If you’ve landed here after a long time away — welcome back. And if this is your first visit to BottomLineCents, I’m glad you’re here at the beginning of its next chapter.
This blog originally started back in 2020/2021 with a simple goal: to document my journey toward better financial decisions. At the time, the focus was largely on personal finance and investing — understanding money, compounding, risk, and how to make smarter long-term choices. Like many people during that period, I was learning fast, experimenting cautiously, and trying to build a foundation.
Then… I went quiet.
This post is about why, what happened during that time, and what BottomLineCents is becoming going forward — a blog focused on trading, investing, automation, strategy, and discipline, grounded in real experience rather than theory.
Why I Disappeared: Learning Over Posting
The honest reason for the inactivity is simple:
I stopped writing because I started learning deeply.
When BottomLineCents first launched, I was in the information consumption phase — reading books, blogs, newsletters, and watching markets from the sidelines. Writing helped clarify ideas. But as markets changed and opportunities expanded, I shifted gears.
Instead of documenting every step, I spent several years:
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Studying market structure
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Learning risk management the hard way
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Understanding behavioral psychology
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Testing strategies instead of talking about them
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Losing money, making money, then repeating the cycle
This wasn’t a break from finance — it was an immersion.
Phase One: Passive Investing (and Why It Worked)
Like many people, my journey deepened through passive investing, particularly in technology stocks.
I focused on:
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High-growth companies
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Long-term trends
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Dollar-cost averaging
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Letting time and compounding do the heavy lifting
And honestly?
It worked extremely well.
Markets rewarded patience. Valuations expanded. Trends held. I rode the upside, managed risk reasonably, and eventually took profits. That phase taught me something critical:
Long-term investing works — especially when emotions are removed.
But it also revealed a limitation:
capital efficiency and control.
The Turning Point: Discovering Trading
At some point, curiosity took over.
I wanted to understand:
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Why price moves when it does
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What happens inside a candle
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Who is buying, who is selling, and why
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How professionals manage risk intraday
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Why most traders fail — and why a few don’t
That curiosity pulled me into trading — and once you see the market through that lens, there’s no unseeing it.
I started where most do:
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Charts
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Indicators
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Breakouts
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Reversals
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Patterns that looked perfect… until they weren’t
Trading was nothing like investing.
It demanded precision, discipline, and self-awareness at a level investing never required.
And I was hooked.
The Reality of Trading (No Instagram Filters)
Let’s be clear: trading is hard.
Not because strategies don’t exist — they do — but because execution is everything. Most traders don’t fail due to bad ideas; they fail due to:
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Overtrading
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Oversizing
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Revenge trading
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Lack of rules
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Emotional decision-making
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Inconsistent execution
I experienced all of it.
Some days were incredible. Others were humbling. And the biggest lesson I learned early on was this:
If you can’t trade small, you can’t trade big.
That realization eventually led me to automation.
Enter Trading Bots: Removing Emotion from Execution
Trading bots weren’t about “easy money.”
They were about structure.
I became deeply interested in:
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Rule-based systems
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Repeatable execution
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Statistical edges
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Limiting human interference
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Scaling strategies without emotional drift
Bots exposed uncomfortable truths:
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Your strategy either works or it doesn’t
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Your risk parameters are either survivable or they aren’t
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You can’t “feel” your way out of bad math
Automation forced me to think like an operator, not a gambler.
And while bots come with their own risks, they taught me more about markets than discretionary trading ever did.
What This Blog Is Becoming
BottomLineCents is no longer just about “saving money” or generic investing advice.
Going forward, this blog will focus on:
🔹 Trading Strategies
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Futures trading concepts
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Market structure
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Supply & demand
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Risk frameworks
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Intraday vs swing logic
🔹 Trading Bots & Automation
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Strategy design
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Risk controls
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Why win rate means less than expectancy
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How bots fail — and how they survive
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Scaling systems responsibly
🔹 Investing (Yes, Still Important)
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Long-term portfolio construction
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Rotational strategies
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Blending trading income into investments
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When to trade and when to step back
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Building wealth, not just chasing PnL
🔹 Psychology & Process
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Discipline over dopamine
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Rules over opinions
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Capital preservation
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Thinking in probabilities
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Becoming consistent before becoming aggressive
This will be practical, not motivational fluff.
Coming Full Circle: Back to Long-Term Investing
Ironically, trading — especially automation — brought me back to investing.
Once you experience:
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Drawdowns
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Variance
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Risk of ruin
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Mental fatigue
You start to deeply appreciate slow, boring, long-term wealth building again.
I’m now deliberately moving back toward:
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Long-term holdings
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Structured investing plans
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Using trading profits to fund investments
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Separating “income generation” from “wealth storage”
Trading creates cash flow.
Investing compounds it.
Both have a place — but they must be clearly separated.
Why I’m Writing Again
This blog isn’t a highlight reel.
It’s a journal of thinking, learning, refining, and building systems — financial and mental.
I’m writing again because:
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I’ve made enough mistakes to offer perspective
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I value process more than hype
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I believe transparency beats perfection
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And documenting the journey sharpens discipline
If you’re:
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Curious about trading but cautious
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Interested in bots but skeptical
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An investor considering more active strategies
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Or someone trying to bridge short-term income with long-term wealth
Then this blog is for you.
What’s Next
Upcoming posts will dive into:
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Trading vs investing (and why most people confuse them)
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The myth of high win rates
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Why risk management matters more than entries
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How bots really work (and why most fail)
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Building systems that survive bad days
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Scaling responsibly without blowing up
No promises of riches.
No screenshots for validation.
Just structured thinking, real experience, and continuous refinement.
Final Thought
BottomLineCents was never about quick wins.
It was always about better decisions.
That hasn’t changed — only the tools have.
If you’re here for the long game, welcome back.