Buying trading systems discussion

[oilfxpro]

the average forex/futures trader is bombarded with touts and ads as to various systems he might buy or use. This essay will discuss the basics of why a trader would use a system, and pitfalls in choosing or developing systems.

Many beginning forex/futures traders lack a consistent plan--or path of reasoning--by which they make their decisions. They may make trading decisions after reading an article in the newspaper, hearing some news on CNBC, or seeing the weather report. I've known of clients who bought options chiefly because it was the hurricane season.
The trading of some beginning traders is almost random.
Some traders choose their trades after receiving an email touting the "trade of the day" or "trade of the week" from their brokerage office. Now, some brokerages have excellent recommendations, but not all do. Some brokers as individuals have excellent recommendations, but not all do. Some futures traders remind us of sports bettors in the movie Two for the Money. Like the clients of certain sports handicapping services, they are very happy after a few consecutive wins. They may well increase the size of their positions. Then, they are caught disastrously unaware as their broker or service makes several losing trading recommendations.

As a result, to survive and prosper, many speculators begin to look for a trading system or systems. In fact, some successful traders are simply those who have found a reliable system. Some simply stumbled into a reliable system. Others look for months or years before they find what they want and need in a system.
Using a system should result in two advantages. The speculator himself--or the developer of the system--will have studied or reviewed the previous several dozen or several hundred highly similar set-ups. (Some system developers review several thousand.) The one who has studied these several hundred set-ups knows what now seems to be the likely unfolding of the pattern he sees.
Based on the past behavior of the market, the speculator can make an educated guess about the profitable way to trade, given the current market pattern. And, he can also make the educated guess that, even if this particular trade today doesn't work out, the next five or ten trades taken based on the "system" are likely to result in more profit than loss.
Also, when trading without a system, speculators are likely to make poor decisions based on fear and greed. The market goes against them and they liquidate their position at what is often the high or the low. Some traders take positions for which there is no good reason other than the excitement of being in the market. For some, they enjoy seeing if they can outguess the market in the same way that others enjoy the slots or blackjack in Las Vegas. Their trading usually does not last long.
So there are strong advantages in using a system. The speculator hopes that the system will keep him from making irrational decisions. And, he hopes that the system will have been tested in the same way medical researchers test new drugs and will perform in the future as tested in the past.

It doesn't always work out that way.

As a futures broker I speak at times with many who I've known several who have paid between $2,000 and $10,000 for a system, software or training program and afterwards believed that it was advertised in a misleading way. After buying it, they became convinced it did not do what its sellers had alleged it would do.
Colleagues in a previous brokerage office spent money on futures trading systems only to find they were unworkable.
In fact, some say that these persons are members of the $3000 club. The "club" is those who have spent $3000 on a trading system.

By one standard, they are lucky ones, because they are only out their purchase price, which is usually an amount in the area of a "few" thousand dollars. And at least sometimes, these systems work. What is more painful to hear is of potential clients who've lost thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars after putting real money at risk in trading the signals from a series of different systems or CTAs. The first system they tried was one that was supposedly reliable and profitable. In fact, it lost money for them. And then they went from it to a second, and then a third, and then a fourth.

How do we evaluate potential systems? What might make a system "good" or bad? Is a system likely to work in the future? How would we know? Can we even make a guess about that?

Here are questions we might ask of possible systems, software and CTAs:

Is the system or software subject to any independent tracking of its signals? There are several services or websites whose function is or includes tracking the performance of systems, signals and/or CTAs.. Is the system, its signals or the signals of the CTA being tracked by an independent source? If not, why not?

If the system or signal series was created more than a few months ago, and if it is any good, it is likely that there is independent auditing of its signals to demonstrate its performance since the time it was created. And this is true even of systems for which no one has yet traded real money.

