[systemtheory]

dear god. run for the exits. the day is finally here.

i left the world of finance and headed toward software engineering. side benefit, no fantasy football. nobody pretending that they understood "the market". those who commented regarding "shorts" etc. why not options? or swaptions? or futures? or future options? you should totally start a risk-neutral team. wait, weren't we talking about software engineering.

here is the thing. by and large, you all have zero clue what you're talking about. tell me that's not true all day long, but, whatever. you've read a book. you've worked on some algorithm. but chances are you've never been wined and dined by a bulge bracket investment bank attempting to win the brokerage business of the hedge fund you work at. you've likely never spoken with bankers about upcoming offerings. you've likely never been given a tour of the manufacturing plant floor by management, because you're thinking of investing a hundred or so million.

and here is the thing that makes me really sad. at least bankers, a horrible bunch of humans, by and large studied the humanities and admit that they are generally selling crap. this new breed of programmers sorta study computer science and then walk around like they have "the answer" for every human problem. and now i have to deal with "Fantasy Angel Investing".

run for the exits

[dferr]

So some guy lists a side project of putting a fantasy spin on startup valuations(which i guess is fun for some people?) and thats the straw that breaks the camels back for you?

the exit is to your left, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[systemtheory]

i wasn't taking issue with exchangel.co, per se. i was taking issue with the responses to it on HN. "Best idea ever!" "You should be able to short!" "How about an 'Index Fund' version!" "I wan't to make money and pretend I know investing!"

[rboyd]

that's cute, because as programmers we generally think you bankers have no idea what you're doing.

[7Figures2Commas]

"Bankers" may not be the most likeable lot, or even the smartest, but telling folks who have perfected the art of siphoning small percentages from vast pools of other people's money over long periods of time, often with room for meaningful upside and limited downside, that they have no idea what they're doing is kind of silly.

Note: I'm assuming that your use of the word "bankers" refers broadly to those who work in finance (investment bankers, fund managers, etc.).

[rboyd]

Of course there are plenty of clueful angels/vcs/analysts/bankers/traders/hedge fund operators. Just like there are programmers that are qualified to pick good startups. The stereotypes and generalities are a bit ridiculous, which I was trying to (and I think you helped) illustrate.

[systemtheory]

so, this is my point. your assumption is wrong. very, very, obviously wrong. that isn't at all the meaning of the word "banker" in finance. and it's not "my" use of the word. it's the broadly used / accepted / understood meaning. and they aren't small percentages. the percentage they receive for making deals is published, look it up. banker != trader != portfolio manager, etc.

also, i didn't say they weren't likable. generally they are very likable. and i didn't say they don't know what they are doing. they know very well what they're doing.

[7Figures2Commas]

You do realize that what I wrote was in reply to somebody else's comment, not yours, right? I guess it's time to run for the exits when folks who don't understand how a discussion forum works are leaving finance for software engineering. I mean, if you can't figure out how to read a hierarchical comments structure, how in the world are you going to get your head around recursion?

[systemtheory]

please note, i said "left the world of finance". i wasn't a banker.

[rboyd]

So you're a programmer who knows a lot about finance who thinks programmers don't know anything about finance.

Not a banker. Got it. Hey, did you end up investing that 100 million in that factory?

It's a prediction market for hackers to guess which companies built by other hackers are going to make it big. I'd say we're perfectly qualified.