First edition. Evidence over hype.

From zero to your first trading bot. Honestly.

This is a complete beginner's handbook for algorithmic trading. Every concept is explained from scratch, every key claim is cited, and every recommended tool is free. It is built around Python and Freqtrade, includes a dedicated South African chapter, and opens with the honest statistics about how most traders actually fare.

Secure delivery. Lifetime updates. Educational material, not financial advice.

  • 16 chapters
  • 44 pages
  • 25+ original diagrams
  • South African edition
A COMPLETE BEGINNER'S HANDBOOK

From Zero
to Algorithmic
Trading

Every concept explained from scratch, with diagrams, evidence, free tools and a South African roadmap.

100% free software stackEvidence over hype
FIRST EDITION, JULY 2026
EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL, NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE
16chapters, sequenced for beginners
44pages with no filler
25+diagrams drawn for this handbook
50+terms defined in the glossary

The handbook draws on the Journal of Finance, SSRN working papers and complete exchange records. Chapter 16 lists every source.

The handbook is built around: Freqtrade, Python, Docker, VS Code, Git, Binance data, QuantConnect, TradingView, MetaTrader 5, Telegram alerts, VALR, Interactive Brokers.

Why this handbook exists

A trading guide that leads with the evidence against trading.

Sellers of courses, signals and bots have a financial reason to make trading sound easy. Independent researchers do not. That is why chapter 1 opens with their findings. Calibrated expectations are the biggest advantage a beginner can own.

Figure 1.1: What independent research found

Day traders in Brazil who persisted for more than 300 days and still lost money

97%

Chague, De-Losso and Giovannetti (SSRN)

Day traders in Taiwan who were not reliably profitable after fees, across 15 years of records

>99%

Barber, Lee, Liu and Odean

Retail CFD accounts that lose money, according to the brokers' own mandated disclosures

65 to 85%

FCA and ESMA risk disclosures

In the United States, the most active retail traders earned less per year than the market itself.

The market
+17.9%/yr
Most active traders
+11.4%/yr

Barber and Odean, “Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth”, Journal of Finance

“No honest guide can promise you profits. What this handbook can promise is competence: in about four weeks you can have a real robot trading live market data with pretend money, and understand every line of it.”

From page 2 of the handbook

There is genuinely good news too. Algorithmic trading is the one retail approach with a defensible process. Rules are written down, tested against years of history, and measured before money moves. The robot does not make a bad strategy good. It makes your process honest, and honesty is what the losing 97% never had.

The myths, dismantled.

“Bots print passive income. Just switch one on.”

A bot executes a strategy. It cannot conjure one. Anyone selling a reliably profitable bot for R500 a month would earn more by running it quietly themselves.

“1% a day is a modest target.”

1% a day compounds to roughly 3,700% a year. The best hedge funds on Earth celebrate 20 to 30% a year. Daily percentage promises are fiction, always.

“More indicators means a smarter strategy.”

Every indicator is recycled from the same price data. Stacking ten of them mostly adds ways to fool yourself. It does not add information.

“AI can just generate a profitable strategy.”

AI writes the code superbly and conjures no edge. Use AI to build and explain. Use statistics to judge. The handbook shows how.

Many trading courses

  • Promise guaranteed profits
  • Lead with lifestyle screenshots
  • Push paid signals and rented bots
  • Sell leverage to beginners
  • Leave out the base rates entirely

This handbook

  • Leads with the published evidence
  • Defines every term the moment it appears
  • Uses a 100% free software stack
  • Keeps you on paper money for months
  • Cites its key claims in chapter 16
  • Teaches skills that transfer to real quant work
What's inside

A dense little book with zero filler.

The 44 pages are organised into three parts, covering the foundations, the decisions and the practice, plus a reference shelf. Here is what you actually get.

A complete first bot, line by line

Chapter 12 builds TrendFollowerV1, a real trend following strategy with a pullback filter, layered exits and strict risk settings. Every line is explained in plain English, along with the exact commands to backtest it and run it on live data.

user_data/strategies/TrendFollowerV1.py
class TrendFollowerV1(IStrategy):
    timeframe = "1h"   # think once per candle
    stoploss = -0.03     # the seatbelt
    trailing_stop = True
 
    def populate_entry_trend(self, df, meta):
        df.loc[(df["ema_fast"] > df["ema_slow"])
          & (df["rsi"] < 40),  # buy the dip
          "enter_long"] = 1

The R0 toolbox

Chapter 7 ranks the serious free frameworks and justifies the winner. The whole learning stack costs nothing. Read it from the top down.