Once I talked with someone who had been through two systems and had just moved his money to signals being generated by a "CTA." I asked if this CTA had his performance being tracked and audited by the people at autumngold.com. The answer turned out to be no.
Within a few weeks, the results in this fellow account gave us a good clue as to why the CTA's performance wasn't being reported at autumngold.com. It was terrible.
In the absence of independent auditing of results, the closest proxy would be statements or factual information from the brokerage which holds accounts which are trading the system.
What is the track record of the system or service? This is a good question. A lot of people ask this question without asking the question about independent auditing of performance.
In the absence of independent of proof of performance, one should assume that there are liars out there who lie about their own performance or the performance of their system.
It has happened to me at least three times when I was doing some web research on some system or software that I found reports of CFTC enforcement actions against the developer. These actions alleged various forms of fraud or other violations of the securities or futures trading laws. And these were software developers or systems developers who were still in business selling their services!
A few years ago I was checking on a system advocated by a certain brokerage. I asked what its return had been over the last year and over the last several years. The broker who was recommending the service told me he didn't know, but if I would track the signals for one month I would be convinced. "Seeing is believing," he said.
Maybe seeing one month of signals is enough for some , but I prefer to see the results over several years.
I know one fellow who makes market predictions or calls, many of which have been recorded in books or newspapers. He claims to have a track record far better than he actually has. He does this by reporting falsely what he had predicted so that his predictions match what the market later did. You wouldn't spot the fraud unless you check the old newspapers or the webpages which have those old newspaper articles.

Is the "track record" of hypothetical performance in the past, or was it produced real time? When was the system created and what has been the performance since then?
Unfortunately some futures brokers have misled some clients in some instances. Potential clients have told me that their futures broker told them that a certain program was great and had produced returns of 100% a year over the past several years.
In fact, the 100% annual returns were hypothetical returns, not with real money, produced in real time.
And why does this matter? The behavior of the market is fully able to change over time. For example, the year 2006 has seen less volatility in the S&P and the currency markets than have previous years. Trading systems which were designed in years of higher volatility, and which were designed to exploit volatility, have "gone bad" recently. The reason isn't fraud on the part of the system developer, but the market itself has changed.
If the trading results were produced real time, will a change in market behavior ruin the results of the system? While this has happened recently with certain volatility-based systems, the same potential exists with many common programs of selling stock index options.
Selling stock index options can regularly provide a monthly increase in one's account, but with the risk of ruin if not handled very carefully. The best example of this is the case of Long-Term Capital Management. They were a giant hedge fund with billions of dollars under management. On their staff was one Nobel Prize winner, who was partly responsible for the creation of the Black-Scholes option pricing model. LTCM had many months of gradual growth. They (and others, for that matter) were short option volatility going into August 1998.
In August 1998, nearly every position held by LTCM was going against them by abnormally large amounts. Their mathematical models had indicated that this event should never occur in the lifetime of the universe. Yet, it was happening before their eyes. Within a few weeks, the Fed organized a consortium of banks to purchase LTCM and gradually close out all their positions.

Other important questions relate to drawdowns incurred as a result of trading the signals of a system. There are many seemingly profitable systems which have had drawdowns of equity of 50% or more. And, many traders wouldn't continue to trade a system after having experienced a drawdown of 30 or 40%, no matter how good it seemed in the past.
For some traders, the only tradeable systems are those which have drawdowns of less than 15 or 20% of equity from any given point in time.
Note that a system developer may, inadvertently or intentionally, hide his drawdowns from potential clients. Here is one way it is done. The system developer says, "I've recently done an extensive study of the market and derived several new indicators and a system for trading the market. And, over the last several years, this system would have taken several hundred points from the market in trading S&P futures. Moreover, since my system began to function real-time, it has continued to take substantial profits."
Does this sound impressive? If it is true, it is. However, what is missing is this: If a person had been trading using this system in the last six or ten years, how large would have been any and all large drawdowns?
Moreover, suppose one had decided that as one's account increased in size, that one would take progressively larger positions. Many traders do exactly this. If one has increased his position size and simultaneously entered a period of consecutively losing trades, how bad will things get for one's account before starting to win again?
There are at least two functioning websites right now which offer stock market signals and which have had at times a seemingly fantastic return. They have a seemingly fantastic return until you also consider the actual or hypothetical drawdowns some of their clients have experienced. And those drawdowns make them more like the sirens of old than a rock on which a trader could rely.

