Okay, let’s talk about this thing I built, the “momentum udt watch”. It feels like ages ago now, but I remember the whole process pretty clearly, mostly the headaches.
Getting Started – The Why
It all began because I was getting seriously annoyed. Trying to track market momentum, you know? See where things are heading. But the tools I had felt slow, clunky. Data seemed delayed, or the calculations just weren’t cutting it for what I wanted – quick, dirty signals. I thought, “Heck, I can probably rig something up myself. How hard can it be?” Famous last words, right?
So, I decided I needed something custom. Something faster, maybe using a different way to get the data. That’s where the whole ‘UDT’ idea popped into my head. Read somewhere about it being potentially faster for certain things than regular internet traffic methods. Seemed promising for grabbing data quickly.
The Messy Middle – Trying to Build It
First off, tackling UDT. Man, that was a trip. Finding good info was tough. Seemed like everyone had their own slightly different way of doing it, and examples were few and far between. I spent days, maybe weeks, just trying to get a stable connection going.
- I downloaded some libraries.
- Tried compiling them, ran into errors.
- Fixed those, then ran into weird network issues.
- Tweaked settings back and forth.
Honestly, it felt like wrestling an octopus. Every time I thought I had it pinned down, something else would flop out and cause trouble. Lots of late nights staring at logs, wondering why packets were just vanishing into the void.
Once I sort of got the data flowing through this UDT pipe – and I use “sort of” generously – I moved on to the ‘momentum’ part. This should have been the easy bit. Grab the data, run some simple math. I picked a couple of standard momentum indicators, nothing fancy. But getting the data out of the UDT stream and into my calculation logic reliably? Another nightmare. Timing issues, data corruption… you name it. It was fragile. Like, breathe-on-it-wrong-and-it-falls-apart fragile.
Finally, the ‘watch’ aspect. I needed alerts. When momentum shifts, tell me! Started simple: just printing messages to the screen. Okay, proof of concept. Then I thought, “Maybe a little dashboard?” Started messing with web stuff. Too complicated, too much overhead to maintain. In the end, I just set up basic email alerts. If condition X is met, shoot me an email. Crude, but it worked. Sometimes.
Looking Back – Was It Worth It?
So, after all that effort, what’s the verdict on the momentum udt watch? Well, it technically worked. Ish. I did get momentum signals, sometimes faster than my old tools. But the UDT part? Honestly, probably overkill and the source of 90% of the problems. The gains weren’t worth the stability headaches and the sheer effort involved in keeping it running.
I learned a ton about data transfer protocols, sure. Mostly, I learned what not to do. Sometimes sticking with the tried-and-true methods is just… easier. Less glamorous, maybe, but you actually get stuff done instead of fighting with obscure libraries.
Eventually, I scrapped most of it. Went back to simpler data feeds, focused more on refining the momentum logic itself rather than the plumbing. The whole UDT exercise? A detour. A painful, time-consuming, but ultimately educational detour. You build things, they break, you learn. That’s the way it goes, I guess. Now, if you ask me about using UDT for something like this again? I’d probably just shake my head and grab another cup of coffee.
