Sharing code – A good thing or a bad thing?

Forums › ProRealTime English forum › General trading discussions › Sharing code – A good thing or a bad thing?

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 31 total)
1 2 3
  • 10/09/2017 at 10:59 AM #48749
    Vonasi

    This may seem like a silly question as this forum is all about sharing code but here goes anyway….

    Is sharing code a good thing or a bad thing to do?

    If (and when!) I code a strategy that makes more money than I know what to do with then I will have no problem at all in sharing it for free with others so that they can better their lives. In fact I would probably never have written the code if others had not shared their knowledge. In fact if enough people were to use the code then it might actually help move the markets in the direct of my trades (that’s more of a dream than reality as we are all minnows swimming with big financial sharks).

    But there could be a downside to sharing – if say just for example IG notice that 90% of there customers are trading at identical times in identical markets then it won’t take them long to find the code and reverse engineer it so that they can put in spikes in price or widen the spread to suddenly close everyone out (am I correct in understanding that IG set their own market prices?). That wonderful strategy that worked so well suddenly has us all scratching our heads and saying ‘That never happened in backtesting’. I’d like to think that the spread betting companies would just trade along with us and hedge their risk and keep us all as happy customers while also happily pocketing the spread.

    I’d be interested in others thoughts on the good and bad of sharing code.

    10/09/2017 at 11:34 AM #48757
    Eric

    I think it depends of type of system and timeframe

    generally you have different personal settings on the same system, (i have one system with three different versions/parameters on the same market)

    if many should trade big at exactly the same time i suppose it could be delays,gaps and slippage especially out of hours? (but then you would adapt and change the parameters a bit?)

     

    10/09/2017 at 12:07 PM #48762
    Inertia

    Same here.

    I never purely copy/paste and run directly a strategy given on the forum …

    I have a road book of testing “the code” in different TF, instruments and settings…

     

    10/09/2017 at 12:20 PM #48765
    Nicolas

    Much easier for a broker to spike to stoploss levels just by looking at its orders book than to reverse engineer every retail traders’strategies.

    Vonasi wrote:

    90% of there customers are trading at identical times in identical markets

    It will never happen, you are talking about hundreds of thousand people accounts.

    10/09/2017 at 12:57 PM #48772
    Vonasi

    Thanks for the responses. In reality it was a hypothetical question to see what others thought.

    I had forgotten that everyone will most likely have fiddled with a strategy before setting it live. Even though this is exactly what I would do!

    If brokers have the means to spike to stoploss levels then that could kill any strategy dead once larger positionsizes are being used and it is worth brokers doing. Makes it feel like a rigged game if that actually happens. I guess we have to hope that with hundreds of thousands of people placing positions that the brokers book would be so varied that they would win as much as they would lose so wouldn’t bother.

    So the question really should be that if you coded the holy grail strategy would you happily share it with the world?

     

     

    10/09/2017 at 1:48 PM #48777
    Nicolas
    Vonasi wrote:

    So the question really should be that if you coded the holy grail strategy would you happily share it with the world?

    Not a serious question since such strategy will never be discovered 😆

    Vonasi wrote:

    I guess we have to hope that with hundreds of thousands of people placing positions that the brokers book would be so varied that they would win as much as they would lose so wouldn’t bother.

    With 50% buyers and 50% sellers (and it all depends of Volumes on each side of course), the broker is always fine at the end.

    10/09/2017 at 3:08 PM #48788
    Vonasi

    The holy grail strategy is something that can be sought but that only exists in the mind. On the search for it some coding gems will be discovered. With enough gems many strategies can be built that although not actually a true holy grail are damned good. Do you keep them all to yourself and watch from the sidelines and maybe offer a little advice as others search the same paths you have followed or do you share out your valuable gems and make yourself feel good? I think the latter as what is a gem without a happy feeling inside?

    Now I just need to write some good code…..!

