Comments on: Is MQL a bad career skill or is Eastern Europe a bad place for quants? http://mqlmagazine.com/job-career/is-mql-a-bad-career-skill-or-is-eastern-europe-a-bad-place-for-quants/ All things MetaTrader Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:37:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Enigma71 http://mqlmagazine.com/job-career/is-mql-a-bad-career-skill-or-is-eastern-europe-a-bad-place-for-quants/comment-page-1/#comment-15 Enigma71 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:47:32 +0000 http://mqlmagazine.com/?p=15#comment-15 "and yet effective fx automated trading systems are still ellusive" Yes, but mainly because vast majority of traders/coders are chasing a "holy grail" type of indicator. Try to find decent forum threads regarding testing, optimization, money management or position sizing - it's not that easy. There are just a few around, even on such a huge websites as FF, ForexTSD or MQL4 forum. Instead of such valuable threads, you can find tons of worthless EAs and indicators, which work only with a certain set of parameters and for a short period of time, or - which is maybe even more common - backtests of "brilliant" EAs that earn 100.000.000$ in a year (which of course fail after first several weeks of live trading due to improper backtesting, lack of forward testing and weak money management). So while an improvement to MQL4 and MT4 strategy tester was really a must, the main reason is IMHO that most of people trying to trade FX or other markets don't understand what are the most crucial factors in creating a successful trading system. " The only thing left, that’s still not there , in the life, after you have everything else – the position, the salary, the work environment … it’s the passion, the thing that’s missing." Fortunately I am not missing it :) I just hope that one day I will be able to quit my day job and focus only on trading and developing trading systems. ==== Best of luck in forthcoming 2010, Bogdan. Hope that more people will visit this site - maybe it should be more advertised on the major FX forums? Regards, Enigma71 “and yet effective fx automated trading systems are still ellusive”

Yes, but mainly because vast majority of traders/coders are chasing a “holy grail” type of indicator. Try to find decent forum threads regarding testing, optimization, money management or position sizing – it’s not that easy. There are just a few around, even on such a huge websites as FF, ForexTSD or MQL4 forum. Instead of such valuable threads, you can find tons of worthless EAs and indicators, which work only with a certain set of parameters and for a short period of time, or – which is maybe even more common – backtests of “brilliant” EAs that earn 100.000.000$ in a year (which of course fail after first several weeks of live trading due to improper backtesting, lack of forward testing and weak money management). So while an improvement to MQL4 and MT4 strategy tester was really a must, the main reason is IMHO that most of people trying to trade FX or other markets don’t understand what are the most crucial factors in creating a successful trading system.

” The only thing left, that’s still not there , in the life, after you have everything else – the position, the salary, the work environment … it’s the passion, the thing that’s missing.”

Fortunately I am not missing it :) I just hope that one day I will be able to quit my day job and focus only on trading and developing trading systems.

====

Best of luck in forthcoming 2010, Bogdan. Hope that more people will visit this site – maybe it should be more advertised on the major FX forums?

