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Writing algorithms for trading foreign currencies is one of my main hobbies, which I'm just a few (hundred thousand) dollars short of turning into a career. Even though my original background is in video games and embedded systems, financial markets is really just more of the same (real-time programming).
Anyway, enough babbling. Am I the only one who frequents CP that writes algos for financial markets? Who else is there among you? Speak now or... well... don't. 
You can't win.
You can't break even.
You can't quit.
You're welcome.
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I trade spot FX as a hobby. Been doing it for years on and off actually. I'm a MetaTrader guy, and while I don't write any predictive algorithms, I have spent a significant amount of time writing an indicator I use in MT4 that helps me manage my trades and risk using the percent-equity model. I hired a tutor a while back, and he set me straight on that pitfall.
I'd be curious to know your thoughts on brokers actually. I'm in the US and was with FXCM. Except they just got shut down for spot FX in the US for bogus practices - pretending to be a STP/ECN when they're not to name just one. So, I'm broker shopping now, and still on the fence between Forex.com/Gain Capital or Oanda. Both of their customer support folks seems to be subpar for me right now in regards of knowing what they are talking about.
What kind of algos are you in to?
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: I'd be curious to know your thoughts on brokers actually
Of all evils, I think the one that consists in making money out of money is the worst. The fact that one of the best paid job in the world (trader) is one of the most useless in term of added value for humanity just shows how plain wrong the path our civilization is on is the wrong one.
Having computers deciding about it by writing algorithms must takes it to another level, really. 
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Trading is the cornerstone of our economy. Without it, we have no sense of worth for money, products, goods, services, etc. You wouldn't have an idea of how much salary to make to suit your skill-set, and the list can go on and on and on.
The only evil involved with money is greed. But greed is a human emotion that applies to everything... food, car seat space, romantic partners, etc. The list goes on. If you want to say greed is evil I could go for that. Yet, everyone is greedy. So just accept that as a part of human nature, and marginalize the risks associated with it.
However, money is not evil. Trading is not useless.
Jeremy Falcon
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I don't trade currencies but I did just open a new account with TD Ameritrade today with part of my tax return.  Way better tools than the Robinhood account I currently have. Use one tool to research stocks to buy with the other 
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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I never said money is evil or trading useless. I said making money out of money is evil. I said "trader", as a job = someone who plays (or let computers play for him) on market places with billions, for the sole sake of making more billions, is evil and serves no purposes : A trader buys dollars in US, then sell euros in Europe, then buy yens in Japan, then sell it in dollars in the US, and makes hundred of millions thanks to exchange rates in one day. What is the added value of all this ?
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I'm not playing this online kiddie game on CP anymore.
Jeremy Falcon
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Rage wrote: ...makes hundred of millions thanks to exchange rates in one day. What is the added value of all this ?
If these guys were doing it to horde money then I would agree with you. But let me ask you something about these so-called money-changers...
Do these people eat food? Well then they have to spend money on food, which someone worked to produce, and someone else worked to sell.
Do these people wear clothes? Ooh then they have to spend money on those clothes, which someone worked to manufacture, and someone else worked to sell.
What about things like cars, boats, houses, jewelry, etc.? Yeah. Exactly.
Just because a large amount of money is earned by someone who doesn't physically "produce" anything, it doesn't mean they provide no value. The fact is that the value they provide is in the redistribution of the money they earn. A single millionaire, by just spending his/her money, could be the reason why several businesses are able to remain in business, keeping dozens of people employed. Why then do you care how they make their money if they are doing it legally?
Sorry to keep this game going but I couldn't resist the bait. 
You can't win.
You can't break even.
You can't quit.
You're welcome.
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TonyManso wrote: Why then do you care how they make their money if they are doing it legally?
This is purely philosophical on my side, so I have no solid arguments or reasons about why I care, but fact is that it bothers me. I have nothing against people making money, I simply have an ethic problem with jobs which have no other added value in society than making money BASED ON NOTHING ELSE THAN HANDLING MONEY. And do not get me started on legal aspects... As for redistribution, nah[^].
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TonyManso wrote: Sorry to keep this game going but I couldn't resist the bait.
Learn to resist it man. I know it's rough... A successful investor has to get rid of the over emotional reactions that surround money. And while we may not be rich yet, it's part of the path to it.
It's like air, people only freak out about it when they don't have it.
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: Without it, we have no sense of worth for money, products, goods, services, etc. You wouldn't have an idea of how much salary to make to suit your skill-set, and the list can go on and on and on
Not really, because the values applied to goods companies, service companies, and everything else have nothing to do with the real world, or with the needs and desires of anyone except those making phantom money from the exchanges.
Is mcdonalds worth n because its trading value is x, or is it a viable business because of its cash flow? The two are completely unrelated.
If the mcdonalds share price dropped enough, the company would close, even though it makes astronomical profits.
