Why I quit algorithmic trading

[greenery]

It's obviously a case of a guy who wasn't able to make it. Most aren't. In any business - by the way. There's a universe of evidence against the efficient market hypothesis. He seems to imply that because he didn't make it - maybe it's impossible. That's where he goes wrong - but the reason for such statements is simply to minimize the psychological pain of failure and to de-personalize it away from himself.

 

[kut2k2]

Quote from WS_MJH:

Most interesting thing is that he worked with profitable traders and was not able to translate their system into an algo. Algo trading isn't my area, but he either can't code well or he needed to focus on strategies that work well with an algo system, instead of a discretionary system that is based on someone's mind and experience.

Quote from Soon2Bgreat:

This is the key point imo - to me this says he spent his time coding other people's strategies and never spent time developing his own. The fact that he worked in trading is irrelevant, this appears to say he just spent his time coding (could've been any other industry).

Maybe I'm wrong, but this doesn't send a very encouraging message about his experience. M2c.

Both good points.

What immediately occurred to me was that his partners didn't give him their winning strategies for whatever reason. Either they didn't trust him or they just wanted to get rid of him.

 

[Occam]

Quote from shotse:

Never give up. That's the best advice anyone can give you and I wish someone told me that when I was younger. So here you go, I'm telling you right now to never give up because there wasn't someone there to tell me to never give up. You can do it.

It can also be the worst advice anyone can give, depending on the specific case. Unless you mean "don't give up (on yourself), but you might want to give up on trading and try someting else".

The markets are changing and if anything getting more competitive. That's not to say he shouldn't continue trying, but there's also a sensible point at which to quit one thing and move on to something else. It's up to him to discern that, however difficult it may be. Everone's time is valuable -- and there are certainly other satisfying ways to spend one's time/effort aside from trading.

 

[wildchild]

Why you quit algorithmic trading? Simple, your algorithm sucked. Could we at least introduce a little honesty into some of these discussions.

 

[greenery]

Quote from wildchild:

Why you quit algorithmic trading? Simple, your algorithm sucked. Could we at least introduce a little honesty into some of these discussions.

Truth hurts.

 

[xbaha]

to the poster:

1. the market changes, there is no 1 single strategy that can do all the market!

2. historically test your strategy, and know that no strategy lasts forever, one day it will break... so Diversify!

3. using algo trading is not like paper,limit fills are not guaranteed, and stop fills might be away from the market! so if you work in a short time frame period, think twice...

4. i dono what is the percentage , but a big percentage of the market is computer trading algos!

good luck