Ask HN: What is your profitable side project story?
33 comments
How did you deal with seeing family? Also, at what age/technical ability did you take the jump? I feel a bit of "impostor syndrome" when I think about going off and trying to do contracting work (I'm age 25 with a little experience making CRUD web apps and some standard backend work for a bank). Thanks!
I think I was around 30 when I started doing the travel, contract, repeat cycle. By then I had established a reputation for being good at building things and a handful of good contacts at places that needed work done from time to time.
Job hopping helps with the impostor syndrome thing, which everybody has to a degree. After half a dozen stints at different companies each telling you that you're good at what you do, it eventually starts to sink in. It also helps prove to you that you can in fact pick up work quickly when you need it in this industry (usually including a nice rate bump). And of course, the more people you work for, the bigger the list of "ex-bosses friends building a team" becomes, and with it the pool of options for future gigs.
Good luck!
Job hopping helps with the impostor syndrome thing, which everybody has to a degree. After half a dozen stints at different companies each telling you that you're good at what you do, it eventually starts to sink in. It also helps prove to you that you can in fact pick up work quickly when you need it in this industry (usually including a nice rate bump). And of course, the more people you work for, the bigger the list of "ex-bosses friends building a team" becomes, and with it the pool of options for future gigs.
Good luck!
I started http://www.manypixels.co last week as a side project while being a digital nomad in SE Asia.
It is a service that offers unlimited design services for bootstrapped startups (though we actually have one VC funded startup as a client).
This side project generates about $3k weekly revenue currently (though I have only one week worth of data), and about 20% of that is profit currently (though I should be able to increase that closer 30-35% in the next couple of months).
It is a service that offers unlimited design services for bootstrapped startups (though we actually have one VC funded startup as a client).
This side project generates about $3k weekly revenue currently (though I have only one week worth of data), and about 20% of that is profit currently (though I should be able to increase that closer 30-35% in the next couple of months).
Stock trading robots, it is a lifestyle business with no customers, no employees and no investors and location independent and can be done from anywhere in the world...
Was interested in stock trading robots a while ago, just had a look back through your comments/submissions and this seems to be a common theme - Do you have anywhere you write a little more on your experiences in this area, or do you prefer to keep that under wraps?
Yep, unfortunately, due to the nature of the business, I would not share any details...
I know this is not a get rich kind of thing, but how long did it take before you saw significant amount of money coming your way?
I would LOVE to be financially independent. I'm just wondering, if I get into quantitative trading, how many years that would take
I would LOVE to be financially independent. I'm just wondering, if I get into quantitative trading, how many years that would take
Frankly, it took me years, because as everyone, I took the wrong path in the beginning - technical analysis, books... After that I had to unlearn the bad habits and start clean...
what's the right path? If you can't tell this because you consider it as a secret ingredient of your recipe, what are the things one should avoid?
OK, 1st back test a lot, at least 1 or 2 market cycles to make sure your winning strategy is not correlated to the bull market only for example...
What to avoid: avoid everyone who is selling trading strategy (in a books or online gurus and signal sellers), no sane person will do it, because the more people(money) are trading a strategy, the less effective it will become overtime...
What to avoid: avoid everyone who is selling trading strategy (in a books or online gurus and signal sellers), no sane person will do it, because the more people(money) are trading a strategy, the less effective it will become overtime...
Oh, that's what I started doing. haha..ha
Any tips for noobs?
Get yourself a small linux box, install python, get some back data and start testing any trading idea you ca come across the web for free or from books form the library - all of them will fail, but it will give you other ideas to test and one day hopefully you'll find your edge... From there it's easy to automate...
And recognize you are up against the smartest brains in the world on discretionary and automated basis, some of whom can transact at sub-second frequency. Unless I see audited results from a reputable firm, everyone is full of BS. Don't believe everything you read.
~~a 25 year veteran of the markets, hedge funds, CTAs, equities, commodities, you name it.
~~a 25 year veteran of the markets, hedge funds, CTAs, equities, commodities, you name it.
[deleted]
EDIT: it’s not easy, but also it’s not easy to become a doctor, professional athlete or a rock star either
Any reason not to use a service like Quantopian?
