Notes from Chris

Episode 487

For software developer Michael Seneadza, stock trading has been part of his life for a long time. Back in the 1990s, Michael and his coworkers first became interested in trading. They’d spend large chunks of their workday watching the market, looking at the rise and fall of their favorite stocks, and tinkering with their trades whenever they could break away from their work.

Being an attentive and patient person, Michael felt he had a knack for trading and his income began to grow. So much so that by the early 2000s, he was earning more from trading than his day job, and shortly after, he quit his day job to become a full-time trader.

Although he loved his work as a day trader, he still had a software development itch he wanted to scratch, and found himself taking a full-time job as a developer again. However, he didn’t want to make this move at the expense of his trading income and began to look for ways he could make his process more efficient.

Using what he’d learned from both stock trading and software development, Michael set about creating a tool that would help perform tasks that would take countless hours of human research, but could easily be run by a piece of software while he was at work.

Michael set about building his tool, which he called SwingTradeBot, using the Ruby On Rails framework. If you’re not familiar with this framework, Ruby is an open source code that can be used by pretty much anyone to develop and create web applications. It’s also incredibly time-efficient, which allowed Michael to build the initial framework for SwingTradeBot in just 80 hours.

Michael’s tool performs two major functions. The first is to conduct technical analysis on stocks. This means the tool uses an algorithm to look for repeatable patterns in a stock’s movement and allows you to plan for the future of that stocks life. The aim here being to make more money because you can better predict the future life of a particular stock. This algorithm can also help you to identify potential new stocks, too.

The second is to alert people of anything that may affect the health of that stock. This can be based on market movements, or recent news, that may negatively impact the price of the stock. You can then use this information to decide the next steps you’ll take.

Michael set the cost of his tool at between $13.95 and $19.95 per month, which he decided upon by looking at his competition and charging a slightly lower price. This helped him to quickly onboard his first users, despite having a small following.

Although Michael hoped for a huge surge of users, SwingTradeBot had more of a humble first year, bringing in $7,000. This came from sales of the tool and banner advertising on the website.

Determined to increase his profit further, Michael began to look for ways to increase the number of users he brought in. To do this he began offering SwingTradeBot as a freemium model, with basic access for free users. This allowed them to use the fundamental aspects of the tool.

He also began to look at more marketing methods to bring more users to his website.

One of the most effective tactics he implemented was sharing information about some major stocks on his website. This led to lots of coverage for his site on websites like Yahoo finance, who linked back to the information and predictions he made. With this strategy, he gained instant publicity, and the links helped improve his website ranking in Google.

He also spent time building a following on stock specific social media channels, like StockTwits, which is basically a carbon-copy of Twitter for stock traders. Michael began to attract followers by sharing the free information about stocks on the page and has worked his way up to nearly 40,000 followers on the platform.

These tactics combined to create a surge in income. Michael made $37,000 in 2017 and he’s currently on track to make $90,000 in 2018. Combining this with the money he makes from trading, Michael has once again been able to quit his day job. Only this time he can keep trading without hiding it from his boss!

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• SwingTradeBot: Day trade like a boss with Michael's app!
• Ruby On Rails: The open source code that Michael used to create his SwingTradeBot app. If you're looking to build an app, it is pretty beginner friendly
• Heroku: The platform as a service (PaaS) that enables developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud
• StockTwits: A stock specific social media channel that is basically a carbon-copy of Twitter for stock traders

SEE ALSO:

• “Netflix of Restaurants” Side Hustle Earns $50,000/Year: A contest idea turns into a restaurant recommending algorithm, earning its creator an extra $50,000/year
• Exercise App Encourages Fitness While Helping Sick Kids: A North Carolina man’s software app forces users to make donations when they slack off their fitness routines
• Flight Instructor’s App Takes Flight, Earns $30,000: Urs Camenish wanted to create an app to help him grow his income. But, he’d never owned a smartphone or used an app in his life

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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