Anyone who wants to understand the basics of the stock exchange should look into its history, and why it started -- i.e. the Dutch tulip insanity.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Fair enough on reading the history about it. But, until I read a post that shows the poster actually understand economics, I'm not gonna bother getting into yet another online debate with people lacking experience in the topic they're debating.
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: I'm in the US and was with FXCM.
I liked FXCM for a little bit, but after numerous interactions with my "Account manager", I just got a bad feeling that I should jump ship and find another broker. I am currently using Forex.com (Gain Capital) and so far they have been very good to me. Oanda is good too, if you don't mind the occasional huge spreads and slippage when the market goes a little crazy.
Jeremy Falcon wrote: What kind of algos are you in to?
As far as algos, I am currently using a technique similar to dollar cost averaging, where I'll buy (for example eurusd), and continue to keep buying over time as I can get better and better pricing. Eventually, when my net profit is positive, I begin a trailing stop on all trades. I also have been known to do somewhat high frequency scalping when the broker allows it.
You can't win.
You can't break even.
You can't quit.
You're welcome.
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TonyManso wrote: I am currently using Forex.com (Gain Capital)
Then can you tell me why they (in MT4 at least) label their symbols with "pro" at the end? To make things worse, in MT4, I see currencies such as EURUSD and EURUSDpro. The former seems to be readonly as I can't place an order with it - in a demo account. And both the pro and non-pro version have different monthly data when I look at the charts. Their support hasn't been able to give me a straight non-BS answer to what the deal is with this.
TonyManso wrote: As far as algos, I am currently using a technique similar to dollar cost averaging, where I'll buy (for example eurusd), and continue to keep buying over time as I can get better and better pricing. Eventually, when my net profit is positive, I begin a trailing stop on all trades. I also have been known to do somewhat high frequency scalping when the broker allows it.
How is that working out for you? I'd be curious to know.
I've just learned to "read the market" so to speak. At first I lost a fair amount like everyone else. But now I'm to the point I can always either break even or turn a tiny profit, just going with pure tech analysis. But that just comes form doing it so much I just got used to it. No real system involved outside of risk management. But I'd be curious to read more on dollar cost averaging so i can get a better idea of what you mean.
Also, for your trailing stops... are you using MT4 or the active trader (or whatever they call it) for forex.com?
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: Then can you tell me why they (in MT4 at least) label their symbols with "pro" at the end?
No idea. I have had demo and live accounts on many brokers over the years and most of them seem to have some kind of suffix appended to their symbols. On some brokers there were suffixes for 4-digit quotes, ECN, STP, and other such nonsense lol. I would just find the set that best suited my needs and went with that.
Jeremy Falcon wrote: How is that working out for you? I'd be curious to know.
It works very well as long as you have enough margin to hold many positions open once in a while. My Expert Advisor (EA) will automatically close the oldest trade if my free margin gets too low. But honestly, if that happens, it's either because gotten greedy or something catastrophic happened in the market.
Jeremy Falcon wrote: Also, for your trailing stops... are you using MT4 or the active trader (or whatever they call it) for forex.com?
I have written a really cool trailing stop library in MT4 that manages my trades once they are placed, which has some pretty nifty features. With this strategy, for example, it won't start a trailing stop until I can LOCK at least a few pips profit when I get stopped out. Also, it tracks the profit across all trades, so that often times some trades will close with a loss, but the sum of all the closed trades will be profitable.
You can't win.
You can't break even.
You can't quit.
You're welcome.
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I've only been with FXCM, and the whole suffix thing is new to me then. Go figure. Would be interested to continue this conversation, but it seems your last message got flagged as spam. CP no likey.
Jeremy Falcon
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TonyManso wrote: Am I the only one who frequents CP that writes algos for financial markets?
No, once in a while the subject comes up; last post I remember about the subject was about reading headlines and weighing the sentiment.
Trading currencies has never been my thing; one can see the value of (all fiat) currencies go down over time. Who is going down fastest is mostly a bet on which central bank stimulates next.
Would be nice to see more articles on the subject. Would also be nice to see some data on following the algo's advice 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: Trading currencies has never been my thing; one can see the value of (all fiat) currencies go down over time.
I totally agree, but in the climb down to zippo for the fiats, there are swings. Those swings you can still make a profit off of, while on the road to fiat doomsday.
Jeremy Falcon
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About three years ago, I gave it a try with a friend. It didn't go anywhere. All the algorithms failed massively on the historical data, so we gave up.
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I spent twelve years involved in this field, but I'm not allowed to tell you a damned thing about it.
What I can say is that not a single person who is involved in trading understands cr@p about how it all works.
Details cannot follow.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Unfortunately, the people I've worked for might not have even a single, functional logic gate in their brains, but they do have good lawyers.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Jeremy Falcon
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Strange feeling. I was googling trying to find some answers about technical problem, and third result was my own article on CP. 
I guess there is no answer, if I found what I already know (nope, I did not forgot) and maybe this is more than available in technical documentation.
No more Mister Nice Guy... >: |
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