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A comment on Coders who trade: Wall Street designs its staff for the future. Parent comment

Re:Coders who trade: Wall Street designs its staff for the f... by tomrod on Friday November 17, 2017 @09:48PM (#15727529)
Cash motivates plenty of people, as does the joy in solving a problem. Whether the value of that solution to society's benefit is positive or negative does not always factor into a solution architect's moral calculus. This is how I explain your observed point to myself when I see folks stoked to work for $largetechco or $adtechco.
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Re:Coders who trade: Wall Street designs its staff for the f... by v64 on Friday November 17, 2017 @10:05PM (#15727569)
> as does the joy in solving a problem

This is it for me. Futures trading is a zero sum game (negative sum if you factor in fees), so writing a program to automatically extract value from an ever changing market is a nontrivial and ongoing project. But unlike a game, getting good at it can pay the bills in a real way. I understand that in the big picture long term, I'm not making much of a mark on society, but nevertheless it satisfies my personal and financial needs.

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Re:Coders who trade: Wall Street designs its staff for the f... by Chyzwar on Sunday November 19, 2017 @05:25PM (#15736301)
Markets are not zero-sum game it is a common misconception.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-stock-market-is-not-a-zer...

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Re:Coders who trade: Wall Street designs its staff for the f... by v64 on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @02:28PM (#15750763)
That's why I specifically called out futures trading. From [1]:

> In the financial markets, options and futures are examples of zero-sum games, excluding transaction costs. For every person who gains on a contract, there is a counter-party who loses.

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/z/zero-sumgame.asp

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Re:Coders who trade: Wall Street designs its staff for the f... by someguy12 on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @01:42AM (#15746132)
That quote is misleading. He's talking about perceived price. The actual price of an equity is the price at which the execution occurs. And for every execution there are two sides, hence the zero sum game is the only game in town.
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