Ask HN: Are there advantages for a software engineer looking to day trade?

1 point·digitalsanctum··3 comments

I've been a software engineer for over 20 years and looking into day trading. Are there advantages and/or resources specifically targeted to software engineers who also trade?

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Research has found that active retail traders underperform passive investors, so think about why you should be the exception. That said, if you are going to day trade, knowing how to program should help you in analyzing your performance. Trading strategies can be automated through APIs offered by Interactive Brokers and some other firms. Yves Hilpisch has written some O'Reilly books about algo trading using Python.

You probably have the salary such that you can fund this endeavor better than someone without such a salary. Other than that when it comes to setting up an algorithmic trading setup you’re probably golden there, too.

But otherwise you’re no better off than anyone else and like Bostonian says on the average day traders don’t outperform and in fact usually lose their money. :shrug:

Are there advantages for a software engineer looking to day trade?

LOL! No.

This is like asking if a software engineer would have better odds in Vegas. A less than realistic outlook is required just to formulate the basis for asking the question.

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