Im considering taking some programming courses at the local college, and devoting some time into developing a good EA.
My question is that if done correctly what types of return have you seen in your experience?
A good programmer (and I mean good) takes a few years to build.
Someone with the knowledge of how the markets work also takes a few years to build and hardly can happen at the same time.
In both cases the experience of years is absolutely essential.
Different careers with different learning paths.
A good programmer knows normally zero about the singularities of the market and a good market operator normally don´t know how to make, most of the times, not even a very simple program.
That brings me to your question which has a very simple answer: if you know a lot (and I mean A HUGE LOT) of programming and market operation then you can expect to make a zillion. Otherwise… well, buy some good EAs and enjoy… or join two guys with those two complimentary skills and make a team. In this last case you will only get half a zillion.
The programming skills required are trivial. A first year introductory course will suffice provided you have good analysis and problem solving skills. The trading skills on the other hand…lets just say start now and maybe by the time you have graduated you will have an acceptable level. The success of any EA is more dependent on the trading strategy and trade management than the elegant coding.
Well, I go with the second poster here. Coding experience should not be underestimated. An EA with some or even one bugs in it might work for a couple of months or even years, but it doesn’t help if an out of the blue trade blows your account. I’m talking about bots which do ALL the work and are not just scripts. Successful trading itself also requires a lot of time to learn. Just my opinion after 30+ years of coding and ~ 2 years of trading.
It’s so easy to look at graphics and understand price evolution, correlation with MACD, Stochastics, Accelerators, SAR… It’s so obvious!
But when you are in the actual second you face the void and all those lines can go wherever they want.
There’s nothing in front of you and all the certainties you might have fall apart when someone sneezes a bit stronger in the other side of the world and send your scientifically calculated lines go bananas.
Sorry about the off topic. Just noting to self that this work of trying to guess the next move of the market is far from easy and, most of the times, far from scientific (fortunately not all of them!).
Codemeister above referred that only basic skills of programming were needed. Yeah! Tell me that!
I think an equally important question might be what drawdown you are prepared to tolerate. Returns and drawdown, risk of ruin etc are are interrelated, therefore its hard to give sensible answer to your question. A return of 50%, or 100%, or 300% per year means nothing unless you understand the risk involved in achieving that return
Its also woth noting that generally speaking, mechanical strategies do seam to have higher drawdowns than discretionary systems.
What sort of returns are you looking for