  • Live trading, which is optional and months awayR0
  • Dry-run, meaning fake money on live pricesR0
  • Your strategy, the only part that is youR0
  • Freqtrade, the robot chassisR0
  • Python, Docker, VS Code and GitR0
  • Free market data, years of itR0

The South Africa chapter

It covers FSCA licensed venues, VALR and Luno as rand ramps, FICA, SARS and exchange controls, plus the TFSA sanity anchor that protects you from yourself.

FSCASARSTFSAFICA

Gates, not dates

The roadmap runs from week 1 to year 1, and each stage has a measurable milestone. The month 6 live gate sets five conditions before any real money.

Week 1Month 6Year 1

Glossary and citations

Every term is defined in one place, with over 50 entries. Chapter 16 traces the key claims to their sources, including SSRN, the Journal of Finance and official documentation.

50+ termsSources listed

Lifetime updates

Buy the first edition once and receive every future revision free. Markets, tools and regulations move, and your handbook moves with them.

First editionFree revisions
Interactive preview

Read it before you buy it.

These pages are drawn from the first edition and recreated for your browser. The tone, the diagrams and the code are what you will get.

Every diagram was drawn specifically for this handbook, from order books and candlesticks to drawdown maths and the bot's decision loop.

Plain English boxes translate every piece of jargon the moment it appears.

The full 44 page PDF is delivered securely after purchase, personalised and licensed to you.

A COMPLETE BEGINNER'S HANDBOOK

From Zero
to Algorithmic
Trading

Every concept explained from scratch, with diagrams, evidence, free tools and a South African roadmap.

100% free software stackEvidence over hype
FIRST EDITION, JULY 2026
EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL, NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE
From Zero to Algorithmic TradingA Beginner's Handbook

About this handbook

How to use it, and what it honestly promises.

This handbook answers one question as honestly as the evidence allows: what is the fastest realistic path into algorithmic trading for someone starting from absolute zero? Every term is defined the moment it appears, every claim that matters carries a citation, every tool recommended is free.

PART I

The foundations

ch. 1 to 5

PART II

The decisions

ch. 6 to 10

PART III

The practice

ch. 11 to 14

Reality check

One promise up front, because everything else depends on it: no honest guide can promise you profits. What this handbook can promise is competence, the skills that quant firms and fintechs pay for.

Page 2: About this handbook
From Zero to Algorithmic TradingA Beginner's Handbook

2.3: Where prices come from

The order book: two queues and a gap.

The order book for 1 Bitcoin (example numbers)

R1,853,000
R1,852,500
R1,852,000

The spread, a cost you pay

R1,851,000
R1,850,500
R1,850,000
Asks: sellers queueingBids: buyers queueing

There is no committee that sets Bitcoin's price. Each buyer states the most they will pay, which is a bid. Each seller states the least they will accept, which is an ask. The gap between them is the spread, your first and unavoidable trading cost.

Page 7: Chapter 2, What is trading?
From Zero to Algorithmic TradingA Beginner's Handbook

12.1: The plan in English before the code

“Only ever buy when the tide is rising. Within a rising tide, buy the dips and never the euphoria. Take profit at +4%. If the trade goes 3% against us, cut it instantly, no discussion.”

PART B: exits and the seatbelt

# the non-negotiable seatbelt
stoploss = -0.03
minimal_roi = {"0": 0.04, "1440": 0.02}
trailing_stop = True   # winners can't become losers

Every strategy you will ever build is these organs, rearranged: a regime filter, a timing filter, layered exits and a seatbelt. Chapter 12 walks through all of it, then hands you the exact commands to backtest, audit and dry-run it.

Page 34: Chapter 12, Your first bot, line by line

39 more pages await.

Unlock the full first edition. It is delivered securely, licensed to you and updated for life.

Cover (1 of 5)

Chapter breakdown

Sixteen chapters. Three parts. One map.

Chapters 1 to 5 build the mental model. Chapters 6 to 10 make the decisions. Chapters 11 to 14 do the work, and the reference shelf holds every definition and source. Expand any chapter to see inside it.

