Solo around the world (I)

On July 2002, I came up with a novelty for market players: a piece of software that enables them to compare results between what should have been achieved, what could have been achieved and what has been achieved – three totally different scenarios, one leading to the next.
I remember the night when I released it to the public. As a member of a few traders’ clubs, especially the MetaStock one, I lost no opportunity to present new topics at every monthly event. If club members enjoy coming to meetings, then I must have something ready for them to make them happy, was my thinking from where it all started.
I gave a great speech that evening and in the end I offered all those present the software on CD as a gift. The audience consisted of day-traders, a few guests, a few stockbrokers and several investors with fat accounts. Everybody was impressed by my work and congratulated me.
The truth inevitably surfaced: everybody else could have done what I did, especially those with deep pockets who afforded research and with many years of securities trading under the belt, but nobody else other than me did it, on a shoestring.
My two friends of several years, who later provided true inspiration to me, were present too and told me I gave them a good surprise. It took me about two months to get the work done with the help of a very talented programmer, during which time I kept mum and gave everybody absolutely no reason to suspect something was going on behind the curtain. What mattered to me was to broadcast the news unexpectedly when the software was fully tested and available for release, not to fritter away on how things ought to be done and other nonsense talk that usually comes up in similar situations.
I knew how to go about my project the moment the idea hit me.
Braggingly I told the crowd that what they were seeing was not only a piece of new software but a new star rising: me. I made everybody laugh and my presentation was a success. Never before or after that evening that traders’ group produced a more influential piece of work than mine.

I also clearly remember the special feeling of bittersweet happiness I never experienced since then and the untold peace of mind that gripped me on my way back home: I conquered my personal problems and entered the orbit of world-class market research.
I rose above the rest.
At version #2, the software sells by word of mouth, has never been advertised and is not a great moneymaker. Essentially a calculator, it churns out different financial ratios astute market players use and only those who know what they are doing can benefit from it. It doesn’t give traders ideas; traders must know what they are looking for in order to input the correct data.
Technical analysis software packages (at least up to 2002) offer the possibility of testing multitudes of theories in the past in order to select those with a chance of success for the future. There is always a difference between what people do and what they could have done, the extent of which is known only after the fact. It is what traders do that must be worked on, not only what the system is configured to do.
I have to release version #3 which will stay like that forever because it will contain all the known ratios. New ratios are not invented every year.
Traders from all the countries – mostly from USA – download my software. It’s quite a joy for me not only to turn the PC on and find e-mails from far-flung corners of the world requesting the download link, but also to know that inquisitive minds on their journey get help from a tool I knew ahead of time they would need.
It happens to all of us to follow an idea for years and get some of the anticipated results one day or come out empty-handed or, as was my case, to find something else better than initially envisioned.
Experience is not needed, inspiration is.