Building computer trading models has become the latest DIY craze

After more than 100 hours of coding over three months, Mike Soule was finally ready to switch on his project. He didn’t know what to expect. If things went right, he could be on his way to financial success. If things went wrong, he could lose his savings.

His creation wasn’t a new mobile app or e-commerce store. It was a computer program that would buy and sell currencies 24 hours a day, five days a week.

DIY’s newest frontier is algorithmic trading. Spurred on by their own curiosity and coached by hobbyist groups and online courses, thousands of day-trading tinkerers are writing up their own trading software and turning it loose on the markets.

Algorithmic Trading: The Play-at-Home Version - WSJ

This interesting not because of what he is doing, but rather than there seems to be more of a shift out there for the average investor to move away from index funds and into more aggressive strategies that can make them money faster. As more of this type of trading hits the mainstream, we will see more and more of these example I think.

The concept of robots as individual traders, under your command, able to work 24/365-ish...is every brokerage houses wet dream. Why should it not be the individuals?