Trading strategies vs computer games

A

Aquarians

I'm thinking the market for trading strategies has some similarities to the market for computer games.

1) The vast majority of end users are interested in the final product rather than the tools to develop it.
- Software: end product is a computer game. Think "Angry Birds" or "Assassin's Creed"
- Finance: end product is a trading strategy. Think "sell naked puts" or or so.
2) To arrive at the end product however, one needs to put in serious development effort and also using appropriate tools:
- Software: programming languages, artwork etc.
- Finance: programming languages, market data, backtesting etc.

3) Any original idea will be ruthlessly copied / cloned so eventually it stops making money.
- Gaming: 100x Angry Birds clones appear within a week.
- Finance: as more and more trades are made on the same idea, the market changes and what used to be an arbitrage opportunity ceases to exist.

Thoughts?
 
Superficial similarities.

The big difference is:

software has infinite operating leverage.

trading leverage is constrained by financial leverage.

software has inherent edge (someone will pay you for your software if it’s decent enough).
Trading does not.
 
agreed. making a game is free other than time. and has a wider audience, more than likely more upside.
I use https://unity.com/ . It is free and simple. You can make games, simulations, targeted whatever
 
I disagree:
  • In games you can be very creative and nobody will constantly say "that objectively sucks, start over".
  • The I/O space in games is generally greater (graphics, sound, keyboard, mouse, controller, etc.) In trading algos you quite often just read a few 1D time series and emit another time series (position). There are exceptions of course, you might be scanning satellite data or whatever.
  • Games are generally more deterministic and getting fooled by randomness doesn't happen as often. AI for games does suffer more from fooled by randomness symptoms.
To summarize, writing games often let you express what's in your head [until it's time to get some sales]. Trading is more about interacting with cold harsh reality and its infinite complexity.

Video game industry is still a bit less saturated than the financial industry, though it's slowly getting there. It's still one hell of a lot more "fun" to work in most of the time given my first point above. The harsh competitive nature of trading attracts me however which is why I've been so much time trying to get away from making video games despite that being what I started with at age 12. :)
 
Last edited:
I agree with Snuskpelle, trading is more about interacting with cold and harsh reality and its infinite complexity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top