I was just wondering if you will be creating the option for "fake money" accounts when live trading is released.
I play in a trading game over at Market Watch and it's a lot of fun. Part of the excitement comes from having a defined start and finish date and a limited budget. Which also makes it a fair comparison between the players.
So I would love to be able to create a game in this community and compete using algorithmic trading.
Hello Dennis,
Yes, we plan on making a paper trading (aka "fake money") feature. That's actually going to come out before live trading. You have to walk before you run ;).
We've definitely kicked around the idea of contests in a number of different ways, but we haven't settled on anything. I confess that one of the things that has always bugged me about those contests is that without any skin in the game, you end up taking outrageous, risky flyers - strategies that you'd never actually trade in real life. I've been trying to conceive a contest where you get judged on your risk as well as your return.
I'm kind of hoping that when we launch paper trading that the community will create it's own contests, and then we can improve and implement those ideas.
Definitely interested in what you and others think we should do.
Dan
The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian. In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.
I agree with your thinking entirely.
Perhaps the ranking system needs more variety. So for instance multiple leaderboards:
And the winner of the game would have the most points accumulated according to ranking across all leaderboards.
The creators of each game could decide which leaderboards and benchmarks to make active. Maybe even custom statistics to encourage innovation in the community.
Another thought ...
It would be interesting to allow games to restrict the universe of stocks available to participants.
Hard to believe, but I helped write a live market trading simulation in 1996, "MarketPlayer.com" -- having flashbacks!
Reward based on risk-adjusted return perhaps? And by that, something like the Sortino ratio wherein positive volatility is A-OK but negative volatility is bad?
There are a lot of issues, you'd want to prevent people from entering more than once I expect, otherwise people will swing for the fences with multiple opposing strategies. There are also probably some gambling/sweepstakes regulations you'd need to make sure you are not violating.
Of course, the best contest would be one where the entrance fee is $1000 and all entrants earn their strategies' return, with winners by various metrics earning a bonus. Hedging the contest would be a fun exercise for your nascent execution system :)
Simon.
We're reading this all with interest. I'm hoping to put together a basic, simple contest after paper trading is available, and this conversation is feeding that. Thanks.
The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian. In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.
The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation or endorsement for any security or strategy, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services by Quantopian.
In addition, the material offers no opinion with respect to the suitability of any security or specific investment. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action as none of Quantopian nor any of its affiliates is undertaking to provide investment advice, act as an adviser to any plan or entity subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity, or give advice in a fiduciary capacity with respect to the materials presented herein. If you are an individual retirement or other investor, contact your financial advisor or other fiduciary unrelated to Quantopian about whether any given investment idea, strategy, product or service described herein may be appropriate for your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Quantopian makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the views expressed in the website. The views are subject to change, and may have become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances.
