My first million in 1000 hours

Hi folks, longtime lurker here. Making my first substantive post!

I've learned a ton from BHW over the years but haven't yet taken massive action to implement what I've learned. I figure the best thing I can do to give back to the community is share an extremely detailed and regularly updated account of my push to seven figures.

I'm starting from pretty much zero -- with five figures of debt and four figures of assets, I think they call that "negative net worth".

Only place to go is up, right?

I suppose my biggest advantage would be my programming and web development skills. I've been working with PHP and MySQL here and there for a decade, and have recently delved into Drupal, Ruby/Rails, Java, HTML5/CSS, jQuery, and various APIs and libraries.

My goal is to make $1,000,000 in profit in just 1000 hours of focused work.

Whether I achieving resounding success or embarrassing defeat in that endeavor, you now have a front row seat. I pledge to update this thread at least 3 times per week until I hit my goal or die trying.

So let's do this.

zen19's awesome 40million in 10,000 Hours thread (sorry I can't post links yet) inspired me to try a similar strategy. If you haven't read it, I strongly suggest you do.

I've got my own unique twist on his approach that I'll share in a second. First of all, here's what I really like about zen's approach, that I'll use as guidelines when forming my own strategy.

• Coding just about everything from scratch, instead of outsourcing or using third-party tools
• "Leaving no money on the table" using an extremely thorough system that preemptively solves many of the little problems that can ruin profitable IM campaigns
• A central control system that manages assets across a network of thousands of websites, all able to be updated/maintained from one location
• A central database that logs every relevant data point across the entire network: clicks, conversions, earnings per click
• Staying (almost) pure whitehat
• Strong emphases on compliance, backups, automation, and effective project management
• Recognizing the importance of health and exercise, a balanced diet, and sufficient rest

I'm going through that thread (and a few others on BHW) taking notes to flesh out my strategy. I'm still researching exactly how I'm going to approach the market, but I know that a key part of my strategy will center on my not-so-secret weapon: Forex -- but not like you'd think.

I'm coding an algorithmic trading platform from scratch. My limited results so far, on both demo and live accounts, have been amazing. I'll share results and a few tips later on.

If my current numbers hold, I could probably hit my goal focusing exclusively on the HFT platform. However I don't like having all my eggs in one basket. And I see huge benefit in having a massive network able to support entry into any niche I desire. It would be awesome to crown that network with a powerful HFT platform, on a money site to end all money sites. The CB hucksters wouldn't know what hit them.

Anyway!

I'm excited also to document my actions related to productivity and health. I've definitely seen how ignoring my health only hurts my productivity -- no way around it. In the past few months I've been slowly moving toward a more active and healthy lifestyle, usually taking two steps forward and one step back. If I know I'll be posting my daily logs online for the world to see, maybe that will help me fight my cravings for Taco Bell.

So I'm going to post my daily routines. If I miss a day posting here on BHW I will post all the days I missed the next time I post. You will get to see EVERYTHING (well, almost everything) I do over the course of a day.

A few notes on the below:

I'm a night owl in the process of becoming a morning person. I find that I'm way more productive when I wake up early than when I stay up late out of habit. I've been doing a decent job of waking up at 7:45am EDT for the open of the US forex market at 8am, though I overslept twice this past week.

I time my work using the Pomodoro technique. 25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5 minute break. After 4 pomodoros, a longer break. I've tried a few different productivity techniques but this has worked the best for me.

I use the RescueTime app for Mac to block myself from checking news websites and Facebook during my work time. It's a huge time-saver.

On the suggestion of zen19 from his journal thread linked above, I use LucidChart for making strategy flowcharts graphically. And as of yesterday I've begun printing out lists of tasks to be done the next day, taping them on the wall next to my computer, and scratching off tasks as I complete them. I got through all my tasks today, and made it through to my bonus task: starting a journal thread on BHW!

For the 1000 hour count, I am counting all the 'focused work' I do, including planning. Anything that I see fit to do within context of the Pomodoro that advances me toward my goal, that counts toward the 1000 hours.

I'm working on what I'm calling version 0.3 of my trading bot. My plan for "version 1.0" was what I expected would be the first version to turn a profit? but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the first, basic algorithm I uploaded mainly as a test actually did turn a profit (on my demo account). So I'm building from there, now preparing v0.3 so it's ready when the Forex market reopens Sunday evening. (The market is closed Friday evening to Sunday evening, U.S. east coast time.)

