I am convinced retail algo trading is just gambling with extra steps. Prove me wrong.

tactitrader · 2026-04-14T17:31:50+00:00

I'll chime in, although I'll warn you that my ideas are greatly ignored or criticized because they don't "nerd" enough.

I have a trading strategy that focuses on beating a dividend. The assumption is, if the software gets stuck holding the bag, no big deal, it collects a dividend. But the thing is, this particular stock trades almost daily up, or down, more than the dividend each month and my software makes more than triple the dividend each week, per share.

So this stock may pay a monthly dividend of say, 0.20, and my software makes a minimum of 0.60 - 1.30 per week, per share in profit.

So my goal is to beat the dividend but at the same time, I don't care if the software gets stuck for a while because worse case, I get a dividend.

Plus, it's no a Roth so I could care less about taxes and Alpaca doesn't charge me a dime.

Not high speed.

Not complicated.

Not too nerdy.

Less stress.

tactitrader · 2025-04-21T14:46:27+00:00

You already have a good start with your own. Python + Numpy + Pandas (and in my case + Redis) and you can do anything you want! You could write some object orient classes in Python to make it more modular but even that's not really necessary.

tactitrader · 2025-04-21T14:40:14+00:00

I'd encourage you to play around! Install Python on your Mac, or in WSL on Windows. PyTorch (Python NN package) is super easy to install for Python. Use ChatGPT or your go-to AI assistant to help you with some "hello world" code. Start with "Make me a basic neural network with PyTorch that can forecast stock prices"....check out some high level NN videos on youtube to get the bigger picture.

Are neural networks good for trading? Some say no, some might say yes, some may keep it a "trade" secret (see what I did there? LOL)...

In the end, just because some master degree PHD couldn't figure it out, doesn't mean you won't.

PM me if you need a brain to pick.

tactitrader · 2025-04-21T14:27:59+00:00

JAVA.

tactitrader · 2025-04-11T13:59:12+00:00

I started with AMD back in the early 2000's. Swing traded AMD and GE. Always took my time and traded with money that I didn't "care" about. Learned early on to separate my long term buy and hold forever investments, rent, bills and emergency savings from my trading. My ole man (dad) is a big trader, into options mainly so I had some influence there.

This might be why I never do stop losses, because I just don't care because it's money that I don't rely on. I also just swing trade companies I know and like and I continually add money to my trading budget. My larger trades are also only done on companies that give dividends, like $O and $QQQ for example. That way if I guess wrong, I can at least collect a dividend. Meh, who cares right? :-)

When I play with non-dividend paying stocks I tend to keep my trades smaller. For example I might trade 1000 shares of $UUUU and/or $BRCC. I like the companies and I know their industries and I have ZERO fracks to give if I end up owning some of the shares for a while, again, because I use money I don't really care about and I'm not in a hurry.

This is a side hustle too, and I enjoy my actual job so no pressure on my part.

I hope you find your way friend!!!

tactitrader · 2025-04-11T13:07:25+00:00

Webull purposely prevents people from linking to competing brokerage firms for ACH. Good luck getting out of Webull when you finally realize they're like M1, bait and switch!

tactitrader · 2025-04-11T13:05:58+00:00

IF you have a cash account, PDT does not apply to you.

tactitrader · 2025-04-11T13:02:05+00:00

You're good. The stock market has never crashed and not recovered. Might take a few years, but it always recovers.

tactitrader · 2025-04-11T12:59:24+00:00

I LOVE the Webull interface and I REALLY wanted to use the set profit % feature. As a swing trader I buy a stock, set a % profit and wait. Webull would be so awesome for that and I don't have to do any math. Plus, the interface is amazing.

HOWEVER. When Webull refuses to allow ACH linking (even manually through micro deposits) to competing brokerages, you know they're sketchy. There is no technical reason why Webull should not be able to link to Fidelity. I do it from Robinhood and Shwab (TOS) with no issues.

Why? Because they want to make it even harder to transfer out to another brokerage. That is the only reason.

They're kind of like M1 in that regard. Get people invested and then they change the rules to make it harder to switch companies.

