When to Cash Out - Final

A common theme in this series is that by failing to plan, one is planning to fail. This has occurred to me more than once when it comes to running a bot on MTGO. Another one showed its head when I had accumulated more tickets than were necessary for float or a buffer.

What do I mean by “float” or a “buffer”? It is a number of tickets that is in inventory such that if there is an unexpected increase in buying of cards, there are enough tickets to cover each and every purchase. This number is based on how specifically you run your own bot. Assuming a relatively full inventory based on your settings and carry only commons it can be relatively low, say ten (10) tickets. If you have holes in your inventory, and carry boosters, this number can be a couple of hundred tickets. Careful tracking of your daily movements can give you a rough estimate as to what your float should be.

After all, no bot should be seen has not having enough tickets. This makes the bot appear “poor”, under-stocked and generally not a reliable bot. If you are selling, would you sell to a bot with five (5) tickets or five hundred (500) tickets?

So while I know the float on my bots, I had no idea what to do at this point. I never thought of seriously running a third bot. Albert's previous post on the subject of having a buy-only and a sell-only bot instead of two buy/sell bots is very intriguing and one I am going to be exploring in the future.

However, as I do not a plan for how to expand, my choice of when to cash out is easy when one has a wife who desires to see some of the profits. So I'm going to take some profits.

Taking profits is not a bad thing. After all, if one never took profits, the business would expand forever but you would never see the fruits of your labor. Part of the reason many businesses fail is that their owners take too much profit too soon, stifling the business and limiting their opportunities. Since it is so tempting and easy to take profits and requires discipline to reinvest profits, this is why you see every business manual imply that taking profits is a bad thing.

Next time we'll discuss a “Weird” Al Yankovic song.