Written 27 September 2026
The story · the machine · the road so far
Where the machine comes from, what it is made of, how a trade is born inside it, the rules that keep it honest, and every step of the road it has travelled so far.
The chapters
Chapter I
A project born on 5 April 2026 from one simple idea: a machine that sees everything. Along the way it learned to believe only what it measures.
Sauron Vision was born on 5 April 2026. That day a first version went online, and it already held the heart of the idea: artificial-intelligence agents, alerts, a tool that tests strategies on the past, signals, and a news collector.
Three days later came the first trading bot, connected to Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, behind a PIN code. Then, within a few days: an emergency stop button, a simulator that trades without real money, circuit breakers, and a public front page, the Wall.
The code borrows its names from The Lord of the Rings: “Amon Hen” for the first section of the menu, “Gollum” for the guide who knows the way to Mordor. On its public page, Sauron presents itself as the all-seeing trading intelligence platform.
Why build it? To trade on its own, across several families of investments, in a closed loop: form a view, filter the risk, place the order, grade the result, and use that grade for the next decision. No black box: every step can be inspected.
The history of the code is kept in commits, the dated records of every change: 304 of them by the time this book was written. There were 45 in April, then none until August, then 134 in August and 125 in September, each counted on the day its record carries. Since 9 August every one of them has been co-written with Claude, and most of the work on real money dates from September.
Chapter II
An eye that watches, bots that act, gates that say no, a brain that grades itself, pages to see everything, and messages to tell it.
Sauron Vision is an automated trading platform. Trading means buying investments and selling them later (shares, currencies, gold, cryptocurrencies) to gain on the difference in price. With real money, Sauron always goes through a broker, the intermediary that holds the account and carries out the orders; in its own simulation it does everything itself, with no broker at all. Today that broker is eToro.
Picture a small team in which each member has one job. Nobody does everything, and everyone is checked by the others.
One rule runs through every internal page: what has not been measured is never shown as true. An unknown figure is written as a dash, never as a zero. Only the public pages, the Wall and this book, show 0 when a counter fails, and that is deliberate, because they are the platform's public front door.
Behind these six pictures stand 67 parts that can each be switched on or off, 30 registered commands, and 9,979 automated tests: small programs that check the code does what it says.
The Oculus, the first page of the menu. It answers a single question: is the machine turning? It sets the platform's cycles side by side, owns no data of its own, and always keeps three cases apart: a measured number, “not measured”, and a part that is switched off.
Each bot is tied to one family of investments: shares and ETFs, currencies, commodities, cryptocurrencies, options. It either trades in Sauron's own simulation (“paper”) or is connected to the broker (“live”), and a live bot trades real money only once the broker's demo box is unticked. A new bot is born switched off, in simulation.
Before every order, a line of checks can say no: the proof for that family of investments, what the broker allows, the money available, the day's loss, the concentration, the circuit breakers. When a gate says no, nothing leaves. Above them all, an emergency stop switches every bot off, then tries to close everything.
Sauron's Mind reads, summarises, and makes predictions that can be checked, each one graded later. An agent that is often wrong loses influence. The brain only advises: it can pause a rule, and it never sends an order.
The Operations Center, with its live, portfolio, history and bots tabs; the Treasury, which shows where the money is; each trade's own page; and the public Wall.
A Telegram group where Sauron announces what it does: every opening, every closing, every refusal and every problem, in English.
Counted by the platform
Chapter III
Ten steps, from a view to a graded result.
A trade is a bet on a price: you buy an investment expecting it to rise, or sell it expecting it to fall, and later you close it. Here is the real path of a trade inside Sauron, in order.
Every five minutes, each bot that is switched on takes a turn. It first watches over what it already holds, then checks that it is still allowed to open something, and only then looks through its instruments.
A signal is a dated view on an instrument, up or down, with a score. Several families of rules produce them: reading the charts, the tone of the news, the economy, the companies' fundamentals.
It takes recent signals, 24 hours old at most and scored at least 0.60, and a vote that leans far enough one way: each rule weighs according to its past results, and opposing views subtract. By default a single strong signal can be enough. Rules still “in research” are watched, but do not vote.
The stop is the price at which the loss is cut; the target, the price at which the gain is taken. Both follow the instrument's normal restlessness: the stop at 1.5 times its average move, the target at 3 times. The aim is a gain twice the accepted loss, and costs are deducted before a trade is judged worth taking.
The quantity is never a fixed amount. It is computed so that, if the stop is hit, the loss is a precise share of the bot's own reserve: 0.25% by default. That is “1R”, one unit of risk, the same on every trade by default; in the attack mode, conviction sets each trade at a half, three quarters or all of it.