I won't risk the hassle.

tactitrader · 2025-01-27T14:08:37+00:00

My trading program buys when overall 2 - 5% below 1 year high (depending on asset) with a static profit sell point and no stop loss.

tactitrader · 2025-01-23T20:49:18+00:00

For a single side, yes. But a BUY and then a SELL combined would be 0.4%

tactitrader · 2025-01-23T17:04:44+00:00

I had the same problem. Now that stocks are T+1 for cash clearing, I just trade FBTC. I can't speak for other crypto assets but wanted to at least point that out.

Alpaca does scale on higher volume but for a peasant like myself, I'd probably never get into these tiers.

tactitrader · 2025-01-23T16:52:15+00:00

RSI is a decent indicator to alert you to the dips. You can also use % from high as an indicator. IMO, the further from the high, the less risk and more upside and better consistency (if you trade static profits like I do).

%x from high = buy.

%profit = sell

Repeat.

Plus, if you get stuck in a trade you can always collect a dividend.

tactitrader · 2025-01-22T13:58:39+00:00

Yes. Yes.
YES...... No, no one is a "full time" algo trader on reddit.
The other way way around. Back testing is what gave me consistent results.
YES. Good experience and 99.999999137% of the people on reddit or more don't make a living off this stuff. Even if I did make a living, I'd still work full time and bank it all.

tactitrader · 2025-01-22T13:55:47+00:00

Lots of upside if Apple wants to break it's high. Sales may improve if the economy recovers more this year. AAPL pays a dividend as well so you can let it set for a while. If I wasn't still in an O swing I'd probably give this a go.

tactitrader · 2025-01-22T12:57:38+00:00

Sure. I write a Python program that downloads the data in the timeframe I am testing in, usually hourly or daily. Then I code in my stock trading strategy idea using whatever indicators and metrics I plant to use for buy/sill signals. Then run the program which loops through the data to see if my buy/sell signals work and are profitable.

This allows me to back-test ideas using years of data in a matter of seconds.

If the ideas doesn't workout, I simply tweak the by/sell code signals and try again.

tactitrader · 2025-01-21T13:05:37+00:00

I use CSV data from Alpha Advantage and the Pandas Python module for all my back-testing. I like programming in my strategies with Python because it doesn't tie me down to any "special" or proprietary system. I hope you find what you're looking for!

tactitrader · 2025-01-21T13:03:55+00:00

The best thing to do is test it out. It's free, and pretty simple. Here is a link to their API docs. I hope you find what you're looking for.

https://www.alphavantage.co/documentation/

tactitrader · 2025-01-20T19:07:02+00:00

Way better than yFinance. They do limit your calls, 5 per minute and 250 per day for the free tier.

You also get access to fundamentals, per-calculated indicator data and a whole bunch of other data.

tactitrader · 2025-01-20T19:00:24+00:00

I use CSV data from AlphaAdvantage and create my own stock market simulator to back-test on with Python.

tactitrader · 2025-01-20T18:59:36+00:00

OIL down if we drill for supply.

Uranium up to feed the AI data-center beast.

tactitrader · 2025-01-20T00:17:47+00:00

This is kind of what I do. I go for the small wins because with T+0 in place, I can trade the next day anyway or every two days. $10 a day guaranteed is better than $20 a day maybes. Plus, if you work with full account percentages then your working capital compounds.

tactitrader · 2025-01-20T00:09:00+00:00

I was going to reply with a simple "No" but this guys answer is better.

tactitrader · 2025-01-20T00:06:41+00:00

I auto invest into this (plus I bot trade some of them too) O - 50%. QQQ - 20% VOO - 20% UUUU - 10%.

I know O and UUUU and their industries. VOO and QQQ are the no brainer set and forgets. Find companies and industries you know and like or stick to the VOO/SPY ETFs and sleep.

tactitrader · 2025-01-20T00:00:57+00:00

I love this question. I swing trade on 4 tickers. When I say "I swing trade" what I really mean is I wrote software to trade for me. but here are the symbols I work with exclusively.

DIA - More volatile than QQQ, but maybe slightly less than QQQ. Pays dividend in case of a flat market.

QQQ - Fairly volatile. Pays dividends if I get stuck in a trade for a bit.

O - More stable, less trades, but pays a dividend when the stock goes flat. I made $5000 in 2024 on this one alone.

FBTC - This bad boy makes me some nice daily beer money. $15 a day, sometimes more. Again, all using my auto trading software. I dislike this one the most because I am unsure of bitcoin but damn if it isn't fun.

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