
Cloud9Trader – Simple, powerful platform for algorithmic trading - octosphere
https://www.cloud9trader.com/
======
throwawaymath
Being that the account that submitted this is still green, I'm going to assume
that the person behind it is either a user of Cloud9Trader or affiliated with
it. If that _is_ the case, I have a few questions:

1\. Who is the intended demographic here? Based on pricing and features
there's no way this is intended for institutional funds, so is this targeted
at amateurs or small professionals? It states it's targeting "beginners to get
grips with quant trading for free", but that strikes me as a poor market to
try and sell to.

2\. Can users' algorithms be seen by the platform? If so, that's a non-starter
for many professionals.

3\. Does Cloud9Trader provide historical data or just compute power? If
historical data is provided, what resolutions are available?

4\. Which brokers are supported? It seems like just FXCM and Oanda; are there
plans for others?

5\. How are backtest compute units measured? The pricing page states:

 _" A backtest compute unit is a measure of processing resource made available
for backtesting. 10 units is equivalent to one month of backtesting every
tick, or 10 months of backtesting minute data."_

but it's unclear to me how an atomic unit of compute time can be generalizably
the same for every user's backtesting workflow.

6\. What is the non-pricing data you're providing? It looks like you're just
reselling premium geographic data from Quadrant and free data from Quandl, but
the naming scheme is not clear on what it's providing.

I guess while I'm here I might as well make this point: I'm deeply pessimistic
that this tool would meaningfully improve the productivity or profitability of
real-world quantitative trading. I also don't think it makes sense to target
"beginners in quant trading" because quantitative trading is one of those
things which mostly doesn't (and shouldn't) exist outside of teams and
companies. I consider it somewhat predatory to offer a service that implicitly
encourages inexperienced non-professionals to get into this - quantitative
trading is very _unlike_ programming and entrepreneurship in that there is no
straightforward way to teach yourself or bootstrap.

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trengrj
You unfortunately might hit some trademark issues with AWS's Cloud9
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud9_IDE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud9_IDE).

~~~
__john
[https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/on-cloud-
nine.html](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/on-cloud-nine.html)

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marktangotango
Anyone who does algorithmic trading, what platform do you use? Do you roll
your own? I’ve had a passing interest in this field for years but have not
done anything myself.

~~~
chad_strategic
Yes, I roll my own.

I'm unique hybrid as I have a MBA (finance) before the great depression and
because of the great depression I couldn't find a job. So I taught myself how
to code (~2010) and have been working in code ever since, while still doing
some algorithmic trading on the side.

I build custom trading systems on the side. Interactive Brokers is the only
firm that I have found that has a good API. TD ameritrade seems to be starting
in that direction. As for Trader9, well best of luck. For a little self
promotion...

[http://www.strategic-options.com/insight/the-best-and-
worst-...](http://www.strategic-options.com/insight/the-best-and-worst-stock-
and-option-trading-apis/)

~~~
pembrook
>I have a MBA (finance) before the great depression and because of the great
depression I couldn't find a job.

Since you've been alive for over 100 years, what's the key to a happy life?

~~~
chad_strategic
I like to go to Hawaii every two years or so. Seems to help...

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danieltillett
I have a question for those in the field - is there a good tool to fingerprint
the level of algorithmic trading going on in a particular market? I trade in a
lot of very obscure and illiquid stocks and in some I can spot obvious bot
trading, but in others I see none.

~~~
tcbawo
The highest correlation will probably be volatility.

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nodesocket
Introduction video: [https://www.cloud9trader.com/documentation/video-
tutorials/l...](https://www.cloud9trader.com/documentation/video-
tutorials/lesson-1-introduction-and-overview)

So the following community algo
([https://www.cloud9trader.com/algorithms/1085/code](https://www.cloud9trader.com/algorithms/1085/code))
claims to have averaged 0.6% monthly profit, which is a 7.2% annual return.
Actually pretty awesome.

Why is it only trading between 5AM and 6PM?

    
    
        function isGoodTimeToTrade() {
      	    if (hour >= 5 && hour < 18) {
                return true;
            }
        }

~~~
brobinson
That algorithm would have a poor Sharpe/Sortino/Calmar ratio. The risk-
adjusted return is bad, though not as comically bad as some of the others on
the homepage with 40%+ drawdowns.

5am -> 6pm is most likely targeting a specific trading "session". See:
[https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/08/3-market-
syst...](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/08/3-market-system.asp)

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princeb
Cloud 9 trader is the exact name of a voip dealerboard that’s used in the
industry right now.

[https://www.c9tec.com/trader-communications/](https://www.c9tec.com/trader-
communications/)

~~~
vostok
Fortunately, the institutional traders who use that Cloud9 will never use this
Cloud9 and the retail traders who use this Cloud9 will never use that Cloud9.

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gaius
The way to get rich in day trading is to run a website for day traders...

[https://xkcd.com/1570/](https://xkcd.com/1570/)

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Nostradedamus
\- Keep your algo simple and match them with observed patern vs gain

\- Apply algo between 9:30am and 1:00pm (greatest price movement)

\- Keep in mind, greed is the destroyer...small gain but often and constant

~~~
syspec
> match them with observed patern vs gain

Can you elaborate on this?

~~~
Nostradedamus
\- Don't buy at the opening bell \- Volume = momentum (apply law of gravity
here) \- Algo must reflect the Day Traders "spirit" (profit taking = specific
% downward) \- Uniform circular motion is the key

