This is excellent advice. Also, if programming proficiency creates any roadblocks, consider hiring a coder experienced with trading software. It will speed up the process. Good luck
It took me 10 years to somewhat starting to see the light and even nowadays I make stupid mistakes at times, but at least I take my loss and get out. Emotions are a hard thing to control and can cloud your vision of charts and other subjective info, so you better have hard stops and places where you want to get out in check. Get as systematic as possible, although I doubt that what I do could be programmed.
Automating a trading strategy requires you to have one. I'd suggest sticking with the learning process and then develop a strategy that works for you.
A great place to start to see the massive chicanery in the retail trading education world is tradingschools.org
Now I'll say something that will likely surprise you but while 99% of the traders will tell you that you need to keep your losers small and let the winner run, I have become consistently profitable doing just the opposite: take small profit often (95% of the time) and sometimes take a bigger loss (1-2% of the time), sound crazy, eh?
We are all different- but every great trader had a mentor-though you have to think somebody was not mentored when it all started back in the 16th century. I part run a UK website for options traders-and we are looking for people to mentor,for free, for life. Can we find anyone? Lazy fat ass Brits want it on a plate. However our win rate with options is about 80%. http://optionsinvesting.co.uk/really-grinds-gears/
You're on the right track - open minded, willing worker, realistic. With a good mentor, you have a chance.