Before anything is sent: the proof for the class, the broker's sheet for that instrument, the money available, the day's maximum loss, the total exposure, the concentration on one instrument, the same bet hidden under several names, the circuit breakers. A single no is enough, and nothing leaves.
The order leaves in one piece, with its stop and its target placed at the broker. eToro keeps them on its side, so the trade stays protected even if Sauron stops. eToro may move the levels it receives, sometimes far: on 25 September it shifted them slightly, and on 26 September a stop sent 5% from the price was held nearly 10% from it. When it moves a bot's stop, the fill message says so. If a real-money trade ever loses its stop, an alert goes out, even when the bots' messages are muted; only the shared quiet hours, when set, hold it back.
Every 15 minutes during market hours, from 13:00 to 21:45 UTC, Sauron compares what it holds with what the broker holds. That is one of two ways it learns that a stop or a target was hit; the five-minute turn also compares the price with both.
Sauron first sends the closing order to the broker. If the broker does not answer, the line waits as “close pending” and the close is tried again. Nothing is ever written “closed” without the broker's answer.
The opening and the closing arrive in the Telegram group, in English; the closing says its result and how it ended: target reached, stopped out, time limit, expired or closed by hand.
Every closed trade is graded (target reached, stopped out, closed by hand, expired or time limit) with its result in R. Those grades decide which rules climb and which fall.
The grade feeds the next decision
The last step closes the loop. A rule that wins climbs a ladder of four rungs: research (no trades at all), simulation, small real (a quarter of the size), full real. A rule that falls apart climbs back down on its own.
The settings quoted in this chapter are the platform's defaults as verified on 26 September 2026.
Chapter IV
Each one was learned, often from one precise incident.
Sauron handles money, so its rules of conduct matter more than its investment ideas. Most of them were born from a mistake avoided just in time, or from a measurement that contradicted a certainty.
They bind the machine, Claude, and everyone who operates it. They are not there to make things harder: they are there so that no loss ever comes from something we only believed we knew.
Only the broker can contradict the code. On 22 September, the connection to eToro, written from the documentation, met a real key: of its four layers, three were wrong, while 7,459 tests and four reviews held them to be right. Since then, anything the broker has not confirmed is treated as a hypothesis.
On the morning of 23 September, everything at IBKR was believed closed. The moment the broker answered, the platform measured the opposite, with no protective stop on what remained. Had “closed” been written down on someone's word, it would have stayed unwatched. Nobody ever writes “closed” by hand.
There are three answers: measured, measured at zero, and unknown. On the internal pages, whatever could not be measured reads “not measured” or a dash, never 0. The public Wall once showed “667 tests green” and invented prices; all of it was replaced with real counts. The public pages, the Wall and this book, keep a single, deliberate exception: a failed counter shows 0 there.
When a safety rule says no, nothing leaves. An order that would lock too much money at the broker is refused, not shrunk. A refused leverage is never quietly swapped for an order without it.
When the broker or the platform says why it refuses, that text is read first. On 7 September, three false causes were invented while the log held the true one. Every false lead costs time.
Every change that can send or size an order is first designed, then attacked by three reviewers from three angles (the money, the written contract, and “would you ship this tonight?”), then by a critic. On 20 September this process caught the platform's worst defect: every exit on real eToro would have opened an opposite trade instead of closing one.
A family of investments may send an order to eToro only after its proof: an order filled and then closed, written into the code with its test. It is deliberately not a box to tick, since nothing can tick a proof that was never measured. When the gate arrived on 24 September the list was empty and every eToro order was refused, even in demo; crypto earned the first proof, on the real account: measured on 26 September, written into the code on the 27th.
On the pages, the trading PIN is asked for at the gestures that open the way to real money: unticking the broker's demo box, switching on a real bot, placing or closing a real order by hand, applying a capital plan. Switching a bot off never asks for it.
Since 27 September the platform has the Morgul guards: a watchdog outside the engine that checks every five minutes for what Sauron must never do (a booking while its market is shut, a real-money trade with no stop at the broker, a close stuck pending, a price far from the market), tells the group, and can only ever stop a bot. Both of its switches are off on arrival.
The parts that could move capital on their own, the share allocator and the capital desk, run in shadow: they propose and apply nothing until weeks of grades have been read. Applying an allocation plan takes the PIN on the page, or an explicit confirmation in a command. One exception, off by default: a switch that would let share cuts apply themselves after a shock.
