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Young grasshopper to Quantopian and everything related
Deleted User
posted Sep 15, 2015
Seeking Help Getting Started

Hello all,
Firstly, I'm Ashish and I'm a student currently still in high school in Australia. I stumbled upon this website through Investopedia and I was just wondering what this is, how this works and how to get started. Assumed knowledge would also help. Yeh... I'll comment below.

P.S. Remember that I'm in high school and therefore I don't have qualifications in mathematics nor science nor anything else. However I do know some stuff from finance, investing and the likes. I'm also quite "slow" at maths. Therefore please go easy on me :)

7 responses
Alisa Deychman
Sep 15, 2015

Ashish - welcome! Anyone can get started and start learning the code, finance theory, and mathematics behind the strategies. All you need is an eager mind.

Take a look at the resources in this thread to jump in: https://www.quantopian.com/posts/new-to-this-whole-thing

As you get comfortable with the code, try some sample strategies and keep iterating!

Disclaimer

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.

Deleted User
Sep 15, 2015

Thank you :D. Can I contact you if I have any questions?

Alisa Deychman
Sep 16, 2015

Sure, you can send us a note to [email protected] anytime. Better yet, I suggest you post your questions here in the forums, so others can learn with you.

Deleted User
Sep 16, 2015

Sure :D

Deleted User
Sep 17, 2015

Is there any reason as to why I would be disqualified from a contest?

Deleted User
Sep 18, 2015 
# Put any initialization logic here.  The context object will be passed to  
# the other methods in your algorithm.  
def initialize(context):  
    pass

# Will be called on every trade event for the securities you specify.  
def handle_data(context, data):  
    # Implement your algorithm logic here.

    # data[sid(X)] holds the trade event data for that security.  
    # context.portfolio holds the current portfolio state.

    # Place orders with the order(SID, amount) method.

    # TODO: implement your own logic here.  
    order(sid(24), 50)

can you please explain this :)
my return was 9026772.87%
i think there's a mistake

Jamie McCorriston
Sep 18, 2015

Hi Ashish,

This is actually not a mistake! What's happening here is that every day (or every minute, depending on which mode you used), handle_data is called and you order 50 shares of AAPL. If you don't have enough cash in your portfolio, you are still allowed to buy the stock under the assumption that any extra money that the transaction would cost you is "borrowed". Since AAPL grew so much since 2002, your strategy would have very significant returns given that you buy 50 shares every frame. Your very large returns will also be compared to the cash you started with, so as a %, you can expect a very high number like the one you saw!

Disclaimer

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.

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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.