Another useful question to ask is whether or not the input variables of the system (or model) have a rational relationship to the price behavior.
Lets consider the following system: If the close of today's S&P is lower than yesterday's close and lower than the close of 3 days ago and of 4 days ago, and if the close of 3 days ago is lower than the close of 4 days ago, buy one S&P the next day market on open and exit on the close.
A Tradestation simulated run indicated in January of 2006, that "system" would have resulted in large profits, hypothetically speaking, over the previous six years. Now, the system works over the past in the S&P, but not in the Russell 2000. Are the results of the system a fluke?
From January 2006 to September 2006, the system would have produced a large loss.
Why? Is it simply a statistical fluke over period of years and covering dozens of trades? Did the market change its behavior? Is the loss in 2006 simply a drawdown in a system that will be profitable in the long run? I don't know. I have no idea, in fact.
What I do suspect is that if a system is being built, it has a greater likelihood of "working" after it is built if the inputs, variables or paramaters of the system have some rational relationship to future price action. Otherwise, the market itself may change. Then, the system might no longer function profitably.
Traders must realize that markets do change over time. The use of systems themselves changes the markets over time. Systems may increase or decrease market volatility and change it in other ways. Also, as any given profitable system becomes known and widely used, market participants may act in ways to take advantage of what they know to be the behavior of those following the system.
Some markets are believed to have a consequent effect on other markets. For example, some believe that the price of crude oil and/or treasury bonds has a lagged effect on the prices of stocks. If this is true, then, systems might be built to exploit this. And, such systems would perhaps continue to work, despite changes in market volatility.
Because markets might change and one system begin to fail, one strategy that some would use is to allocate various portions of one's funds to the signals of diverse trading systems.

There is a risk of loss in all trading. Information in this report is from sources deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

[oilfxpro]

Michael Ryan Associates

Although past performance is no guarantee of future performance, a performance record shows historic returns and losses, as well as the program’s volatility. An investor has to decide what returns are acceptable for a given amount of risk. Three common tools and their derivatives are used to measure risk and return: Standard Deviation, Sharpe Ratio and Drawdown.

Standard Deviation

Standard deviation is a statistical measure of the degree to which each monthly return clusters about the mean (average). In a normal distribution, 68% of the months will be within one standard deviation of the mean and 95% will be within two standard deviations of the mean. Standard deviation is computed arithmetically and is expressed as a percentage.

Standard deviation allows an investor to evaluate a trading program for risk. In theory, a program with a high standard deviation has a wide range of performance and has a greater potential for volatility which increases risk. Standard deviation can be computed on a monthly or annual basis. An annualized standard deviation of 35% would be considered high.

Standard deviation also allows the investor to measure the probability of future profit or loss. For example, suppose a hypothetical trading program has an annualized rate of return of 49.31% and an annualized standard deviation of 21.53%. This means that the hypothetical program has a 68% probability the annual return will be between +27.78% and +70.84%, and a 95% probability that the annual return will be between 6.25% and +92.37%.

When a trading program has large winning months and small losing months, standard deviation is an inadequate measure of risk. Losing months are what creates risk. Gain deviation and loss deviation are specialized calculations of standard deviation which attempt to isolate the effect of positive volatility (whether the program will trade to the upside and make money) and negative volatility (whether the program will trade to the downside and lose money). Gain deviation only measures movements from the mean which are above zero (to the upside) and loss deviation only measures movements from the mean which are below zero (to the downside).

