A big part of this newsletter is my build in public automation project.
I’ve literally stopped trading myself, I am going all in on automation.
This was the first full month of that and I made a profit.
I made £30.33 from a £300 bank. From £1 stakes.
Not too shabby at all, especially when I clicked ZERO buttons.
I recorded a full podcast on this breaking down why I am stopping trading and why automation for me is the future. It’s live on all the places you get your pods.
But I wanted to talk about that because it’s a really good place and time to reflect on that first month of trading.
Why was my very first month profitable?
For most this is a dream, right?
I’m putting it down to a few things.
The first being the strategy has been built inside of the BTC software therefore this means that it’s been backtested. So it’s been proven to be profitable.
Which let’s face it is always a start and that really gets the wheels turning. Having a profitable strategy is the first hurdle we have to get through.
BUT it’s not the be all and end all for me. This is where a profitable strategy can be turned into a terrible one.
What’s really interesting is the mindset around that.
I’ve really been leaning in and been aware of my behavior around this project. I’ve been checking the P/L at the end of the day, which I never really did before.
Now the question I had for myself was ‘What are you looking for? How is that affecting you?’
I was looking to see how the bot did. More out of excitement than anything else, this was new for me. I have become so used to the way I trade now I was logging in at the end of the day and seeing how the bot had done.
This was exciting!
Then how did it affect me? Well I would actually be lying if I said I didn’t have a tiny wobble.
There were a few times where there were some losing runs and that bank was below the starting bank of £300.
That was really interesting for me, what I didn’t do was what I have seen a lot of traders do. I didn’t turn off the bot. I carried on. Because I know you cannot win every time.
BUT…
This is where my tiny wobble came though. I felt like ‘Ryan, what are you doing! This could fail, you have literally stopped your trading, this is your trading now & you're doing it in public!’
The public element was huge. I think this is where the main part of my reaction stemmed from. I know with the way we have built our community and software that we have put our heads above the parapet. Which most times is ok. Recently though it’s not been the nicest time.
First thing here was to take stock. The first reaction is always emotional. Thankfully I don’t have that many emotional reactions for long. It was literally a 5 min wobble.
I had confidence that this is going to have ups and downs. I need to play the long game with this. Yes I won’t win every month but over the long term this will build up and will get to where I want it to be.
Once I went back through that it really helped. It’s been the same for many years. When you start a new strategy it’s where the most risk is, even more so when you do it in the public domain.
That’s the key there. Many others are using the same strategy as me (lay the 3rd fav) but I saw and heard a lot of people slate it and stop trading it when it had a bad day.
They’ve turned their back on it. Crazy?! It produced a profitable month in my first month. Only because I stuck with it. I looked at my own reactions and asked them questions.
Asking questions is a skill. It’s sad to me we live in an age where I see people watching or listening to content and they aren’t actually questioning that content. They at face value let it become their opinions.
So I’ve made 10% of my bank in month one. IF that trend continues by the end of the year I will have a £1,000 bank.
That’s a big if though. 10% is huge.
You know something with this that I didn’t anticipate? How excited about trading I would be again, even at these sums.
It’s sparked something in me again.
I’m buzzing for it. It’s a game.
A game I want to and will win.
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