Part I

The foundations

  • The Brazil, Taiwan and United States studies, read slowly
  • Seven trading myths dismantled in one table
  • The only genuine shortcuts that exist
  • Exchanges and brokers, bids and asks, and the spread
  • Candlesticks, long and short positions, and why leverage is a loaded gun
  • Liquidity and volatility, the market's personality
  • The tempo spectrum, and why speed multiplies costs
  • Why swing trading is the beginner's zone
  • Where bots genuinely add value
  • A complete strategy in one plain English sentence
  • Moving averages and RSI, the robot's senses
  • API keys configured so a theft is an annoyance instead of a catastrophe
  • The expectancy equation, the only one that matters
  • Spread, fees and slippage, the three toll gates
  • Drawdown asymmetry: lose 50% and you need +100% to recover
Part II

The decisions

  • Crypto, forex, stocks and futures ranked for a zero budget learner
  • Why nothing in the beginner path is leveraged
  • The TFSA sanity anchor for South Africans
  • Freqtrade, QuantConnect, MetaTrader 5, Hummingbot and more, compared
  • The full stack as a building, free at every layer
  • What professionals actually run, for perspective
  • FSCA licensing, and why a missing licence is a red flag
  • VALR, Luno, Binance and Kraken in one venue table
  • FICA, SARS and exchange controls, the admin that is not optional
  • Trend following, mean reversion and breakout, with the evidence
  • Grid and martingale systems, and why smooth track records can end at a cliff
  • Nine families scored for difficulty and timeline
  • The four horsemen of fake profits, each with its defence
  • In sample and out of sample splits, plus walk forward testing
  • The report card translated: drawdown, profit factor and Sharpe
Part III

The practice

  • About ninety minutes of setup: VS Code, Git, Python, Docker and Freqtrade
  • Copy and paste commands through your first backtest
  • Ten accounts ranked by when to open them, with money touching ones last
  • TrendFollowerV1, with every line explained in plain English
  • The money settings that keep any single loss boring
  • How to read your first results like an adult
  • Week by week work with measurable milestones
  • The month 6 live gate: all five conditions, or no real money
  • Why failing the gate is the system working
  • The plan itself: copy, personalise, print and sign
  • Hard risk rules, kill switches and a wellbeing clause
  • The complete failure catalogue
Reference

The shelf

  • From ‘algorithm’ to ‘whipsaw’, one line each
  • Written to be read, not skimmed past
  • The academic studies, linked
  • Official documentation for every tool
  • Three books that earn their keep in year one
The roadmap, from chapter 13

Gates, not dates.

Most plans give you a schedule. This one gives you milestones you must actually meet before advancing, including the month 6 gate that decides whether real money ever enters the picture.

Week 1: a stage

Foundations and the full install

Read chapters 1 to 5 twice, install the complete lab, and run your first backtest.

The milestone that must be real

A backtest table has printed on your machine, and you can define spread, slippage, expectancy and drawdown from memory.

Week 2: a stage

Build TrendFollowerV1

Take a Python for trading crash course, then build, backtest and audit your first real strategy.

The milestone that must be real

You can change an entry rule and roughly predict the backtest's response before running it.

Week 3: a stage

Strategy literacy

Read community strategies critically and split your data into in sample and out of sample sets.

The milestone that must be real

You can name the four horsemen of fake backtests and show how you checked each one.

Week 4: a gate

Bot live on fake money

Start the dry-run with Telegram alerts, and start the trade journal.

The milestone that must be real

The bot runs unattended for 7 days and you can explain every trade it took.

Month 2: a stage

Research discipline

Build a second strategy family and learn hyperopt with walk forward guardrails.

The milestone that must be real

You have an experiment log with at least ten hypothesis driven tests, mostly failures you can explain.

Month 3: a stage

A second asset class

Complete the QuantConnect Boot Camp and port your trend logic to stocks or forex.

The milestone that must be real

You have tested the same idea on two asset classes and written one page on the differences.

Month 6: a gate

The live gate

There are five conditions: three months of clean simulation, results inside the backtest envelope, a drawdown calmly survived, pessimistic cost modelling, and a signed plan.

The milestone that must be real

All five, or no live money. Failing the gate is the system working, not you failing.

Year 1: a gate

Operate like a professional

Run a portfolio of small, uncorrelated systems with monitoring and clean tax records.

The milestone that must be real

Your capital is preserved, your process is professional, and you can honestly answer where, if anywhere, your edge is.

What you'll walk away with

Competence you can
demonstrate.

There are no promises about markets here, because those would be dishonest. These are skills, and they are the kind that quant firms and fintechs pay for.

Read any chart

You can read candlesticks, order books, spreads and market structure without the mystique, and without anyone's secret setup.

Speak the language

You can define expectancy, slippage, drawdown and walk forward testing from memory, because every term was taught the moment it appeared.

Run a real bot

TrendFollowerV1 dry-runs live market data on your own machine. Every line of it is yours, and every decision is logged.

Test without fooling yourself

You can spot the four horsemen of fake backtests, split data honestly, and hold your own best results in proportionate suspicion.

Size risk like a professional

You size positions so any single outcome is boring, backed by kill switches, hard stops and a written plan you sign.

Operate from South Africa properly

You know the FSCA licensed venues, the rand ramps, FICA and SARS, with a TFSA investing anchor running quietly alongside.