Comparing the performance of a hypothetical trading program with the S&P 500 index will demonstrate the relationship between positive volatility and negative volatility. Suppose the trading program has a monthly standard deviation of 6.21 while the S&P 500 has a monthly standard deviation of 4.74. The S&P 500 appears to better investment from the standpoint of standard deviation. Yet, gain and loss deviation can reveal a different picture. The gain deviation of the hypothetical program is 4.94 while the gain deviation of the S&P 500 is 2.73. The loss deviation of the hypothetical program is 2.68 while the loss deviation of the S&P 500 3.69. Thus, the greater volatility of the hypothetical program is positive (profitable) volatility. In essence, the S&P 500 gains less and loses more than the hypothetical trading program.

Sharpe Ratio

The Sharpe Ratio, developed by William Sharpe of Stanford University, is one of the key risk/reward ratios used by the industry. It compares the rate of reward for an investment with the risk incurred in gaining that reward. The formula is the annualized rate of return minus the risk-free rate (T-Bills) divided by the annualized standard deviation. A positive Sharpe Ratio means the investment did better on a risk adjusted basis than the risk-free rate (T-Bills). The higher the Sharpe Ratio the better the investment. The Sharpe Ratio allows an investor to analyze returns in conjunction with the risks taken to obtain those returns.

As discussed above, volatility may be helpful (positive) or harmful (negative). The Sortino Ratio is a variation of the Sharpe Ratio designed to differentiate the effect of harmful volatility on the risk/reward ratio. The Sortino Ratio is calculated the same as the Sharpe Ratio except loss deviation is used for the denominator instead of standard deviation. By using loss deviation in the denominator, the Sortino Ratio compares the rate of reward for the investment with the negative risk (harmful volatility) incurred in gaining the reward. This ratio allows investors to assess risk in a better manner than comparing the rate of reward to total volatility, since this measure does not consider how often the price of the investment rises as opposed to how often it falls. Again the higher the ratio the better the investment.

The following chart which compares the performance of a hypothetical trading Program with the S&P 500 index demonstrates the importance of the Sharpe Ratio and the Sortino Ratio.


Manager Cumulative Return Risk-Free* Interest Rate Standard Deviation Loss Deviation Sharpe Ratio Sortino Ratio
Hypo 87.57% 1% 6.21% 2.68% 2.24 4.35
S&P 500 22.76% 1% 4.74% 3.69% 0.35 1.04


The hypothetical trading program out preformed the S&P 500 by 64.81 percentage points making it the preferred choice from the standpoint of cumulative returns. However, do the risks justify the returns? As discussed above, the hypothetical trading program has more risk as measured by standard deviation; yet it has less risk as measured by loss deviation. Now, let’s look at the Sharpe Ratio. The Sharpe Ratio distinguishes the hypothetical trading program as a better investment from a risk/reward standpoint. The difference between the Sharpe Ratios of the two programs is significant (more than six times). In fact the S&P 500 is barely above the risk free Treasury bill rate on a risk adjusted basis. When we look at the Sortino Ratio, the hypothetical trading program is over four times better from a risk/reward standpoint. From both a total return and risk/reward basis, the hypothetical trading program is clearly a superior investment to the S&P 500.

Drawdown

Drawdown is the dollar amount of a decline in performance of an investment from peak to trough. The depth and length of drawdown periods and the time taken to recover to the previous peak are factors used to evaluate risk.

Maximum drawdown determines how a manager fared during a bad trading spell. Maximum drawdown measures the greatest decline experienced after reaching a given peak, over a period of time usually extending over most or all of a manager’s track record. Drawdown is another way that an investor can compare the volatility of a manager’s trading style. Along with drawdown, some managers will calculate the worst 12-month period (or worst 3- or 6- month period) and the length of time it takes to recover from a drawdown.

The Statistics chart shows the maximum drawdown for the trading program measured over the life of the program. The Drawdown Analysis chart shows the longest drawdown period for the program and the time it takes the program to recover from the drawdown. The Holding Period analysis chart compares the performance of the program at the start of any given month and what the Best, Worst, and Average performance would be in any one, three and six month time period.

