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NYC Meetup Group for Algo Trading Newbies
pat c
posted Jan 31, 2013

Hi,

I run a meetup space in NYC dedicated to knowledge sharing for small groups and always wanted to get into the finance area of algorithmic trading. I was wonderng whats the best way to learn the "basics" of using your web app to create these trading scripts for testing. I would LOVE to learn the basics first and teach it back out to new comers at our space. Currently I hold other types of tech meetups here and algo trading is something I want to get up around here.

http://www.xcubicle.com/event/demo-arduino-hydrogen-fuel-cell-diy-development

Thanks,
Pat

3 responses
Dan Dunn
Jan 31, 2013

Hello Patrick,

Thanks for the interest! I'm glad you like the tools.

That's a good question, how to get started. We've built a handful of get-started content, but I've never tried to put it all together before.

  1. I'd start with the sample algorithm. Watch this video that walks you through implementing the sample algorithm.
  2. I'd go into the second sample algorithm. That's going to give you multiple securities, logging, and importing Python libraries. Those are all important things to know how to do.
  3. I'd go into the third sample algorithm (same place as above). That gets you into batch transforms. Those are reasonably advanced and enable some very complex algos.

At that point, you've moved from crawling to walking. The way to run, I think, is to hang out here in this community and join in on the conversations. Clone the algos that are shared, and see if you can understand/help the questions that are being asked.

Does that help? If not, I can probably come up with another path.

Dan

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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.

pat c
Jan 31, 2013

yes that sounds good. algo trading seems super complicated from an outsiders perspective, which i really dont think it is once you understand how to use all the tools properly.

im a front end developer coming into this space and i have alot of interesting experiments i would like to try out using my other skillsets. As crazy as it sounds i wondered if I can create a backtest to factor in movements of the planets to see if there's a correlation to the markets. Just a fantasy hobby for now. =)

Dan Dunn
Feb 1, 2013

Right now, the only way to add other data sources is to put the data into your algorithm itself. In the future you'll be able to add whatever data source you like, but we haven't built that yet.

Moon cycles sounds like as good a start as any ;)

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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.