Best Timeto Buyand Sell Stock Algorithm
The Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock Algorithm is a widely-used technique in financial and algorithmic trading, which helps investors determine the most profitable time to buy and sell stocks in order to maximize their returns. This algorithm takes into account historical stock prices and analyzes the trends to identify the ideal buying and selling points. The algorithm typically involves iterating through the historical stock prices and comparing the differences between the current price and the minimum price seen so far, while keeping track of the maximum profit that can be made.
The main principle behind the algorithm is to identify the lowest possible buying point (minimum stock price) and the highest possible selling point (maximum stock price) that occurs after the buying point. This helps investors to make smart trading decisions by capitalizing on the most significant price differences. In essence, the Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock Algorithm helps investors to address a common challenge in the stock market - to predict the price movements and to make the most profitable trades. It is worth mentioning that this algorithm works best for single transactions, but there are also variations of the algorithm designed for multiple transactions, which allows for more flexibility in trading strategies.
class Solution {
public:
int maxProfit(vector<int> &prices) {
// Start typing your C/C++ solution below
// DO NOT write int main() function
int minval = 0x3FFFFFFF;
int maxprofit = 0;
for (size_t i = 0; i < prices.size(); i++) {
minval = min(minval, prices[i]);
maxprofit = max(maxprofit, prices[i] - minval);
}
return maxprofit;
}
};