[oilfxpro]

some good guidelines for prospective purchasers of mechanical trading systems.

First, don't buy a system from someone who didn't trade.


1. '"THIS IS THE FIRST OF MY TRADING COMMANDMENTS: THOU SHALT NOT BUY TRADING SYSTEMS FROM NON-TRADERS. PERIOD. ETCHED IN STONE."

Non-traders aren't aware of all the little nuances of trading the gotchas that will getcha when you are actually slugging it out in the markets.

several other questions to pose when evaluating the systems that get by the first commandment:

DOES THE SYSTEM BEHAVE IN ACCORD WITH YOUR TRADING STYLE?

"You must know yourself and your trading limitations before you evaluate any system," . You need to know how much risk you can take, how many markets you want to trade, which markets, whether you are a day-trader or an end-of-day trader, etc. The system should be tailored to fit your style.

3. WILL THE VENDOR PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT THE SYSTEM PERFORMS IN REAL-tIME TRADING AS WELL AS IT DOES IN PAPER-TRADING SIMULATIONS ON HISTORICAL DATA?

Ask for at least a year of audited account records for daytrading systems and three years for end-of-day systems. "Sounds tough? Well, so is losing your money trading a crappy system," he says.

3. WILL THE VENDOR PROVIDE THE SYSTEM TO YOU ON A TRIAL BASIS FOR REAL-TIME EVALUATION?

many vendors will let you trade the system for 30 days for around $100 and will credit the amount to the purchase price if you buy the system.

4. ARE THE RULES OF THE SYSTEM DISCLOSED TO THE PURCHASER?

"Black box" systems have rules that are completely dark to the user. You feed it prices and it spits out trading signals. "Grey box" systems take some user input, such as the parameters for the sensitivities of indicators, but the algorithms and rules of the system remain undisclosed.

"White box" systems are completely revealed to the purchaser. Only buy only white box systems if you intend on being a fulltime, professional trader.

This last guideline is important: Without a full and complete understanding of how a system should react under a given trading circumstance, a trader cannot develop the level of confidence in the system required to keep trading it through the inevitable drawdown periods it will experience. The only way to truly know the system, and to know that it is sound, is to know all the rules that govern its behavior. This is impossible with any but white box systems.

It's obvious that few systems will pass these tests,". "So be it. But I've saved myself uncounted dollars and grief from systems that failed to perform as advertised. I've looked at a lot of junk in all those years, and I feel the best approach is to develop personalized systems based upon observations of market behavior. But that takes time...a lot of it."

Another great resource for finding out about mechanical trading systems, or their vendors, are other traders in the online forums who may have purchased these systems. If you Find a system that meets all the requirements listed here, you can go onto one of these lists and ask if anyone has experience with the system and the vendor.

Although this technology makes "sharing" systems easy, it would be wrong to ask another trader to provide you with the rules of a system, as it would be to accept such an offer. If a system is any good, your profitable trading will more than repay you for the money paid to the vendor. If the system is a moneymaker, the vendor certainly deserves to be compensated for creating it.

It also is good to remember that there is nothing new under the sun. Many of the systems for sale on the market today are based on building blocks readily available in books, magazine articles and, now, Web pages. Like the online communities, sometimes you have to sort through a lot of useless information, but the effort, , can be rewarding.

[oilfxpro]

People don't share their good systems freely.The shared systems have some weaknesses ,and the purpose behind sharing is let other people help the system sharers with input and improvements.

System developers are traders ,and traders sell anything from systems,indicators ,tools ,services ,signals and expert advisors etc.It is the very nature of traders ,that makes them sellers, cause if they did not sell they would not be traders.

If the system was proven and profitable , it would be sold as a commercial product on collective2 or on the internet.

Systems are very personal to each trader in terms of risk tolerance.entry,exit,profit potential etc

Why develop my own system? Isn’t it easier to just go buy a system with proven results?

