How I became a self-taught programmer

My name is Michael Mugadza. I’ve been a chemist, salesman and science journalist, but that hardly describes the best of me. What does is how I tried to make a million Rands in a day.

In travelling between Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa I noticed a discrepancy in currency trade. Changing dollars to Pulas, then changing the Pulas to Rands was slightly more profitable than trading dollars directly to Rands. I spent a weekend with my veins flooded with all the caffeine red bull can provide, I hardly slept poring over every book and webpage I set my eyes on which explained the discrepancy. I came to learn that what I had stumbled across is known as ‘triangular arbitrage’ and it is not an uncommon phenomena. With my head cloudy from sleep deprivation an idea was born. I could search out instances of triangular arbitrage and carry out multiple trades repeatedly and pocket the profits. I did the math and triple checked, with the right computer program I could make a million Rands in a day, the problem was I couldn’t find the  program I needed. This minor setback wasn’t enough to thwart my ambition, I immersed myself in the world of computer programming and in a couple of months I had taught myself the C-sharp programming language. It took me another three months to write the source code for the software that would make me a millionaire. I named the program ‘Money Maker’ not my most original name but that hardly matters when you stand on the verge of wealth.

The moment had come. Alas! I didn’t become a millionaire. It turns out I was not the first to try and exploit triangular arbitrage, people and institutions with far greater resources had been exploiting the discrepancy for years, I was a puppy in a dog fight. The financially savvy with powerful processors, ridiculously fast internet speeds and armies of data scientists  were way ahead of me. Each occurrence of triangular arbitrage would disappear before Money Maker could make a profitable transaction.

The hard lesson I learnt from financial markets was that if you see R200 lying on the floor don’t bother picking it up, someone with better resources has already taken it.