With the User Manual out of the way, and a bunch of other things on the ol' TO DO list ticked off, I finally got back to coding TS.

This release has just a couple of minor things done to it, just to get me back into the swing of things. I was a bit rusty on packaging everything up, so if you have a problem with the download or install, please contact me.

Part of this release was fixing a bug "date/time field value out of range" when loading price data from files, which might have occurred on machines where the locale is not US or Japan. Surely this bug has been around since the dawn of time, so I'm surprised nobody told me about it. Don't be shy in telling me about bugs you find :-)

The Change Log has more details of the other things done. You can download TS on the Download page. And then everybody rush to the Purchase page.

I was going through my website logs the other day. Anyone with a website can see "referrals" - the addresses of other websites which have a link to their own (assuming somebody has clicked that link).

So I sometimes go to those other websites and see what's written. (Interestingly there are a lot of sites in Spanish and German linking to my theory articles).

Anyway, one guy has some automated trading software for sale. Someone asked him "if it works, why would you sell it?". In the course of answering that guy, he linked to me.

But isn't it funny that that kind of question prevails? I've touched on this a couple of times before, but why are traders the only ones who aren't allowed to want to make more money? Aren't we exactly the type of person who is inclined to make money any way we can?

That kind of question also shows a misunderstanding of how trading works. It's not a fixed income. There are good times. And then there are lean times. Traders are people, believe it or not, and tend have things like families, rent to pay, food to buy. If done well, trading can bring in a fantastic income. But the need for security, the need to be a good *consistent* provider for your family (or just for yourself), doesn't go away.

And then, there is the fact that we live in a capitalistic society. Consider a movie star who spends a couple of months doing some 'acting', and gets a $20 million payment. Why is it, that the actor then goes on to make another movie? Why is it, that the actor then goes on to make a car commercial? Don't they have "enough" money? In capitalism, there is not such a concept.

Even if we don't use the money for ourselves, we can always use the extra for the benefit of others. Ala Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and a list of other millionaire/billionaire philanthropists. How are they best to serve humanity - by volunteering their time at a soup kitchen for the homeless for 365 days a year? Or instead earning a stack of money, building a number of soup kitchens, and employing people to run all those soup kitchens?

And so, just like any other normal person, traders want to make more money. Selling their trading knowledge, or trading tools they've made along the way, seems a good way to me to pick up some extra cash. It's a completely normal thing to do, but yet people still have it in their head that once you've got a killer trading system, you are then no longer allowed to want to make money through alternate means.

Further, you're probably aware of the saying "it takes money to make money". Let's say you found a trading system which brings in 100% per year. Now let's say you have only $2000 to trade with. $2000 x 100% equals another $2000. You can't live on $2000.

Year 1: $2000 x 100% = $4000.
Year 2: $4000 x 100% = $8000.
Year 3: $8000 x 100% = $16000.
Year 4: $16000 x 100% = $32000.
Year 5: $32000 x 100% = $64000.
Year 6: $64000 x 100% = $128000.

You could probably live on $32000 per year. So if you start with $2000, and you consistently make 100% return per year, it's going to be about 5 years before you can quit your day job.

Two problems come to mind: (1) you need to consistently earn 100% p.a. for this plan to work; and (2) once you've quit your day job, you now have to consistently earn 100% p.a. until you die. Because all of your winnings would be taken up by buying daily essentials. You wouldn't be saving any money - you'd be treading water for the rest of your life.

What I'm trying to say is, you need a decent bank balance before you can consider trading for a living. The more you have, the less return per annum you need to pay for daily essentials.

So, I sell my freaking software! :-)

The other fundamental misunderstanding of how trading works, shown by the question of "if it works, why would you sell it?" is this theory of "the more people know the system, the less well it works". Now in my particular software, you create your own trading system. So you won't be trading the same as me - I'm just providing you a way to automate your own system. However, even if I was selling trading systems, theoretically the more people that know the system - the better the results should be for everybody. No?

Because, the more people buying at a particular time, the more demand there is. And the more demand there is, the higher the price goes. Isn't that how the supply-demand thing works??

So to me, the question should not be "if it works, why would you sell it?". The question should be "if it works, why wouldn't you sell it?".

A good friend of mine whom I've never met - Trader Eyal - has quit what most would consider quite a "good" job in Singapore, and is on his way to live in Thailand and trade stocks for a living.