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of trading systems that work. But most people, after purchasing a preexisting system, will not follow the system and trade it exactly as it was intended. Why not? Because the system doesn’t fit them or their style of trading.

One of the biggest secrets of successful trading is finding a trading system that fits you. In fact, Jack Schwager, after interviewing enough “market wizards” to write two books, concluded that the most important characteristic of all good traders was that they had found a system of methodology that was right for them.

When someone else develops a system for you, you don't know what biases they might have. Developing your own system allows for compatibility with your own beliefs, objectives, personality and edges.

Furthermore, most of the system development software for sale really encourages some of the trading biases that I see as detrimental to overall trading success.

For example, give a system developer enough leeway and that person will have a system that perfectly predicts the moves in the market and makes thousands of dollars on paper with certain historical markets. Most software allows people to optimize to their heart's content. Eventually, they will end up with a meaningless system that makes a fortune on the data from which it was obtained, but performs miserably in real trading.

[heartnet]

for me:
1st system must be easy to use
2nd make sure the web say there is account block/limit for MT4 if not it must be useless
3rd get some review from forums
4th after buy it demo it b4 live it

[oilfxpro]

Originally Posted by heartnet

for me:
1st system must be easy to use
2nd make sure the web say there is account block/limit for MT4 if not it must be useless
3rd get some review from forums
4th after buy it demo it b4 live it

Heartnet

Most important thing is drawdown and money management

HERE IS WHAT AN EXPERIENCED TRADER HAD TO SAY

I totally agree that most of these systems are not written by real traders risking real funds, I suspect successful traders who can program are a rare breed

ha ha ha

Also most people have a relatively low draw down tolerance. What happens when the larger draw downs occur?45 % DRAWDOWN.

Other important questions relate to drawdowns incurred as a result of trading the signals of a system. There are many seemingly profitable systems which have had drawdowns of equity of 50% or more. And, many traders wouldn't continue to trade a system after having experienced a drawdown of 30 or 40%, no matter how good it seemed in the past.

OILFXPRO

[oilfxpro]

Forex automated trading software offers automatic trading of the forex market. Creators of these automated forex trading systems claim you can make easy profits with very little time invested, and without having to understand complex algorithms.

First of all, any forex trading system software that guaranteeing easy, consistent profits is an outright scam. The forex market, like the stock market, consists of too many random factors. Anyone promising to be able to read the future like a fortune teller is a liar. Forex trading is similar to gambling. But what successful forex robot systems can do, is boost the odds slightly in your favor. Then, there will be a slight probability that you will make money over the long run.

However, past success is NOT an indicator of future success for a forex autopilot trading system. Scientifically speaking, this is because the forex market has "no memory", that is, the future and past are unrelated. Just because an advertisement shows you an incredible "historical track record" does not guarantee future success. This is why legitimate forex robot trading systems will have a disclaimer that there is NO guarantee of profits and that the product is for educational purposes only.

This leads to a problem, though. When you purchase a forex automated trading system, by agreeing to their terms of service, you have given up all rights or guarantees for a useful product. They can now sell you junk, and since you agreed to take the risk, there is nothing you can do. Make sure that you can at least get a refund if you are not satisfied. Furthermore, try to search for reviews of specific forex software online before you make a purchase.

In summary, just because a forex automated trading system made profits in the past does not mean it will make profits for you in the future. You should be very wary of forex software promising profits, as the random forex market is impossible to predict. Make sure you read reviews of forex automated trading systems before you make a purchase, or at least make sure you can get a refund if you are not happy.Some of the review sites are scam sites ,so be wary of great reviews and review sites ..especially forex message boards which can turn out to be scam sites

You will not be scammed if you understand and test the forex market yourself.Instead of hoping someone will give you a hands-free, mind-free way of making money in the forex market, the best investment is learning yourself how the forex market works.

[oilfxpro]

There more popular than ever and greedy investors think they are going to get rich quickly with no effort. The reality check is almost all robots will destroy your account equity quickly...

