Would you collaborate with a programmer if it meant sharing your system/research?

Good morning, SML,

I think I agree. I'm leaning towards actually doing it now (see post #86), but I will not rush it, so will spend some time thinking on it.

There's been some development today as there's now another extremely interesting prospect that showed up. This is however a professional firm (developers) with an interest in finance and where they will want to use the solution themselves. I'm a bit more skeptical towards this one as I'd like to keep it as private as possible.

The other individual I had in mind when creating this thread is a professional system developer, but will be doing it in a private capacity. I think that's the best for my purpose, but I need to consider both prospects.

Thank you.
Hello Laissez Faire,

I like the private professional system developer.

Are you planning to back test and optimize the algo, right?
 
Hello Laissez Faire,

I like the private professional system developer.

Are you planning to back test and optimize the algo, right?

Yes. I'm thinking that's the best solution in order to avoid any conflict of interest and make sure I retain as much control as possible.

Something to that effect, I suppose, although I wouldn't exactly call it an algorithm in the way most people think when the term "algo" is used.

Best regards.
 
Thank you for your suggestion.

I think what you're suggesting here would be viable if I were hiring a programmer on a contract basis.

However, since this is a collaboration the very nature of that deal means that I'll share pretty much everything. That's the source-code and logic of the system I created. Including the system itself of course. What I don't need to formally share is the experience or "know-how" I've accumulated myself over the years. Arguably, a big part of what I do and something that's not easily transferrable anyway. There's no substitute for experience...particularly so for live intraday trading.

Even if I were hiring on a contract basis I think point 3 would be very hard as this is a complete system without independent parts. Nor is it an indicator based strategy.

That said, it's possible I could hire a programmer to re-build this for me from scratch without the programmer understanding what he's really putting together or not seeing the value for himself and simply dismissing it.

Assuming it would take 3 weeks of full-time work to put together - I'm not sure what the cost of that would be for a decent programmer?

If we assume $100 per hour and 50 hours per week, that's $15K for 3 weeks of work.
Not sure that your assumption is right regarding the estimate of work required. It might takes more time than 150 man/hours. And 100$/hour is a very good rate for a developer (assuming USD$).
 
Not sure that your assumption is right regarding the estimate of work required. It might takes more time than 150 man/hours. And 100$/hour is a very good rate for a developer (assuming USD$).

I'm just going with the estimated quote I was given by a prior programmer. Let's say 200 hours, then.

What would you say is a more correct estimae for a developer? Did you mean the rate was too high or too low?

The other programmer I talked to earlier today (head of a professional firm) thought he could do it in 2 weeks, although I didn't share much details beyond the general framework/functionality.

Regardless, I think I'm going down the collaboration path at this point...
 
I'm just going with the estimated quote I was given by a prior programmer. Let's say 200 hours, then.

What would you say is a more correct estimae for a developer? Did you mean the rate was too high or too low?

The other programmer I talked to earlier today (head of a professional firm) thought he could do it in 2 weeks, although I didn't share much details beyond the general framework/functionality.

Regardless, I think I'm going down the collaboration path at this point...
If you can find a developer who can do it in 2 weeks, go for it!!!
But I would raise a red flag if someone tells me that he can develop an app/software in a specific number of hours, without knowing any details of it. Just estimating the work to do require a couple of hours. Assessing what needs to be done based on the requirements is not something that is done over a cup of coffee.

Keep in mind that there are 2 ways of paying for developing an app. You can do it time & materials, or for a fix price. Both have their cons and pros.
 
If you can find a developer who can do it in 2 weeks, go for it!!!
But I would raise a red flag if someone tells me that he can develop an app/software in a specific number of hours, without knowing any details of it. Just estimating the work to do require a couple of hours. Assessing what needs to be done based on the requirements is not something that is done over a cup of coffee.

Keep in mind that there are 2 ways of paying for developing an app. You can do it time & materials, or for a fix price. Both have their cons and pros.

For sure. For what it's worth this is exactly what this guy was offering to help me out with, i.e., making sure the other developer was properly qualified and had good ideas for solving it. But when he learned more about the system he offered to do it himself through his firm as he too believes in the idea. However, this firm is trying to break into finance and algorithmic trading, so he would want to use the system in a professional capacity (even offering me to trade for them) if they find that it's something that's profitable. And that's the red flag here for me.

While it can possibly result in an even better solution, I'm not really keen on the idea of sharing it with a firm. Especially if they find that they want to use it themselves for their own trading operations.

Suddenly lots of things happening here out of nowhere as both these opportunities simply arose out of a discussion on machine learning in a forum for finance here in Norway and where both these people reached out to me afterwards.

With the system developer who will help me out for personal use we're operating within a time line of < 3 months, but I'm not in a hurry. I want to make sure it's solved and completed on a very high level this time with all lose ends tied down for sure.

I'm probably going to do it with the 'private guy', but we'll see.
 
Quick comment/question:

Both developers suggest a web based solution/application for this and have a good idea for how to solve it.

While I can see the advantages with this approach it seems like a potential disadvantage for me further down the road if the collaboration should go sour.

Even if I have full access to everything, I assume such a solution is more demanding technically to maintain and something that could be beyond me to service on my own?

The current solution I have is 100 % local with everything located on my personal computer and it's run bug-free for the last several years without requiring any maintenance. Meaning I don't need any programming expertise or guidance to run it once it's functioning properly.

Any wise comments here?
 
Quick comment/question:

Both developers suggest a web based solution/application for this and have a good idea for how to solve it.

While I can see the advantages with this approach it seems like a potential disadvantage for me further down the road if the collaboration should go sour.

Even if I have full access to everything, I assume such a solution is more demanding technically to maintain and something that could be beyond me to service on my own?

The current solution I have is 100 % local with everything located on my personal computer and it's run bug-free for the last several years without requiring any maintenance. Meaning I don't need any programming expertise or guidance to run it once it's functioning properly.

Any wise comments here?

Web based is good if you want to access from anywhere and from smart phone or tablet.
Overhead will be the web hosting of your application. Plus code base will be more complex and layered.

I would stick to desktop solution if it works for you, unless you need the above.
 
Web based is good if you want to access from anywhere and from smart phone or tablet.
Overhead will be the web hosting of your application. Plus code base will be more complex and layered.

I would stick to desktop solution if it works for you, unless you need the above.

I'd say access anywhere is a premium feature I don't really need and would personally prefer a desktop solution, but both developers, particularly the private one preferred a web solution for other reasons beyond mere access.

I want to make sure I have a program/solution that can run locally without me needing any further support. I don't fully understand the web solution yet as I haven't really had time to look into it, but I imagine it's something that requires more from me if me and the programmer part ways further down the road.

Would that be correct?
 
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