Trading for a living, and the freedom that entails, is the ultimate goal for me, and I'm sure just about anyone reading this blog.

The problem is that too many of us attempt it with too little experience, and too little funds. Our returns then have to be ridiculously high just to pay for the daily essentials, which can't last. The money runs out, and we head back to work feeling miserable at the old constraints of working for a company, and perhaps never attempt to live the dream again.

But Trader Eyal has some years of experience. Moreover some years of profitable experience. And I'm sure he has the funds behind him to make a go of it. Moving to Thailand will also surely reduce the costs, assuming he doesn't go crazy in the way some foreigners do when they live in Thailand. Hear that Eyal? Stay clear of the man-girls :-) Good luck!

Whoa, one month since I posted anything. Time flies. I moved house. Bought a car. Stopped drinking alcohol and properly started losing weight.

But the big news is, there is an addition to the Thinking Stuff family. Most likely. In terms of it's not just a one-man-band anymore. Probably.

One of my co-workers is most likely going to help me out with some of the coding. We're still in the process of working out the specifics. But here's hoping.

Before you could only buy Backtesting as a yearly subscription.  But, I'm pleased to announce that you can now buy monthly Backtesting subscriptions for just $20.  If you use TS properly, you'll be using $20 bills as tissues pretty soon, so jump on board :-)

The User Manual is finished.  I officially declare that nightmare to be over :-)

All that's left is for people to actually read it.

Inside is a nifty diagram of how TS makes its trading decisions.

Anyway, back to coding...

The second release of the User Manual is out.  The most important additions are the sections on how to set up Trading Systems.  Bunch of other new sections as well.

It now stands at 177 pages, so don't be alarmed if there's a spelling mis-steak in there somewhere.

The User Manual is still in progress.  It currently stands at 145 pages.  And just like making the software itself, writing the User Manual is a task that just doesn't want to finish.  But I think it's very important to do.  Give me another week or two on that, and I'll get back to finishing the Medved QuoteTracker integration.

Personally, I had 3 goals for the 6 months just ended.  First was to lose some weight.  I'm down 6kg.  Not fantastic, but not bad.  Another 10 to go :-)

Second was to increase my savings.  A fantastic trading plan is nothing without capital behind it.  That's done too.  Incidentally, my 6-month contract has been extended another 6 months.  So I'll be on the Gold Coast for a little bit longer at least.

Third was to find a decent girlfriend.  I'd been living on my parents' farm for the 12 months previous, and there aren't a lot of girls there.  The nearest neighbour was 1km away.  That goal... it's hard to say.  The thing was that I didn't want to jump into a relationship with just any girl.  Relationships are easy to get into, but it's hard to get out.

I remembered to take down the offer of free Alerts, which expired at the end of June 30.  But I didn't think of the consequences for people who had taken up that offer - i.e. they would now have to pay in order to continue using that functionality.

Sorry about that.  Just $20 a month though.

Been to the movies a couple of times recently. Note that this post does contain spoilers.

Transformers

Transformers is an excellent 90 minute movie. Unfortunately it goes for 2.5 hours. There's a lot of dead time in it.

When they do transform, you can't make out any detail - you can just see a big blur of movement. Similarly with the action scenes - they've got the whole shake-the-camera thing going which I've always found annoying. The second Bourne movie was the same.

There was, however, one scene where I thought "ok, now that's cool". I can't remember what happens in that scene, but it was a 5-second experience. Out of 2.5 hours.

Yes I had the toys when I was a kid :-)

Oceans 13

I really liked Oceans 11. They told you all the problems they had to overcome, and we were left hanging as to how they would overcome them. Then the SWAT team came, and it all looked like it was going badly. Ok, we all knew they would intercept the call to the SWAT team, but there was some suspense there. Then they revealed how they did it, and it was all good.

Oceans 12 sucked. At the end they spring the train sequence on you, and you're left thinking "When did they ever mention anything about a train?". The only scene was them standing on a platform at a train station. And the "oh, Julia Roberts' character looks a lot like Julia Roberts" scheme, was poor. The only good thing was that the cop at the end was Matt Damon's mother.

So off I went to Oceans 13. In this one, (and here's the spoiler in case you don't want to read any further), they tell you what they are going to do... and then they do it. It's better than 12, but not as good as 11. The cool part was that the outside of the casino itself, which you see fairly often, looks very real but is actually all computer wizardry.