Maybe I am paranoid due to my "real job" in systems/security, but here is why I would never use a service which will hold my trading strategy algo, especially in the cloud because:
1. Those are startups with limited funding and not too many employees, so they are the perfect hackers target for the perfect crime, the hacker don't have to steal anything, just copy the best strategy from time to time and use it until obsolete or just bet against you for example...
2. I don't see a 3rd party verification and audit on what exactly the employees of those companies have access to - if I am a rogue hedge fund, I have to compromise only one employee in such a company and ask him to send me all best trading strategies every month for example...
3. Hedge funds are major investors in such companies, the question is why and what information they are getting...
1. Those are startups with limited funding and not too many employees, so they are the perfect hackers target for the perfect crime, the hacker don't have to steal anything, just copy the best strategy from time to time and use it until obsolete or just bet against you for example...
2. I don't see a 3rd party verification and audit on what exactly the employees of those companies have access to - if I am a rogue hedge fund, I have to compromise only one employee in such a company and ask him to send me all best trading strategies every month for example...
3. Hedge funds are major investors in such companies, the question is why and what information they are getting...
Can you ellaborate? Are there any good testing set up platforms or tutorials?
Are you worried machine learning will sweep the field, especially its niches? Seems like a fun field to get in to, but I'd be worried to be to late now :)
Until a real AI emerges, I am not worried, because my strategy is based on the human greed and fear, so it is going to work the same as long as people are designing and implementing algos...
If one day a real AI comes a long and we finally have the singularity, who knows... but maybe the AI will be as greedy and fearful as his human parents, which wont be a good news for the human race, if you have to think about it :-)
If one day a real AI comes a long and we finally have the singularity, who knows... but maybe the AI will be as greedy and fearful as his human parents, which wont be a good news for the human race, if you have to think about it :-)
Find it hard to believe. The account always boasts about the supposed riches from trading but never discuss anything substantial.
The idea is pretty simple really, so my advice to you is simple: buy low and sell high...
Just think about it, why on earth I should help you (my competitor) and save you time by giving you working (and non working for that matter) trading ideas?
In the end it is a zero sum game (even less than zero when calculate the commissions and other expenses), so for me to make money, someone else have to lose...
If I ask you to sell your house and send me the money, I would sound a bit crazy, don't you think?
Just think about it, why on earth I should help you (my competitor) and save you time by giving you working (and non working for that matter) trading ideas?
In the end it is a zero sum game (even less than zero when calculate the commissions and other expenses), so for me to make money, someone else have to lose...
If I ask you to sell your house and send me the money, I would sound a bit crazy, don't you think?
Do you sell your robots or are they personal use only? I've been interested in this for a while but figure plenty of people would have done it better.
Absolutely not, why shoul I sell my secret sauce to the competition? And make no mistake, everyone in the market is competing with you! I am hoping one day to give them to my kids to continue...
Sometimes you can make more cash that way. If you put in $50k into the stock market, you'd get back maybe... $3k a month?
Whereas selling it as some kind of SaaS, you could make maybe the same kind of money with just around 20 users, or even one user who invests millions.
Whereas selling it as some kind of SaaS, you could make maybe the same kind of money with just around 20 users, or even one user who invests millions.
You can trade millions, if you start selling your system, it will be arbitraged preaty soon... I make more than enough to not work a day in my life, so I don’t need investors or customers to take care of...
1. Provide weekly personalized one-hour sales coaching for tech founders without a sales background
2. Built a collaboration and communication platform that provides an easier way for my sales team to communicate with potential customers
[1]https://www.sellsomemore.com/coaching
[2]https://www.recapped.io
2. Built a collaboration and communication platform that provides an easier way for my sales team to communicate with potential customers
[1]https://www.sellsomemore.com/coaching
[2]https://www.recapped.io
Check out indiehackers.com
http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/guy-on-the-beach-with-...
The short version is moving to Contracting, then Consulting Remotely, then Building Products while doing same, then learning how to Market them. With a good helping of Living Cheaply thrown in to keep the burn rate down.
It's a nice way to go about it, since you never need to worry about running out of money, and you can move at whatever speed you like since there's always a "day job" supplementing the product revenue.
Even better, since the business is built to run in the background while working elsewhere, once you turn off the "working elsewhere" part, you're effectively retired.