One calculation of a share of capital is wrong, but always towards “too small”. Every fix tried broke one of the platform's guarantees: one doubled a reserve at a stroke, another split the accounts in two, the third disarmed the automatic brake on losses. It stays as it is: breaking a guarantee to correct a caution is not an improvement.
Chapter V
From a first bot in April to the first measured orders at eToro in September, one dated step at a time.
Sauron was built in waves. First, seven days of momentum in April. Then four months of work outside the history, recorded all at once on 9 August. Then, from August, an almost daily build, co-written with Claude, and often reviewed and attacked by adversarial reviewers.
September was the month of real money: the first orders at IBKR and their refusals, the search for a broker that lets the server work on its own, the move to eToro, the first eToro orders in demo, and then the first proofs.
The first version goes online on 5 April. On the 8th comes the first bot, on Binance, behind a PIN code; then the emergency stop, simulated trading, the circuit breakers and the Wall.
The first version of Sauron Vision goes online, with AI agents, alerts, a strategy tester, signals and a news collector.
The bots arrive, connected to a cryptocurrency exchange, behind a PIN code.
An emergency stop button, a simulator without real money, circuit breakers and the public Wall are added.
Numbered phases, up to the sixtieth, recorded all at once on 9 August: signals that grade themselves, the promotion ladder for rules, the brain, bots for shares, currencies, commodities and options, and three brokers: Alpaca, OANDA and IBKR.
The brain, the bots for shares, currencies, commodities and options, and the signals that grade themselves land together. From now on, Claude co-writes the code.
A single server runs everything, with a step-by-step guide. Safeguards that had been built but never called are wired in. On 10 August the full chain reaches a simulated trade for the first time, costs included; on the 18th, evolution starts proposing and testing variants of rules.
For the first time the whole chain runs from a price to a simulated trade, and simulated trades pay their costs.
The dormant evolution layer becomes a living loop: variants of rules are proposed, run and graded.
The PIN becomes a real gate. The pages update themselves. Money gets a single answer everywhere: reserves, used, free. IBKR becomes configurable, and its trades leave with a stop placed at the broker.
The PIN can be typed at last, a forgotten PIN has a way back in, and an unattended screen locks behind it, enforced by the server.
Real counts replace invented figures on the public page: the platform as it is, and no made-up market data.
A session that survives the page, pages that update themselves, and a brain no longer punished for what it could not measure.
The money question gets one answer everywhere: reserves, used, free and cash.
Orders sent to IBKR now leave with their stop resting at the broker.
The rule enters the pages: what was never measured is never shown as a zero.
The Long and Short buttons can send real orders, after an arming step checked by the PIN. On the 7th, the first real order comes back with a mere notice from the broker, taken for a refusal: nothing was opened. On the 10th, a second refusal, over the broker's account minimum, which is now read before the order.
The manual buttons learn to send real orders, refusing first, and only after an arming step checked by the PIN.
The first real order sent to IBKR comes back with a mere notice, taken for a refusal: nothing was opened.
A second order is refused over the broker's account minimum; that floor is now read before the order, not after.
A fleet of research bots, in simulation, covers 166 symbols. Every prediction becomes a graded claim. The capital desk ranks every candidate under one risk budget. The Oculus shows whether the machine is turning. On the 15th a campaign of two to three months in simulation is decided; it later gives way to real money, one proven class at a time.
A fleet of research bots starts trading in simulation, fed by a data source that needs no key.
Every prediction the brain writes must carry a claim the platform can grade.
Every candidate of every bot, ranked once, under one risk budget, in shadow.
A portfolio that moves with the evidence, shadow first: it proposes, and a human applies.
A page shows, cycle by cycle, whether the machine is really turning, and which wheels are engaged.
Two to three months in simulation are planned, to arrive with evidence; the plan later gives way to real money, one proven class at a time.
IBKR's two-factor sign-in stays stuck in a loop on the 16th. eToro arrives, and two keys are enough, with no daily sign-in; Saxo too, with one sign-in the platform then keeps alive. The Treasury shows where the money is, the interface switches to English, and the retirement of IBKR is written down before it is done.
A broker whose two keys let the server work without a human at the door.
One sign-in, and the platform keeps the door open from then on.
The interface switches to English, and a close really closes.
The review catches the worst defect: on real eToro every exit would have opened an opposite trade. It is fixed before any real order.
A page shows where the money is.
The retirement of IBKR is written down before it is done.
