Once the idea of a trading BOT entered my mind, it was hard to get it out. After convincing my wife the BOT was a good thing filled with much more promise than me acquiring FOREX trading skills, I cleared the necessary hurdles to get the BOT active:
- I bought the EFX Octane at the intro pricing. This was when I had the first moment of, “What am I doing?”
- I set up a brokerage account at OX Securities. (I have had nothing but positive experiences with them. Within the community, this has not always been the case.)
- I set up my first Virtual Private Server (VPS) account at Chocoping. When I had just one BOT, they were fine, but…
- I transferred money into the OX Securities brokerage account in Australia. More than once I did think, “What if the money doesn’t make it there? What if I am doing one of the dumbest things I have ever done?”
- With EFX, the BOT supplier, I had to complete the rest of their training. This process allowed me to get my software license. It also provided all the necessary information to set the BOT up on the VPS.
- The final step was clicking on, “Auto Trading” on the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) app. It was real now. I had a BOT control of a few thousand dollars of my money.
I refer to this time as, “the early months” because of the lessons learned. I am still learning lessons, but the hiccups are more limited. What were the good and bad things that happened in those early months?:
- Because “moderate” was a condition agreed to by my wife, that was how I operated during this time. Even though the first month was a partial month, I made 2.5% to 3% every month. I saw myFXbook links of those doing much better. I was jealous. However, 3% X 12 months is 36%. Even after subtracting out the VPS and software fee, I was still making “okay” money.
- Eventually, the “aggressive mode” stories convinced me I needed to explore other BOT options. This led to the exploration of the NURP bots which further contributed to the plans I have implemented in 2024.
- Because I have a Macbook, I set up a VPS with MT4 to make trades on my demo account. This gave me two VPSes. One to operate my EFX Octane BOT and one for my MT4 account. After exposure to NURP and their usage of one VPS to operate multiple BOTs, it seemed completely logical to me to move these two services to the same VPS. The logic between my ears did not match what occurred on this distant server. When I attempted this, the software operating my trading BOT burped/hiccuped/upchucked. The BOT no longer participated in trades. It had orphaned trades totaling over $400 in losses. This was not Monopoly money. Fortunately, I had profits, so it didn’t eat into my principal. Yet, I still lost money. 🙁
I believe this closes my 2023 on the BOTs. In 2023, it was only the EFX BOT. The NURP BOTs as well as the other changes came the first couple weeks of January. I will address those in the next post.
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