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Comment by jrdi | Hacker News Reader

Hey! Op here. I decided to write up about my non-conventional career path and how I have been making money online during the last few years. I'm not sure it's easy to replicate but I want to share my adventure hoping is interesting for someone else.

I would be happy to ask any question, and provide advise to anyone interested in.

Thanks!

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I was interested in this post because this is a hobby of mine, but there's really not much information in what you wrote.

Some criticism if I may:

- There is no information in your post. It's basically just a timeline of events.

- You attribute part of the earnings to luck

- You extrapolate out that since you have an algorithm that is earning 2% now, that somehow it can continue for forever. .. (both you and your audience know that this is foolish thinking)

- People often are offered job positions before they are made available to the general public. I don't know that I would admit this in writing though, as this can often be illegal.

- The bolding of random words makes it difficult to read. It would be one thing if you were trying to draw attention or emphasize something but the bolded words seem to be chosen at random.

I'm not trying to come down on you, just offering my thoughts.

Good luck on your journey and I hope you do well, and I would be interested in reading more.

I think that is possibly why this post is valuable. That is, the OP isn't some kind of remarkable genius. He's just an average person who was in the right place at the right time. I think it perhaps also goes to suggest that some big players might barely understand how they themselves made their money. This is why someone was eager to buy a simple algorithm; they barely know what they are doing. Or why they wanted to hire him as a quant. How bad are their quants that someone with 5 minutes of experience is beating them?

After entering the industry, my biggest takeaway has been how incredibly many people do not actually possess the competencies you might have assumed. Every level of the hierarchy is full of idiots whose presence there is mostly due to luck or connections.

Sincerely, that was quite surprising for me, especially while participating in Quantopian. I've no idea of what I was doing and I received all that attention... Appreciate your comment!

I appreciate the feedback!

In general I agree with what you mention. I'm explaining my personal path, I don't want to give too much details but I'll be happy to answer any question you have.

I attribute part of my earnings to luck because it's what really happened, how do you call withdrawing some BTC before a crash that nobody was expecting?

Maybe in some countries is illegal to hire someone without making a job position public, I don't know but there are plenty of company websites where you can make an open submission. If they end hiring you, is that illegal?

Last clarification, I'm not saying that my algorithm will continue earning 2% forever, I'm just saying that it will provide a good income without requiring much effort. I will try to review these last paragraphs to make the point more clear.

Again, thank you for offering your thoughts, I will be happy to provide more details while taking into account your feedback!

Interesting post, algorithmic trading is a hobby of mine. Could you provide more detail on the tools you are using?

Are Quantopian/Numerai still a place to participate? Is possible to earn something on them?

Can you be more specific about what you say about taking small bets? Is it still related to ML/Financial tournaments?

Good post, happy to read more about your journey!

I continue participating in Numerai, I'm not sure about Quantopian, I think they removed their tournament. Can't talk about other but participating in Numerai is still profitable, they removed bonuses but having a relatively good model still pays.

I'm using common data science tools, python, pytorch, and sklearn.

When I talk about small bets I'm talking on trying to take small risks to generate other income sources such as creating small products, or building stuff that can be easily sold.

What is your approach ? Do take us through the ideas you investigated and what you have seen personally work well

I'm sorry but I don't understand your question, my approach where? Do you mean my approach in Numerai tournament?

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