Infrastructure
march vol spike: when the risk engine earns its keep
·1429 words
2:30am friday. rough week in the books.
march has been a whole thing. tariff headlines dropping every 48 hours, VIX spiking then partially recovering, nobody knows what SPX does next. january was decent (+2.1%), february went against me (-1.3%). march hasn’t been great either. week ending today, i’m down about $2.3k for the five sessions. month’s probably closing around -1%.
prometheus + grafana - my algo monitoring stack
·800 words
finally got around to documenting my monitoring setup.
been running this stack for almost 2 years now. saved my ass multiple times.
why monitoring matters # had an algo go sideways in march 2024.
chicago colocation 18 months - ROI analysis and lessons
·586 words
18 months with chicago colo.
time for ROI analysis.
the setup recap # december 2023: deployed chicago colo
redis caching optimization - 40% latency reduction for market data
·686 words
optimized redis caching during honeymoon downtime review.
40% latency improvement.
the problem # before optimization:
market data fetch: 180ms avg
kraken vs coinbase - crypto algo trading python API comparison 2025
·1165 words
been using both for 2 years.
kraken for serious trading.
coinbase for fiat onramp.
time for comparison.
my setup # kraken:
tastyworks vs interactive brokers - python algo trader comparison 2025
·1122 words
been using both for 18 months.
time for honest comparison.
python automation perspective.
my setup # tastyworks:
options trading (premium selling).
polygon.io vs alpha vantage - python algo data feeds comparison 2025
·1127 words
been using both for 2 years.
polygon primary, alpha vantage backup.
time for honest comparison.
my setup # polygon.io:
data pipeline - real-time market data with python and redis
·1087 words
real-time data = critical for algo trading.
redis = in-memory cache for speed.
python pipeline implementation.
the latency problem # pulling data every request:
chicago colocation - summer value analysis, cost vs benefit
·707 words
august slippage brutal.
made me appreciate chicago colocation. been worth every dollar.
the numbers # colocation cost:
$450/month datacenter