Analyze investment strategies using historical data in Go
Programming Snapshot – Go Stock Trading
© Lead Image © agor2012 123RF.com
Mike Schilli uses a Go program to check whether a strategy for trading stocks is making gains or losses on the basis of historical price data.
People say that you're always smarter with the benefit of hindsight; of course, this also applies to stock market trading. Based on the ups and downs in the historical performance of a stock, it seems as clear as the light of day when an investor should have bought or sold stocks in order to leverage upswings and reap huge profits.
It goes without saying that it is infinitely more difficult to speculate successfully with stocks whose price development is still unknown. Chemistry wizard Niels Bohr once quipped that forecasts are generally difficult, especially those concerning the future.
Random Fools
I recently stumbled across a book titled Fooled by Randomness [1] and read about a theory stating that most successful stock market speculators were simply lucky. This may sound unlikely to the average person, but it does seem plausible given the tiny proportion of successful speculators. Be that as it may, one section of the book made me sit up and take notice. In this section, author Nassim Nicholas Taleb mentions that he had commissioned a software company to write a "backtester," a program that is familiar with the historical price data of interesting stocks and that checks trading strategies packaged into algorithms to see whether the strategies would have succeeded in a historical context.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
-
Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.
-
LMDE 7 Now Available
Linux Mint Debian Edition, version 7, has been officially released and is based on upstream Debian.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Reaches EOL
Linux kernel 6.16 has reached its end of life, which means you'll need to upgrade to the next stable release, Linux kernel 6.17.
-
Amazon Ditches Android for a Linux-Based OS
Amazon has migrated from Android to the Linux-based Vega OS for its Fire TV.
-
Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
-
System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.