Who it's for

Written for beginners. Filtered for honest ones.

A handbook that promises competence instead of profits self-selects its readers. That's deliberate.

This is for you if

  • Absolute beginners, because every term is defined the moment it first appears
  • Developers who know code but not markets, who can move several months faster
  • Anyone burnt by guru courses who wants the actual evidence this time
  • South Africans who need local rails such as FSCA venues, rand ramps, SARS and the TFSA
  • Students and career switchers building skills that transfer to quant work

Skip it if

  • Anyone shopping for a plug and play money printer
  • Believers in guaranteed signals, funded gurus or 1% a day
  • Anyone expecting to get rich this month, because the roadmap is honest about pace
  • People unwilling to practise on paper money before risking real money

If that's you, keep your R799. Chapter 1 would only annoy you, because it names who profits from those promises.

Before and after

The same person, one handbook apart.

Before

Trading content is a wall of jargon and contradictory YouTube advice.

After

You can explain spread, expectancy and drawdown with a pen and a napkin.

Before

Bots feel like magic, something rented from a Telegram group.

After

A bot you built yourself trades live data with pretend money, and you understand every line.

Before

There is no way to tell a real edge from a lucky backtest.

After

You test like a researcher, with out of sample splits, pessimistic costs and counted attempts.

Before

Risk is a vibe. You are either too scared to act or not scared enough.

After

You have a signed one page plan with hard risk rules, kill switches and a wellbeing clause.

One edition, one price

Everything you need to start properly. Nothing you don't.

There are no tiers and no subscription. You buy one complete handbook.

You buy the handbook once. There is no subscription, no upsell ladder and no advanced course waiting behind it.

Everything else in the stack is free. Python, Freqtrade, Docker and the market data cost nothing. The handbook is the only thing you will be asked to buy.

Read the preview before you decide. The preview section above shows pages from the first edition, so you can judge the standard for yourself.

The digital handbook

First edition
R799paid once,
in South African rand

Delivered to your inbox straight after checkout. Licensed to you. Updated for life.

  • The complete 44 page first edition handbook as a PDF
  • 16 chapters covering the foundations, the decisions and the practice
  • TrendFollowerV1, a full first bot explained line by line
  • 25+ original diagrams that make the mechanics visible
  • A roadmap from week 1 to year 1 with real gates
  • The South Africa chapter covering venues, FICA, SARS and the TFSA
  • A 50+ term glossary and full citations for every key claim
  • Lifetime updates, so every future revision is free
Get instant access for R799

Secure checkout hosted by Shopify. We never see your card details.

Questions, answered

Make an informed start.

Clear expectations are part of responsible education. If your question is not here, email us and you will get a considered answer, not a funnel.

Yes. It assumes nothing. Chapters 1 to 5 build the vocabulary and the mental model before any tooling appears, and every term is defined the moment it first shows up. If you can follow a recipe, you can follow this handbook.

No. Python is one of the friendliest first languages, and chapter 12 walks through the entire first strategy line by line, in plain English. If you already code in any language, you will simply move faster.

You need nothing beyond the handbook for months. The data is free, every recommended tool is free, and Freqtrade's dry-run mode trades a pretend wallet against live prices without even needing an exchange account. Real money is optional, months away, and sits behind the month 6 gate.

No honest resource can promise that, and chapter 1 shows the published statistics on exactly this question. What the handbook promises is competence: a real bot you built and understand, an honest testing process, and risk discipline. Whether that becomes profit depends on finding a genuine edge, which most people never do, and the handbook says so plainly.

Freqtrade is free at every stage, its simulation needs no account, it ships tools that detect the classic ways backtests lie, and it has a large and active community. As for paid bots, chapter 1 explains the economics: anyone with a genuinely profitable bot would earn more running it quietly than renting it out.

No. One chapter is South Africa specific and covers licensed venues, FICA, SARS, the TFSA anchor and exchange controls. The other fifteen chapters apply anywhere. If you are in South Africa, that one chapter can save you weeks of confused research.

You get the complete 44 page first edition PDF. Checkout is handled by Shopify, which emails your download link as soon as payment clears, usually within a minute. Lifetime updates are included, so every future revision is free.

No. It is educational material only, and it is not financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Trading involves risk, including loss of capital, and the handbook is unusually blunt about that.

Four weeks from now

A bot you built, trading live data with pretend money and real understanding.

That is the honest promise. Not riches, but competence. Start with the map instead of the hype, and let the evidence do the selling.

Get the handbook for R799

Questions first? Write to hello@zerotoalgorithmictrading.co.za and you will get a clear, considered reply. There is no mailing list pressure.