes) released by the SEC that had all the corporate information in it. He would scour that book for opportunities that fit all sorts of criteria (no decrease in earnings growth, cashflow positive, etc.). Now everyone has a screener to find those stocks and it's harder to be a Graham and Dodd investor. That's about the most "human intuition" style of trading/investing there is.
 
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