Dominick, I'll indulge you with a bit of back-and-forth here on programming, and then we can take it private when it gets too boring. :) I suspect there are other traders who have an interest in learning to program, as well, so a bit of off-topic on this won't hurt.
You ask:
"I know absolutely nothing about programming. If I wanted to learn how to write my own programs, where would I start?"
That really depends on what your goal is. Are you interested in it as a career? Do you want to write some software to test-out some trading ideas? Do you want to write software to to real-time analysis? Or do you want to automate daily tasks that you do on your computer?
You may find that you have a specific task that you want to get done, and your problem is really just identifying an appropriate tool and learning that tool. For example, if you want to test out trading signals, you probably just need to pick a good quote platform and learn it's formula language. Becoming a wiz at Excel could be really handy for a lot of trading-related tasks.
If you have some specific needs, I'd recommend that you seek out a consultant who can point you in the right direction, but not necessarily do the work. That is, identify the correct tools, given your knowledge level.
If you think you will have an ongoing need, and will be getting into some depth, then I suggest beginning at the beginning. That is, get some formal training, either at a school or through books or even online resources. (check out night courses at your local university or community college. community colleges can be a real cheap way to get the basics. Personally, I would avoid non-university "professional development" courses, which are over-priced, but that corporations seem to pay for on behalf of their employees with glee...)
Really learn the basics of computer science. Don't start out with task-specific or language-specific courses, but with the intro sequence for a computer science degree. You should learn about data structures, and algorithms, object-orientation, how to organize a project and solve problems, not the semantics of a particular language. This will be eminently useful, even if you are just going to plink around with BasicScript to automate a spreadsheet or do something fancy in Word.
You don't have to go overboard, unless you intend it as a career. Again, you can pick up these courses very cheaply at a community college. But I would take the course intended for those that intend to go on to a university degree, rather than "Become a Visual Basic Wiz in 21 days". The latter may give you some immediate gratification, but will set you off on a wrong course, IMO.
If you're not the course-taking type, you can just hit Amazon or Bookpool. Again, I'd start with the basics, rather than anything task-specific. Find out what books are being used in intro-level computer science courses and go with those. |