I'll explain more aspects of my plan and my day-to-day actions as I go. Please feel free to ask any questions you like. Thanks for understanding why I won't answer certain questions like what brokers I use, details of my algorithms, my website URLs, etc. . . . but when in doubt, ask!

Also I don't mind if this thread starts conversations about productivity, health, tips and tricks. Hopefully we can all teach each other something new.

(And any fellow HFT developers, I'd love to connect and compare notes? shoot me a PM~)

Without further ado, my log for the day:


Friday 5/31 --- 8 down, 992 to go.

• Out of bed at 11am
• Five Tibetans [yoga variant]
• Cup of OG black [organic coffee w/ ganoderma]
• Pomo block
  • P1: Got oriented on v0.3 work for the day. Started rearranging code.
  • P2: Pseudocoded all of 0.3.
  • P3: Most the toplevel code built, referencing functions (conversion/pip/etc). Pseudocoded those functions.
  • P4: Coded most of those functions.
• Brunch: Cornmeal pancakes + (healthy) energy drink
• Vitamins: Multi, fish oil, D3, B12
• Pomo block
  • P5: Finished functions. First round of code is almost done.
  • P6: Finished buy/sell code, it works with API but numbers are off. Started tweaking.
  • P7: Tweaking code, figuring out why API is generating weird error.
  • P8: Wrestled with API error, finally figured it out. v0.3 ready for testing. Market about to close, will gather data when it reopens Sunday evening.
• Late Lunch: Chicken burrito from Chipotle
• Pomo block
  • P9: Started fleshing out big-picture planning in LucidChart.
  • P10: Continued big-picture planning.
  • P11: Completed big-picture planning; birds-eye view of the network I want built in the next year.
  • P12: Started roadmap for bot development flow. Completed task breakdown for Saturday and Sunday.
• Pomo block
  • P13: Fleshing out big-picture strategy for eventual nonprofit work
  • P14: Learned up on CSS/theming in Drupal
  • P15: Took notes on first 3 pages of zen19 journal threads including elements I want to build into my network
  • P16: Learned up on CiviCRM and gamification platforms
• Dinner: Beef burger patty [organic grass-fed beef] and salad

Thanks all for reading. Much more to come, so stay tuned!

Sounds very interesting, will follow this.

Is Pomodoro working good for you?

ha55er said:

Sounds very interesting, will follow this.

Is Pomodoro working good for you?

Click to expand...

Oh yeah. I've tried a few different productivity systems and nothing has worked as well as Pomodoro. I've tried 33-minute and 60-minute coding blitzes, but I find the 25/5 rhythm is best for me.

For a timer I used to use Tomatoist here: http:// tomatoi.st/ . . now I use an app for Mac called Focus Booster. Huge help.

1kk in under 42 days seems like a challenge indeed.
I haven't read everything yet since I'm heading to bed - but I want to wish you good luck!

I'm sure this will require a lot of time and focus but I hope you keep your pledge and keep us updated.

Cheers!

You set very high stakes, but watch out, forex trading is a high risk game. I'll be watching this and I wish you the best of luck.

Good luck. I wish I make 1million$ in my entire life. lol

Best of luck with your journey, curious to see where you'll take it.

Great layout and good plan, hope your twist is great enough.
A bit ambitious tho, specially when you mention you want to keep it all whitehat and do it all from scratch.
I believe you are not accounting for a lot of hours which you will spend outside of coding dealing with individuals and other businesses, not everything is dependant on you as an individual and this is one of the things that might increase the time to reach your goal.
Nontheless, I think it is great that you have set a goal and a time to reach it, and keeping track of absolutely everything you do.
I believe one of the most important factors to succeed is TIME MANAGEMENT.

Anyways, best of luck, and even if you do not achieve it, push it another 10k hours and im sure you will.

Keep us updated!

Best of luck mate.

Interesting. Good luck to you.

Ambitious, I like it. Subscribed, best of luck OP.

Im gonna watch this thread. Good luck with your journey!

Very nice aim! I don't follow many journey's but this one looks ambitious. Good Luck!

So in half a year you are going to clear a million dollars? I smell in a WSO in the making here! Good luck!

Wow thats a well thought through plan. With the Forex it seems difficult has there are so many factors that affect the market, but if you can find a way to tap in to a small percentage of that market your winning.

Good luck bro

Looks awesome, good luck and please don't quit.

I subbed thanks

Very Ambitious, I am Subscribed.. Can you Share some more info on POMODORO TECHNIQUE? Because I don't know much about that and would really like to know a Bit.

Wish you Best of Luck for this journey.