Planning My Next Meetup [hopefully not MIS] Adventure (Part 9)

Surely you didn’t think I was done with potential ways to pitch my option trading group idea, right? Here is one other approach that is altogether different.

I spent some time on Hubstaff Talent the other day looking for freelancers to build my automated backtester. I entered keywords “statistics,” “programming,” and “finance.” I found many candidates had experience pertaining to bookkeeping, rectifying financial transactions, etc., which is nothing that I need. I therefore removed “finance,” thinking that I’d be happy to poach professionals from other fields and teach them what little they may need to know about trading to build the app.

This got me thinking, once again, about starting a group focused on research and backtester building to have this done for free. The results could be used for the trading benefit of all involved. And if I need to teach people how to trade in exchange for a tool that I could ultimately implement for a broad spectrum of use, then I’d certainly be willing to do so. This means putting the focus primarily on tech savvy/programming and secondarily on practicing the trading strategies themselves.

One thing I find sorely missing from the financial industry is hardcore research and testing of trading/investment strategies. From my pharmacy background, this is akin to “evidence-based medicine.” Whether this is needed in finance depends on who you ask. The absence of statistical application [testing] results in demand for good-sounding strategies. One could argue an entire industry has been built upon this with regard to investment advisors, trading educators/mentors, and sale of black box systems. Unfortunately, this absence may also create fertile ground for Ponzi schemes and fraud.

Alas, I digress. Here is the description:

     As a full-time, independent option trader for the last 11 years, I want to pursue
     real-time strategies that have worked in the past when I also think they have
     reason to work in the future (such is never a guarantee). I have spent thousands
     of manual hours backtesting trading strategies. With much more left to study, I
     seek a quicker solution: an automated backtesting app.

     I am looking to assemble of group of people with expertise in statistics, data
     science, and/or programming. Together, we can build an institutional-quality
     tool that can significantly help tailor our individual trading. If you don’t trade
     and would like to learn how, then I’m happy to share everything I have learned.
     I present an alternative view and one that may raise some eyebrows if your
     market education is based on guru talk, financial media, or classic books. This is
     exactly what you may need, though, if you also believe the oft-quoted statistics
     about how 90% of all traders fail within their first couple of years.

     If learning to trade is on your bucket list, then this is your chance to get a fresh
     take from an industry outsider who ironically has more trading experience than
     the vast majority of financial professionals. Let’s do some work, make some
     money, and have a good time establishing Meetup community along the way!