HN Explorer

Ask HN: Hackers Guide to the Stockmarket?

13 points by pw7 ↗ HN
I know nothing about the stockmarket. I know. Thats sad. But whenever I asked a suit to explain it to me, I've fallen into a coma. I am curious however, and willing to develop a solid mental model. So I was wondering if there is something out there which can be considered a hacker's guide to the stockmarket?

12 comments

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Juha
I have the same feeling. I am also interested to get bit deeper knowledge of stock market. I find that the books written by financial experts can be a bit though read for someone not used to all the financial terminology.
antonioe
Khan Academy has a bunch of things on markets which I think is pretty digestible for people - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKly7Y1woJs

Etrade has a bunch of videos on the stock market lingo but I think you need an account.

pw7
Awesome, I like Khan Academy. Did not realize they had finance videos though. Thanks
tom_b
I recently picked up:

The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read: The Proven Way to Beat the "Pros" and Take Control of Your Financial Future by Daniel Solin. A good basic starter book and very short.

For a larger (and timely) economic view, I also slogged through This Time is Different by Reinhart and Rogoff. This book kind of looks at macro-economic conditions around recessions in history to abstract out a pattern around recessions, currency collapses, and depressions. It is not about the stockmarket in a very specific way.

Neither of these sources are particularly hacker-centric viewpoints of the market. Are you looking for algorithmic trading stuff? You might want to check out http://quant.ly/

pw7
Thanks I think I'm gonna buy that book. I am not looking for algorithmic trading stuff (yet). As I said, I barely know anything about the stock market, main thing is want the resources to be brief and straight to the point. Regards.
[dead] avstraliitski
Read the technical specifications for market interface APIs. I just read all I could on the largest 18 stock markets in the world and can tell you that there's some interesting stuff out there. I even found myself - much like the first read of TCP/IP Illustrated (re: remote OS detection / late ~90s) finding potential hacks in their systems just by reading the specs.
paperwork
Frankly, the best way to learn about the stock market is to buy and sell a few stocks. This is the fastest way to gain the greatest amount of knowledge. If you can't afford it, do it on a 'play' account. Give yourself a budget of x dollars and y days. Try to make the most amount of money (or, if you are on a dummy account, try to lose as much money as possible).