Forex Trading Robots - My Minions
It’s that time of the year again, maybe 10 days late, but still the start of a brand new year. Like most people, I approach this time of the year with excitement and anticipation: I set my goals for the year, hit the gym religiously, and like most people, I forget about my resolutions once the festive season is over.
But this year is a bit different. I never felt the festive mood. I was in Hanoi for Christmas, where they don’t celebrate Christmas, and got back just before New Year. It felt a bit surreal watching the New Year countdown on TV; hard to believe that not only did we survive the Mayan doomsday, we are now celebrating a new year that does not exist in the Mayan’s calender. Anyway, despite not feeling the usual excitement for the new year, I did set some resolutions for 2013. This time, I did it with the help of the Goal Setting worksheet from LiveYourLegend.net.
I’ve decided to list my resolutions here, not for accountability, but more for me to keep track, so that I won’t forget them by Feb.
2013 Resolutions
To write at least two one Expert Advisors a month
Writing EAs.. that’s my hobby, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem with this resolution. The plan is to learn new forex trading systems from books, blogs and forums, and to program them into an Expert Advisor. Hopefully, out of these 24 forex trading robots, I’ll find a couple that works well. I call these trading robots my minions, cos I simply love the minions in Despicable Me. Isn’t it cool to have these minions working for me?
Update (20/2/2013)
I’ve decided to change the goal to writing just one Expert Advisor a month. Coding an Expert Advisor does not take a lot of time, but testing, debugging and optimizing it does. I realize I need enough time to test my Expert Advisor under various conditions before I can decide whether to forward test or discard it. One expert advisor a month is a more reasonable goal.
To make at least four options trade a month in my ThinkOrSwim trading account.
I’ve dabbled in options trading before, and have made consistent profits. But just when I started to think that this can be my bread and butter, the market has a cruel way of giving me a reality check. Along came a volatile month that wiped out two months of profits for me, and reminded me that I was taking way too much risk. That caused me to rethink my options trading strategy (mainly selling Iron Condors), and conclude that maybe the risk is not suitable for me. However, this year, I’ve decided to take another shot at options trading, inspired by blogs like The Option Guru and books like the Hedge Fund Market Wizards
Update (16/1/2013):
I’ve set an additional goal: To make a 30% return on my TOS trading account this year. That works out to be 2.5% per month if I start in Jan, but because I intend to paper trade for at least three months, I’ll need to achieve 3.33% per month to hit my target.
To visit the gym at least once a week, starting from March 2013
Every body wants to lose weight and I’m no exception. Well, I NEED to lose weight. So, the plan is to go to the gym at least once a week, starting from March 2013. Why March? Because I know the gym is always crowded in Jan, and given that Chinese New Year is in Feb, I expect it to be crowded in Feb too. I want to go when it is not as crowded, because I just hate having to wait for a shower room or a treadmill machine. In Jan and Feb, I plan to go for regular walks at the Botanical Gardens or at the Park near my house.
Ok, that’s pretty much all I planned for 2013. I didn’t share my ‘WHYs’ here, but I have them in my goal setting workbook. This year, I really have a very solid ‘WHY’ for the first two resolutions. Let’s see how it works out.
Cheers and have an awesome 2013!
Photo Credit: f_shields on Flickr
Hi Summer,
Have you tried to get paid to write EA? Elance and scriptlance and rentacoder are sites for experts like you. Can take a look?
I have a friend Cayden who is doing value investing, claim to invest only 1-2 hours a day following BerkshireHathaway public statement on which stock they invest. He follows Warren Buffet’s direction and sell option if the company sold stocks.
Unless you are looking at beefing up, I suggest you try YouTube ZukaLight.
All the best.
David
ps I have existing EA which main job is to protect profits in terms of money wise. But I wish to expand on it. Was wondering if you are interested?
Hi David,
Thanks for the recommendation. Just checked out ZukaLight, pretty cool workouts.
Currently, I’m not looking to get paid as an EA programmer. My schedule doesn’t allow it. Thanks for the offer anyway.