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oakmac

126 karma · joined October 28, 2008

Freelance web developer and foreign currency trader. chris[at]oakmac[dot]com
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oakmac··on Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
Aside from the obvious advice to keep your expenses as low as possible, I think you might consider a change in attitude. You are playing a game with a positive expected value, but the rules of the game are such that payoffs are very large and very rare (if you've read The Black Swan, think Extremistan). Unfortunately, the game of "paying my rent check" and "eating on a daily basis" follows a different set of rules. You've been allowed the privilege of taking a risk due to your savings; once they are gone you will be playing a different game. When that time comes you may just decide that "some business guy's lame vision" is a decent alternative to being hungry on the streets coding Haskell. The choice is up to you.

Also, stop feeling scared and terrified (your words). These emotions are not helping you in any way.

oakmac··on Ask HN: 5-7 months of living expenses left; terrified. Advice?
That is neither good nor accurate advice.
oakmac··on Ask HN: How do I go about PHP?
I would also like to show my support for Kohana, Notepad++, and XAMPP.
oakmac··on Ask YC: How do you follow YC threads you enjoy?
F5
oakmac··on Ask HN: How Much Can I Scrape?
I updated my profile with my email address.
oakmac··on Ask HN: How Much Can I Scrape?
From my experience the only reliable source of historical stock data is the exchange source. Nasdaq.com records go back to January 2nd, 1990.
oakmac··on Ask HN: How Much Can I Scrape?
I did this exact same thing a few years ago only stripping the data from nasdaq.com using Perl. I used to hit their site once every 2 seconds times roughly 2500 stocks every day for about 6 months. I would only grab as much data as I needed. They never contacted me or blocked my IP address. I also had a friend who was doing the same thing for a longer period of time.

From experience, I would not recommend getting your data from Yahoo. I looked at them first, but their data is just not as good as the source.

If you would like more information or my notes on how I reverse-engineered the nasdaq.com URL scheme please send me an email.

oakmac··on 5 CEOs That Need To Get Fired
"I bet users wouldn't be opposed to paying a monthly subscription."

If Facebook started charging a monthly fee to be a member it would die a swift death. What Facebook should do is start charging for additional services beyond a basic profile. For example: basic profile is limited to 20 photos/month, $2/month gets you unlimited.

oakmac··on The Sellers’ Market for Startup Investing will Restart in ~12 Months
Any prediction (and especially a prediction involving financial markets) with this time scale should be completely ignored. Please read The Black Swan for more information.
oakmac··on Ask HN: Keep cash positions in different currencies?
Sure, but that isn't going to necessarily affect their currency's stability (only it's valuation). The stability of the CHF is rooted in the country's deep history of political and social stability.
oakmac··on Ask HN: Keep cash positions in different currencies?
Fundamentally this is an investment question. Because currencies trade against each other on an open market moving your money from one currency to another is speculation.

In the case of total economic collapse the only things of value will be things that cannot be bought: friendships, trust, favors, etc. Maybe you should make friends with a local farmer.

oakmac··on Ask HN: Keep cash positions in different currencies?
The Swiss Franc is known for it's stability against other currencies.
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