Coders are often skilled in analytical and creative areas. It doesn’t surprise that with those skills, they often fare well in business and investing too.
Examples of skilled coders who are also skilled in finance are Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreessen, and myriads more.
Those coders with a strong interest in finance became billionaires!
But legions of coders who work at Facebook, Amazon, Google, Coinbase, and Netflix became multi-millionaires just by combining their skills in coding with skills in finance and investing.
⭐ Are you interested in the intersection of finance and coding?
In this article, I’ll show you five of the most profitable ways to work as a financial coder:
- Crypto Trading Bot Developer
- Quant Developer
- Forex Algo-Trading Python Developer
- DeFi Developer
- Blockchain Developer
Let’s get started!
Crypto Trading Bot Developer
Trading bots are software programs that talk directly to financial exchanges. Crypto trading bots are programs that talk to crypto exchanges.
A crypto bot developer develops those programs. Crypto trading bot developers tend to be very proficient in trading, financial algorithms, APIs, and web services. (Source)
The average annual income of a Crypto Trading Bot Developer is similar to algorithmic traders of $104,422 (source). However, due to the novelty of the industry, there’s little official data. If you assume an hourly rate of $50 and an annual 2000 hours worked, the annual income of a crypto trading bot developer would be $100,000.
But is there enough demand? Let’s have a look at Google trends to find out how interest evolves over time (source):
Yes, this definitely is an interesting industry for programmers to make $50 per hour and more!
🌍 Further Reading: Crypto Trading Bot Developer — Income and Opportunity
Quant Developer
A quantitative developer (i.e., Quant) is a financial programmer focused on financial modeling and quantitative finance and trading.
Quants use their profound knowledge of
- statistics and math,
- finance,
- data structures,
- algorithms,
- machine learning,
- scientific computing,
- data science,
- chart technique, and
- data visualization
to create models for financial prediction, backtesting, analysis, and implementation of trading and financial applications (e.g., for risk management).
Question: How much does a Quant Developer in the US make per year?
The expected annual income of a Quantitative Developer (Quant) in the United States is between $86,528 and $170,000 per year, with an average annual income of $127,375 per year and a median income of $136,321 per year.
🌍 Further Reading: Quant Developer — Income and Opportunity
Forex Algo-Trading Python Developer
Forex is short for foreign exchange, and is the largest and most liquid market in the world
In forex markets, currency pairs are traded in varying volumes according to quoted prices. A base currency is given a price in terms of a quote currency. Forex is considered to be the world’s largest and most liquid financial market, trading 24 hours a day, five days a week.
The daily global average volume of forex trading was approximately $6.6 trillion as of 2019. (source)
The average salary of a forex trader is $98,652 per year plus $25,000 in commissions. But the annual salary of a forex trader can vary widely. Top traders make north of $150,000 but the lowest salaries can be around $11,500. (source)
🌍 Further Reading: A Beginners Guide to Forex Trading Bots and Python
DeFi Developer
DeFi (or “decentralized finance”) is a term used to refer to financial services transacted on public blockchains.
DeFi is permissionless and open to all. Transactions are routed through a decentralized network or blockchain.
DeFi applications provide many of the same services provided by traditional banks such as lending, borrowing, trading, to mention just a few.
🌍 Further Reading: Top 11 DeFi Articles to Get Started in Crypto
Blockchain Developer
Blockchain developers are very often skilled in financial matters — because a Blockchain essentially is a distributed system based on code and some tokenomics.
💡 Blockchain is at the intersection of computer science and finance!
The average annual income of a Blockchain engineer is between $105,180 and $108,560 according to Glassdoor (source).
If you decide to go the route as a freelance Blockchain engineer, you can expect to make between $25 and $80 per hour on Upwork (source).
Do you want to create your own thriving coding business online? Feel free to check out our freelance developer course — the world’s #1 best-selling freelance developer course that specifically shows you how to succeed on Upwork and Fiverr!
A blockchain engineer operates, designs, develops, analyzes, implements, and supports a distributed blockchain network. Blockchain engineers manage specific business models dealing with blockchain technology. (Source)
🌍 Further Reading: Blockchain Developer — Income and Opportunity
Conclusion
In this article, I’ve shown you five of the most profitable ways to work as a financial coder:
- Crypto Trading Bot Developer
- Quant Developer
- Forex Algo-Trading Python Developer
- DeFi Developer
- Blockchain Developer
If you’re interested in making money with code, feel free to check out our freelancer educational material on Finxter:
Where to Go From Here?
Enough theory. Let’s get some practice!
Coders get paid six figures and more because they can solve problems more effectively using machine intelligence and automation.
To become more successful in coding, solve more real problems for real people. That’s how you polish the skills you really need in practice. After all, what’s the use of learning theory that nobody ever needs?
You build high-value coding skills by working on practical coding projects!
Do you want to stop learning with toy projects and focus on practical code projects that earn you money and solve real problems for people?
🚀 If your answer is YES!, consider becoming a Python freelance developer! It’s the best way of approaching the task of improving your Python skills—even if you are a complete beginner.
If you just want to learn about the freelancing opportunity, feel free to watch my free webinar “How to Build Your High-Income Skill Python” and learn how I grew my coding business online and how you can, too—from the comfort of your own home.