Regards,

Enigma71

]]> By: Bogdan Caramalac, MQLmagazine sr.editor http://mqlmagazine.com/job-career/is-mql-a-bad-career-skill-or-is-eastern-europe-a-bad-place-for-quants/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Bogdan Caramalac, MQLmagazine sr.editor Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:01:47 +0000 http://mqlmagazine.com/?p=15#comment-6 Well, I don't think we could ever talk about "coding for a living in MQL"... Tons of MQL4 code have been written since the release of MQL4, and yet effective fx automated trading systems are still ellusive. What yields out of this is the overall lowering of MQL4 code value, since same results in terms of good strategies divide to more and more written code. There are lots of causes to this - Strategy Tester limits and faults, lack of downloaded data (since you have to do it manually, it's not seamless) , trader misconceptions , lack of institutional applicability... This has lead to ridiculous pay for coding work. My hope is a higher value of the MQL5 code - note because it's more cryptic, c++ish, but because of the new features like upgraded Strategy Tester and option trading. Once that the new strategies will start creating wealth, due to better market approaches, the whole point of "coding for a living" will start fading away, mutating into "trading for a living". When this will happen, institutional application will follow, and the traders' benefit will be dual : from trading as well as from career. Sure , career opportunities will rise slowly, almost imperceptibly, but we live now in a more global world than it was at the launch of MT4. You said that you still feel that is not the stuff that you'd like to do for your entire life. The only thing left, that's still not there , in the life, after you have everything else - the position, the salary, the work environment ... it's the passion, the thing that's missing. And passion belogns to our identity. When we don't put passion in what we do, we have the feeling that we "don't belong", because we feel it like an aggression to our identity. Sadly, few jobs offered are mostly for level II manual traders or forex marketers that can get people to open accounts (which are not bad after all, because you get to meet new people, so boredom is excluded). However, commercial experience is required because their approach is that forex is a product like anything else to be sold - plus that are required traits that are not common among quants/programmers - like emotional intelligence or assertivity - this is why these jobs come packed with heavy experience requirements. Bottom conclusion would be "have hope, but not bet the house..." Well, I don’t think we could ever talk about “coding for a living in MQL”… Tons of MQL4 code have been written since the release of MQL4, and yet effective fx automated trading systems are still ellusive. What yields out of this is the overall lowering of MQL4 code value, since same results in terms of good strategies divide to more and more written code. There are lots of causes to this – Strategy Tester limits and faults, lack of downloaded data (since you have to do it manually, it’s not seamless) , trader misconceptions , lack of institutional applicability… This has lead to ridiculous pay for coding work. My hope is a higher value of the MQL5 code – note because it’s more cryptic, c++ish, but because of the new features like upgraded Strategy Tester and option trading. Once that the new strategies will start creating wealth, due to better market approaches, the whole point of “coding for a living” will start fading away, mutating into “trading for a living”. When this will happen, institutional application will follow, and the traders’ benefit will be dual : from trading as well as from career. Sure , career opportunities will rise slowly, almost imperceptibly, but we live now in a more global world than it was at the launch of MT4.
You said that you still feel that is not the stuff that you’d like to do for your entire life. The only thing left, that’s still not there , in the life, after you have everything else – the position, the salary, the work environment … it’s the passion, the thing that’s missing. And passion belogns to our identity. When we don’t put passion in what we do, we have the feeling that we “don’t belong”, because we feel it like an aggression to our identity. Sadly, few jobs offered are mostly for level II manual traders or forex marketers that can get people to open accounts (which are not bad after all, because you get to meet new people, so boredom is excluded). However, commercial experience is required because their approach is that forex is a product like anything else to be sold – plus that are required traits that are not common among quants/programmers – like emotional intelligence or assertivity – this is why these jobs come packed with heavy experience requirements. Bottom conclusion would be “have hope, but not bet the house…”

]]> By: Enigma71 http://mqlmagazine.com/job-career/is-mql-a-bad-career-skill-or-is-eastern-europe-a-bad-place-for-quants/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Enigma71 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:42:42 +0000 http://mqlmagazine.com/?p=15#comment-5 A huge load of bitterness, although I can quite understand it. Apparently it is extremely difficult to code in MQL for a living when living in Central & Eastern Europe (maybe except Russia, but I'm not the one to judge it - anyone from Russia wants to put a comment on it?). I live in Poland, I'm also a graduate (studied IT & got MSc, my thesis was portfolio optimization related) and there isn't a slight chance of getting a job that suits my education and area of interests. During past year I found one (yes, 1) job offer here in Poland related to trading systems, but the job spec stated clearly that it is a manager role and at least 5 years of commercial experience is a must. So guess what? Currently I am working in a huge worldwide known telecomms company (after all, money doesn't grow on trees) and only play around with forex, MQL, money managament, testing and optimization in my spare time. My current job position provides me with a decent salary and high-standard, flexible work environment, but I still feel that it is not the stuff that I'd like to do for my entire life... A huge load of bitterness, although I can quite understand it. Apparently it is extremely difficult to code in MQL for a living when living in Central & Eastern Europe (maybe except Russia, but I’m not the one to judge it – anyone from Russia wants to put a comment on it?). I live in Poland, I’m also a graduate (studied IT & got MSc, my thesis was portfolio optimization related) and there isn’t a slight chance of getting a job that suits my education and area of interests. During past year I found one (yes, 1) job offer here in Poland related to trading systems, but the job spec stated clearly that it is a manager role and at least 5 years of commercial experience is a must.
So guess what? Currently I am working in a huge worldwide known telecomms company (after all, money doesn’t grow on trees) and only play around with forex, MQL, money managament, testing and optimization in my spare time. My current job position provides me with a decent salary and high-standard, flexible work environment, but I still feel that it is not the stuff that I’d like to do for my entire life…

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