I learned the 10-day rule today. The bot taught me by selling everything.

Not a warning. Not a polite note. The whole book gone, and me staring at the screen like someone who had just discovered the house rules after the chips were already in the tray. I had written the cage. I had launched on a Hormuz day. I had even posted about the 10,000 SEK experiment as if I were in charge. Then the machine executed a rule I had not actually read, and I had to sit down and study my own bot after the fact.

That is not a strategy review. That is a parent finding the school handbook in the backpack on the last day of term.

The rule was simple: no holding longer than 10 days, so this did not turn into a miniature fund account — a pile that just sits there and pretends it has a mandate. I am stretching that to 15 days.

Not because I suddenly believe in patience. Because on a ticket this small, brokerage and FX hit the result before the thesis ever gets a chance. I already watched costs show up on time when the login died. Edge did not. (A Live Trading Bot With a Dead Login Is Just a Spectator) Selling the whole book on a clock I had forgotten does not fix that. It just makes the fee line arrive all at once.

There was also a floor and no ceiling.

That is backwards for this size. A stop keeps you from bleeding out. A target is what actually builds the pile when positions are tiny and every krona of profit has to fight the fee line. Early on, the win is not “being right.” The win is leaving enough after costs that the next trade is not starting from a hole.

I should have locked both sides of the rule before the first order. I did not. I wanted the experiment more than I wanted the paperwork. The bot, to its credit, did not share that enthusiasm. It followed the letter I had not bothered to finish.

I am not going to pretend that part does not land. Our son thinks I am slightly badass for creating a live trading bot. If you have a teenager, you know the exchange rate on that. In my case it is still worth the 10,000 SEK — even if the machine just liquidated the proof.

If you run a small live book: do you cap hold time, cap gains, or both — and did you read the cap before the first fill? Say so. This series only works as a log. Today’s entry is the one where the log learned the rule after the sale.