95 - 98% of robots I on the net have not even been traded on real accounts

The track record has this disclaimer on it.

Look for it in the small print if you see it and read it you will understand why it probably will fail miserably:

"CFTC RULE 4.41 - Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not been executed, the results may have under-or-over compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity.

then of course the statement that makes the track record no use at al in determining profitability:


Now what is the logic of having a track record that has never been traded and what does it tell you?

Does it indicate anything about the profitability of the system - NO

Of Course it doesn't and it's a wonder that these track records are allowed to be used to sell to the public. Most of the time the traders buying the system don't dig to deep and are generally trusting throw in some good copy and there soon buying the system.

I always read about how these robots are sold by ex bank traders and hedge fund traders etc - all lies they are not bank traders , they are sold by marketing companies looking to tap into the huge market
You can make money in forex but an automated trading system that has never been traded is not the way to do it. Let's make one point clear:

Forex trading is NOT as easy as giving a few hundred dollars and buying success in a box - life isn't like that!You need to find some good robots with track records if you shop around

You could trying writing to the vendor and ask for his track record audited over say 2 years and see if you get a reply but don't

[TurboTrader24]

I think there is a good point, with new traders they think they are going to get rich trading forex.. They are miss led like, make $5k in two weeks BS. Maybe if you have a 100k account and ypu get lucky with a few trades...
If it sounds too good to be true IT IS. Just like other get rich schems. My feeling on buying a trading system is, if I had a system that made me $5K in two weeks I wouldn't have to worry about selling it. I would just trade.
Don't get me wrong maybe there is a robot that does good.
THere is so much to consider to even get in a trade like.
Over bought over sold levels
Market strength
News coming out
Pivots
What levels the pair is at.
Retractments
Market hours: When other markets open ,like Japan GB Londen.
Long trend direction, Daily ,Weelky, Monthly.
Camm Zones.
MM Lines.
SDX

These are a few things I look at before enterng a trade can a robot do that.
After five years of trading forex.
Not to mention patterns.
I beleive trade what you see.
When I started trading when we had mt3 I leased a robot that promised to have excellant results and it wiped out my demo accounts in just a few days.

This forum has alot of good free systems and indicators it is a great community, traders helping traders.

I just hate to see new traders get burned paying big money for a system that just does'n work. Not only out the money they paid for the system but if they trade a live there account that too.
Just my thaughts.

[oilfxpro]

Here is one for u.Buy systems to deal with 4 major types of conditions
a)breakouts with fast breakouts
b)ranging market
c)predictable trending market with small daily ranges(high-low)
4)consolidation markets with extreme narrow daily ranges


Hi
People misunderstand the level of readiness required to beat the markets.Infact 99% of traders will blow out because the markets are dynamic and difficult to master.

A day trader's strategy which worked for 3 years consistently will fail eventually if market conditions change,thereby resulting in losses
There are many different types of market conditions which need to mastered on a day to day basis.If market conditions change everyday of the week, and the most horrible market conditions are set upon us for 5 consecutive days , the trader will lose 5 days in a row and give up.

I will give you an example
Day 1 breakout ....failed breakout price reverses for loss
Day 2 Ranging market start ,market consolidates , consildation trade put on , market breaks out and loss for second day
Day 3 Market shows intraday tend , order placed and soon the market breaks out to the opposite side loss day 3
Day 4 Intraday trending signal entry ,volatilty increases and stops are hit ,only to market return to the orignal trend , the trader has another loss
Day 5 Martingale time .Price breaks out but reverse , add a second position and double the lots only to see the market take a 200 pip loss
Thats one great trading week of shattered confidence and a trader who looks for a 9 to 5 job

L O L .

In my trading I use 6 major expert advisors (I do not sell them) which are 10 times more powerfulf than the basic expert advisors marketed.These give me the edge

Buying expert advisors /systems discussion - Page 3 - Alpari (UK)'s Forex and CFDs Forum