Programmed Stock Trading Review (Grid Trading) - 2 Years of Reflection!

Introduction

It's already been 2 years since I properly started investing in stocks. Those of you who are investing in the stock market at the time of this writing probably already know the answer to this. The stock market changes rapidly, and it often goes in a direction different from what I expected. Of course, these past 2 years have allowed me to write this retrospective and conclude it. However, if my future self, 2 years from now, is still not achieving results, I hope this will serve as a reference. So, let me write a review of my automated trading program.

Choosing a Stock Trading Methodology

There are many different stock investment methodologies. Since there's always a lot of talk about results, the more successful another methodology is, the more I feel like the one I chose isn't doing well. I've been keeping an eye on an open chat room for 2 years, and the ideas are endless. It's a natural process for better methods to emerge from the struggles to overcome difficult situations, but seeing that process made me rethink my initial chosen methodology.

[Investment] - Experience and Thoughts on the Grid Trading Method

I need to reach a conclusion and make a decision in order to maintain my actions. I believe that 2 years of investment is too short a period to evaluate. So, I think I'll stick with the grid trading method until the end of the year. (I think I'll work harder to maintain it until the end of 2024.)

Choosing a Stock Automated Trading Program

Since I mainly use Kiwoom Securities, they don't provide an API for US stock trading. They didn't provide it 2 years ago, and they still don't. Of course, even if they had provided it, it wouldn't have guaranteed my success in the stock market, but I still regret that it didn't move exactly as I intended, at least more accurately. As I mentioned earlier, I hope that my future self 2 years from now won't be mentioning Kiwoom's API again. 😂

Let me regain my composure and continue. Anyway, I want to trade US stocks, but since Kiwoom doesn't provide an API, I had to trade during US market hours. The time difference is terrible, but there's nothing I can do. I have to adjust. Alternatively, I could use a brokerage firm that provides an API. Korea Investment & Securities was providing an API 2 years ago, but I didn't choose it for various reasons.

Reasons why I didn't choose Korea Investment & Securities

1. I felt like Kiwoom would soon create a US stock API.

2. Since the trading method I chose is the grid trading method, I frequently buy and sell in short-term trades. As a result, fees were a crucial factor in my decision. Kiwoom's fee is 0.07%, but I remember Korea Investment & Securities' being higher. I wonder if it's still the same now. And since Kiwoom still doesn't have a US API, I need to reconsider Korea Investment & Securities.
3. This is probably the biggest reason. I had already exhausted my willpower creating the automated trading logic using the UiPath tool. I also lacked the motivation to create one for Korea Investment & Securities, which was the primary reason. I regret my weakness.

The second approach would be to stand on the shoulders of giants who are already ahead of the game. I'm still 'stalking' (observing) the open chat room, and there are many amazing people around us who are generously sharing their talents. Some people share Python-based programs, and others share AutoHotkey-based programs. I believe that using such programs is the easiest way to automate stock trading. Moreover, in the open chat room, there are people who chose a similar trading method 2 years ago, got stuck, but persevered and developed their methods further, so there's a chance to choose a more upgraded version. I didn't disregard this approach. And I actually downloaded and ran those programs, getting a lot of ideas from them. Even though it's been 2 years, I'd like to express my sincere gratitude once again. However, I wanted to set up the functions I envisioned and collect price data for the stocks I chose.

Therefore, I ended up creating a trading program using the UiPath tool that I was familiar with at the time. I connected a database, created charts of the data, and even made it write blog posts. At the time, I had thoughts of getting rich through successful investments, but I think it was more important to actually do the things I wanted to do. Since I created it myself, I've maintained the main framework of the initial trading method I applied, but I've been able to test various adjustments to the rules and methods to achieve a degree of compound interest effect. And although I shouldn't have, I made it easier for my parents' funds to be tied up in investments. An unfilial son cries.

[Investment] - Creating a US Stock Automated Trading Program - Version 2

Among the various attempts I made during this period, there's a feature for investing during the pre-market session. However, since it's not the main session, I had to use limit orders, which often resulted in failed trades. I would find out about the results the next day, meaning that the program wasn't working as intended. This could result in losses or profits, but it felt like losses were more frequent, which might just be my perception. I'm blaming Kiwoom again, but since it's not trading through the API, there's a higher chance of inaccurate situations occurring. Of course, if I had made it work more accurately, I wouldn't need to blame Kiwoom, but it would still be great if they provided the API soon.

Anyway, I'm planning to continue using the program I made. As mentioned earlier, I'm going to continue investing using the grid trading method until 2024, and if Kiwoom doesn't provide an API, I'll have to keep using the program to continue investing. (However, I've turned off the pre-market trading feature.)

Wrapping Up Quickly

The reason I felt the need to write about the past 2 years is that the recent decline in the market has almost depleted my capital, and my trades have stopped, so I no longer find joy in checking the results every morning. It seems like all things are similar. When things are going well, we don't look back, but when things start to go wrong, we start to reflect. I'm in that situation, so I felt the need to write a retrospective, and I've tried to analyze why I made certain decisions and how I plan to proceed in the future. If you have a brilliant method, please don't keep it to yourself. Share it with me. I'm surprisingly easy to persuade.

The market conditions weren't favorable, and the program I created has many shortcomings, but automated trading still has significant advantages. I think the biggest advantage is that it allows me to continue investing and to essentially forget about it by entrusting it to the program. The past 2 years have been long and short, but apart from the initial program creation and setup phase, I barely paid any attention to stocks. This allowed me to focus on other aspects of my life, and for that, I'd like to give automated trading a high score.

I hope you all have successful investments. Please wish me the same.
And if you're curious about automated trading, feel free to ask me any questions. I'll do my best to help. 😊
Thank you.

Report Card

I still think I should leave a record of my current report card. For my future self in 2 years...