Thursday, May 2, 2013

Botting 101 (Part 1)

WARNING: This series of articles is designed for those who are not yet running MTGO Library.  So for those who are running seven and twelve bot chains in an architecture that is superior to some ISP‘s I have seen, please be patient.  I will resume heady topics next series.

So you’ve been debating whether or not to get into this bot business.  You’ve read this blog and are over-whelmed by some of the topics discussed here: version 4, how to maximize profits, how to manipulate the price list, and links to spreadsheets full of complicated formulae.  You wonder if you are going to somehow mess up.

You’ve read the manual and/or FAQ but are confused by some of the topics discussed therein.  What is meant by “family of bots”; credit sharing, and renting fee?  You wonder if the learning curve is steeper than an Advanced Calculus course.

You’ve seen the hundreds of existing bots on MTGO and wonder how you are ever going to even compete with all this competition.  This does not even broach these professional-looking bots which seem to always be busy, even though they take up the entire Classified screen.

Then this series is for you.  I’ll be addressing some of these questions, and more if you leave them in the comment field. 

But first, you have a homework assignment: you need to answer this question: Why do you wish to run a bot?  You need to be brutally honestLying to yourself will not be helpful.  Your journey into this world begins next time.

1 comment:

  1. as a reality check, the only way a new bot can be successful is by doing something drastic. such as buying above every other bot (and resulting in selling more expensive than others too).

    My father started with 2 bots 1 year ago ( a bit like I did 2 years ago) with the same kinda pricing I had back then ( a bit more safe , higher profit margins) and his bots can go hours without a single trade.

    the reality is that is much harder for newcomers to get a share of the market nowadays.

    In short what i mean is, if the "randomfamousbot" buys a specific card for 10 and sells for 11, it will buy it and sell it multiple times a day.

    If a new bot buys at 10.25 and sells at 10.75, the likely scenario is that this new bot wont make a single trade in the first few days with this card (making the first week 0% fee thing almost useless).
    A newcomer must spend a good amount of time (or investment) advertising and promoting its bots, otherwise it will not go far in the first few years).

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