A real eToro key: the first probe answers “not found”, and the connection is corrected from the real answers. Switching eToro to real money now asks for the PIN. On the 23rd the first eToro orders leave, in demo; at IBKR the last trades are closed at the New York open, and IBKR is retired.
The first probe answers “not found”; every path is corrected from the real answers instead of the documentation.
Unticking the demo box is the switch to real money, so it now asks for the PIN.
The first eToro orders are sent on the demo account and closed; the three defects they measured are fixed and pinned.
The retirement of IBKR is planned and attacked first; at the New York open the last trades are closed, and later that day IBKR is retired from the platform.
The proof gate refuses any eToro order from a class not yet proven. Sauron reads each day what eToro allows, instrument by instrument. On the 26th the bots finally speak on Telegram and the first real-money orders at eToro are sent; on the 27th what they measured is written into the code, crypto earns the first proof, and the Morgul guards arrive.
Every eToro order is refused while its class has not proven, in demo, that it can open and close.
Sauron reads each day, instrument by instrument, the floor, the caps and the leverage eToro allows; the first proof begins in demo.
Bot openings and closings reach the Telegram group at last.
The morning digest reports real faults only, each part judged on its own rhythm, in English.
Asked in the group, Sauron can report its status and explain why it did not trade, in English; the one thing it may change is the brake. Switched off on arrival.
Every new signal, from every rule, is announced once on Telegram, and every message follows one English house style.
Every instrument is sent under eToro's own name for it; a look-alike is refused, never adopted.
Leverage per class, and an attack mode: conviction sets the risk, while the multiplier only sets the cash the broker locks, never past what a demo proof pinned.
The first real-money orders at eToro, two tiny ones sent the evening before, measured sending, withdrawing, filling and closing on the real account; what they taught is now written into the code.
Each trade's page opens on a plain summary: the result live, one close button with a preview and the PIN, and the technical record folded underneath.
A probe is called stale only when it falls behind its own market, counted from the bar's close: a healthy weekend no longer reads as a fault.
A switched-off bot no longer manages what it holds, and every way of switching one off now says so.
A watchdog outside the engine checks every five minutes for what Sauron must never do, tells the group, and can only ever stop a bot. Both switches are off on arrival.
A simulated trade never fills or exits while its market is shut, and a shut market's last price is no longer stamped as fresh.
The morning brief and the evening summary count every trade the platform holds: real money first, then the simulated book.
The full suite runs once on the day's combined work, and its count becomes the number the Wall publishes.
Written here · 27 September 2026
Chapter VI
On 27 September 2026 these were written and reviewed, not yet landed.
Every batch is first designed, then attacked, then checked by thousands of automated tests before it lands. Each line here is said as in progress until then, and moves to the road so far, with its date, the day it lands.
In progress
After a page had been open for a long time, hovering a headline in the scrolling news band at the top could open nothing. The cause is found and the fix is written, so the band's cards stay alive for as long as the page is open.
In progress
Messages that read like a log line become one plain sentence with the facts beneath it, the technical record folded, and a button that opens the trade's own page.
In progress
The briefing page will show the Monday game plan in full, every line of it.
Each remaining class earns its proof in the demo account, at the leverage it will actually use: an order filled, then closed, and written into the code with its test.
Unticking the demo box is the switch to real money. It asks for the trading PIN, typed in person on the page and never sent in a message.
One class ticked at a time and one configuration switched on per session; then a full five-minute cycle and its Telegram message are watched before the next.
The aim is written in the plan for the move to eToro: every class traded at eToro, on its own, with IBKR retired. The second half is done: IBKR has been retired since 23 September. The first half is being built now, one class after another.
Why eToro? Because it lets the server work alone: two keys are enough, with no human sign-in every day. IBKR asked for a confirmation on a phone almost daily, and on 16 September its two-factor sign-in stayed stuck in a loop. The move has a price, accepted with open eyes: no broker is left for options.
The real limit is not money but calibration: knowing which rules truly work. Hence the research fleet trading pretend money, the graded predictions, the register of proofs, and a generator that proposes new strategies every week. Each one is born inactive, at the research stage, until a human approves it.
Chapter VII
Look, measure, and stop when something does not add up.
Sauron has been built since 5 April, commit after commit. It is not finished, and it says so: what is proven is written down, and what is not is refused.
Nobody needs to be an expert to follow it. It is enough to do what Sauron does itself: look, measure, take nothing on trust, and stop when something does not add up. Switching a bot off is always allowed, and it never asks for a PIN.
The next pages of this book will be written the same way, one dated line at a time.
The Book of Sauron · 27 September 2026
Appendix
The few terms a first reading meets, in plain words.