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A comment on How I made $500k with machine learning and high frequency trading. Parent comment

Re:How I made $500k with machine learning and high frequency... by hooande on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @11:48AM (#4749214)
Because it's gambling. Some are better gamblers than others, but no individual can consistently have more ups than downs over a period of years.

"I was making a lot of money but now I've stopped" is the same thing as "I was lucky until I wasn't". Making a living by gambling pretty much sucks, which is why most hackers don't do it.

(You'd think that something as complex as markets would attract hackers trying to "figure it out". The problem is that due to the changing nature of the other participants, all hacks are temporary. Makes for great blog posts, but not a long term strategy.)

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Re:How I made $500k with machine learning and high frequency... by sseveran on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @12:00PM (#4749282)
You are correct that no individual can. But firms can. And some do. Its not gambling. Its not heading down to the roulette wheel. If someone puts on millions of trades and wins a statistically significant portion of them you would have to say its not gambling. Its trading with a statistical edge.
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