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Comment by baccredited | Hacker News Reader

Yeah I made 21.4% in 2017. I wrote my own algorithms and did back-testing with custom ruby code and data from ycharts.com ($) and brokerage.tradier.com (free if you have an account). Ruby is a weird choice in this area as most probably use r or python, but I love ruby.

The key for me is to focus on long-term trading strategies that are at least a year long. The HFT guys and people who spend their time on quantopia and the like have a day trader mentality.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for asking this question, I will look for you on twitter.

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Interesting note: the S&P 500 with dividend reinvestment returned 21.14% in 2017 [1].

[1]: https://dqydj.com/2017-sp-500-return/

If you bought and held an index fund for a year you got taxed less as well.

Yep if I can't overcome the drag of long-term capital gains over several years I will pull the plug.

In 2017, the S&P 500 was up 18.74% - not that the extra 2.5% you made is nothing, but it's not a get-rich-quick type of return.

How many trades did you do over the course of the year? Was your volatility lower than the market overall?

96 trades. 4 active strategies that each buy 2 stocks a month and hold for a year.

I care so little about volatility that I'm not even measuring it yet. And I admit that might be dumb.

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic, the S&P was up slightly more than that in 2017...

Not being sarcastic or proud, I know I (barely) lost. Just stating the facts. Obviously over a long term horizon of like 10 yrs I expect to beat the S&P or I would be spending my time elsewhere.

Well good luck. It's just too easy to fool your self in an up market. It would be much more interesting to see your results in a down or sideways market.

A fool would judge their algorithm based on ANY single year's performance--up down or sideways. Moving averages over 5 or 10 years are what matter.

Check out Berkshire Hathaway's performance. There are plenty of years they have UNDER performed. But they are doing OK.

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2017ltr.pdf

My understanding is berkshire does a lot more than just buy stocks. They buy companies and actively improve/invest/streamline them to be more profitable. This will obviously increase the value of said company and make them money. Most retail investors can't do this, so it's pointless to compare the two.

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