    10/09/2017 at 3:26 PM #48792
    Nicolas

    If I wanted to keep everything to myself, I will not be on the site to help anyone more than 10 hours a day including vacation and weekend 😉

    But I understand that this is not really an answer to your question and that it is not only me. What I think is that people should be able to really “desecrate” what trading is and what it can bring. There is no magic formula, nor something that really comes close to it. The truth lies solely in what one does with the tool, and how one perceives it in relation to one’s own needs: I want to trade for a living? I want to capitalize for my retirement? I want to “play” with my money? … a thousand and one ways of looking at things. If at the end of a period you can determine in days, weeks or years, you are still in the green, then you have discovered your “holy grail”.

    1 user thanked author for this post.
    avatar Juan Salas
    11/25/2017 at 4:55 AM #53886
    Nobody

    Ive got a lot form this forum , infact without it i wouldnt be where i am tradingwise  . HUGE thanks to all  who contribute , i’ve decided i need to square the ledger by giving something back  . Whilst i wont share complete codes of highly robust systems ive built i will help with any bits and pieces i can to help others on their journey  …   sharing is caring  

    11/25/2017 at 12:00 PM #53912
    Vonasi

    Thanks for your reply Brisvegas.

    In the interest of sharing I’d be interested in knowing what sort of categories your best and most robust strategies fall into. Mean reverting, breakout, trend following, short time frame, long time frame, scalping, volatility based etc. I ask because I find myself jumping from one to the other and slowly eliminating them all. At the moment I am having the best success with entries and exits based on momentum and volatility – but it is all still a work in progress. I have been spread betting for a few years now both manually and automated and am still in profit – despite being on the wrong side of some very large bets during the Brexit and Trump voting fiascos!

    I would like to have a small portfolio of strategies diversified across various instruments and a hint as to which is the best direction to direct my energies would be much appreciated.

    11/25/2017 at 2:56 PM #53930
    Wing

    One benefit of sharing systems is to get a second perspective on it. If another person can improve it or give criticism you can learn and get better. That would be the main reason to share a system.

    11/25/2017 at 5:32 PM #53942
    Vonasi
    Wing wrote:

    One benefit of sharing systems is to get a second perspective on it. If another person can improve it or give criticism you can learn and get better. That would be the main reason to share a system.

    Absolutely – which is why I’d love to know what works for other traders. It would be great to be heading down a route with the knowledge that others have followed the same route and found a pile of cash at the end of it.

    11/26/2017 at 12:22 AM #53970
    Derek

    The way I read your comment the whole reasoning appears to be off.

    Let’s assume I have a technical trading system that makes real good money. Sharing the system will lead to either

    a) everybody buying when I want to buy. Driving my price up and my gains down. Or,

    b) I will sell my previously bought assets on the way up. This is where a lot more can be earned then by stopping people out, in my humble opinion.

    My trading is not affected by unusual moves in IG’s quotes. If I thought so, I’d be gone.

    11/26/2017 at 8:23 AM #53981
    Vonasi
    Derek wrote:

    a) everybody buying when I want to buy. Driving my price up and my gains down.

    Sorry Derek but this makes no logical sense.

    If everyone is using the same system then all of the orders will be placed at the same price. The only thing that will move the price up is someone not using the system deciding to place an order at a higher price. All the orders from the shared strategy would be filled and removed from the order book making it more likely that someone else’s order at a higher price is filled and so price moves up in our favour as we all bought at our lower system price.

    11/26/2017 at 9:23 AM #53983
    robertogozzi

    I subscribe to Derek’s opinion.

    10,000 traders running the same strategy would all buy at the same time and price, thus making liquidity insufficient and pushing prices up. Who would sell if the winning strategy says it’s time to buy?

    Also, as for paintings, they are invaluable as long as there is only one of them. Everybody having a Holy Grail in their hands would only prove either it does not exist or it is not the Holy Grail!

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 31 total)
1 2 3

Find exclusive trading pro-tools on ProRealCode Marketplace

Similar topics:
what is a good algo – criteria of a good algo

Create your free account now and post your request to benefit from the help of the community
Register or Login