(the Last) StockFighter

View From Mount Stupid

I was dealing with family issues most of yesterday and today, but I am still plugging away at this.

I am now in my third day of the StockFighter challenge. two days ago you might recall, I managed to get the automated web browser httpie installed but it seems to have some problems with SSL.  I will spend a few cycles resolving those issues, but for the time being I want to focus on the other method mentioned in the API guide using the ruby language. Ruby is an interesting language. It was developed in Japan and the main developers speak Japanese.  Some of the discussion on the forums is exclusively in Japanese.  This would not bother me if the language was in a stable condition, like for instance C language, but it is not.  Ruby is in active development 20 years after it was released.  Some people call this "remaining relevant". I call it gratuitous fluff.  So, back to the challenge. The ruby program to handle the first trade is here:
https://starfighter.readme.io/docs/getting-started

I decided to try it. So here goes:


[starfighter@sl7-vm stockfighter]$ ruby first-trade.rb
/usr/share/rubygems/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require': cannot load such file -- httparty (LoadError)
        from /usr/share/rubygems/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
        from first-trade.rb:2:in `<main>'

Let's read the docs ...

[starfighter@sl7-vm stockfighter]$ sudo gem install httparty
[sudo] password for starfighter:

Fetching: json-1.8.3.gem (100%)
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing httparty:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    /usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb
mkmf.rb can't find header files for ruby at /usr/share/include/ruby.h

Poo!


[root@sl7-vm ~]# yum install ruby-devel rubygems-devel rubygem-net-http-persistent ruby-doc rubygem-json

[snip]

Installed:
  ruby-devel.x86_64 0:2.0.0.598-25.el7_1                      ruby-doc.noarch 0:2.0.0.598-25.el7_1
  rubygem-net-http-persistent.noarch 0:2.8-5.el7              rubygems-devel.noarch 0:2.0.14-25.el7_1

Complete!
[root@sl7-vm ~]# gem install httparty
Fetching: json-1.8.3.gem (100%)
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing httparty:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    /usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb
creating Makefile

make "DESTDIR="
gcc -I. -I/usr/include -I/usr/include/ruby/backward -I/usr/include -I. -DJSON_GENERATOR    -fPIC -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector-strong --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches -mtune=generic -fPIC -m64 -o generator.o -c generator.c
make: gcc: Command not found
make: *** [generator.o] Error 127

Double poo! After 20 years don't you think this POS( Piece of Software ) should be self hosting?


[root@sl7-vm ~]# yum install gcc
Loaded plugins: langpacks
Resolving Dependencies

Installed:
  gcc.x86_64 0:4.8.3-9.el7

Dependency Installed:
  cpp.x86_64 0:4.8.3-9.el7                    glibc-devel.x86_64 0:2.17-78.el7 glibc-headers.x86_64 0:2.17-78.el7
  kernel-headers.x86_64 0:3.10.0-229.20.1.el7 libmpc.x86_64 0:1.0.1-3.el7      mpfr.x86_64 0:3.1.1-4.el7

Complete!
[root@sl7-vm ~]# gem install httparty
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed json-1.8.3
Fetching: multi_xml-0.5.5.gem (100%)
Successfully installed multi_xml-0.5.5
Fetching: httparty-0.13.7.gem (100%)
When you HTTParty, you must party hard!
Successfully installed httparty-0.13.7
Parsing documentation for json-1.8.3
Installing ri documentation for json-1.8.3
Parsing documentation for multi_xml-0.5.5
Installing ri documentation for multi_xml-0.5.5
Parsing documentation for httparty-0.13.7
Installing ri documentation for httparty-0.13.7

Whee!!!!  Now we can party!

[starfighter@sl7-vm stockfighter]$ ruby first-trade.rb
{
  "ok": true,
  "symbol": "RKI",
  "venue": "YLMEX",
  "direction": "buy",
  "originalQty": 25,
  "qty": 25,
  "price": 8700,
  "orderType": "limit",
  "id": 5157,
  "account": "<redacted>",
  "ts": "2015-12-20T18:52:29.266964823Z",
  "fills": [],
  "totalFilled": 0,
  "open": true
}

So I'm making progress.  I'm wondering how many people will choose to fight this octopus to get to the stage of being able to launch an order.  I feel like I am junking up my machine and introducing security holes so I can run some idiosyncratic garbage that will be replaced in a few days.  That is not a exaggeration. Ruby 2.2.4 was released Dec. 16, 2015.  You can bet that most of those "gems" will need to be re-written to cope.  The last version of C was released in 2011.  If you where a C programmer you might not have noticed.  The C language is standardized ( via ANSI in 1989 or ISO in 1990 ).  Your programs would continue to work without rewrites.

I read an article yesterday about Mount Stupid:


The premise is that people that know nothing about a subject will broadcast their ignorance to the world.  So I am just climbing the front side of Mount Stupid right now.  I expect the decent to be a long trip so you can expect to hear from me for a long time.