Tfot

[Merrygoround]

I would like to start a review of the EA called TFOT (Two Faces Of Trend ). It is a product of Iticsoftware with a.o. Boris Fesenko. It runs on EURUSD, and since version 3.0 came out also on USDCAD. I would like this review to be impartial, without any connection with Iticsoftware.

The official myfxbook for EURUSD (TFOT v 2.0): http://www.myfxbook.com/members/iticsoftware/expert-advisor-toft/65539. It shows a nice, hard to find equity curve.

The official myfxbook for EURUSD + USDCAD (TFOT v3.1):
http://www.myfxbook.com/members/itic...-usdcad/209854
The official site: www.iticsoftware.com. From what I have read about them, they produce a bunch of indicators and EA's which do not seem to work. But TFOT is an EA that actually works! So I am very enthousiastic about it.

The reason I am starting this thread is because of my experience with other EA's. Some EA's are very profitable, but unfortunately also incorporate the most risk. Some use a method of gridtrading, others use martingale. These trading techniques are considered extremely dangerous by experienced traders, and are not likely to have a long lifespan.

I was looking for an alternative, which does not use controversial techniques, and still is profitable in the long run. I stumbled across this EA on another forum. I was not fully satisfied with the conclusion there: they said that is was unpredictable, and results varied too much depending on the broker . In my experience it is true that trades are completely the same when comparing brokers, but the overall equity development should be more or less the same.
Edit: demo removed to avoid DD.

I had some license problems in the beginning of January 2012. With the help of Boris Fesenko those problems have been fixed.

One major disadvantage is the price. TFOT is an expensive EA. But sometimes you can get a reduction at the official site. And judging from the amount of money that I have blown since I started trading in FX, I should have bought this EA much sooner.

The previous version 3.0 had a bug when trading both EURUSD and USDCAD, since the magic numbers were not unique trades were closed and opened irratically. 3.1 has fixed this issue, and now it seems stable.
USDCAD is not as profitable in backtests as EURUSD.

[rsmereka]

Strange that you started this thread as I was just going to start a TFOT thread by asking what people thought about it.

Being an expensive EA, I am having pre-purchase jitters.

So you did buy this EA?

Based on the time you have run it so far, may I have your impressions of it's trading logic and could you upload the set file(s) you are using please.

Rick

[rsmereka]

I have been trolling around for review's and I encountered this at Birts Review. Post # 16 says:

I’m going to stay away from TFOT. It is an almost identical copy of an early Forex Combo System version (I believe 2.1) with the reversal strategy removed and with a steeper price tag.

Since I already have Forex Combo System (which is doing lousy), I am concerned that this is true.

Rick

[Merrygoround]

I read that too, but if I remember correctly, TFOT came out before that. Also, how is the difference in performance explained, if the two are copies of one another? The results should speak for themselves, therefore I am running my own demo. I think that anyone considering this EA should do the same, before going live. There is 60 day trial period, I believe.

I have no set to share, since the amount of external parameters is very limited.
The default set:
FirstFace=true
SecondFace=true
MarketExecution=true
GMTTest=2
MM===== MM Parameters ====
MaxLotsOr=5.00000000
FFMP===== First Face MM Parameters ====
LotFF=1.00000000
PercentLotFF=0.00000000
SFMP===== Second Face MM Parameters ====
LotSF=1.00000000
PercentLotSF=0.00000000

There is a very interesting thread about it here: http://www.donnaforex.com/forum/index.php?topic=4371.0 See also a post there about price reduction for EA.

[Merrygoround]

Regarding the trading strategies used, there is a scalping strategy (first face) and another more long-term strategy (2nd face) that I have not figured out fully. When that one wins, it usually wins big. In version 3 an additional MM rule was added, it should have less DD, and the first and second strategy are better tuned to one another.

The funny thing is that you need to have all timeframes smaller than the daily chart open with each currency pair it trades. The EA itself runs on the 5M. At first I had not done that, and the EA behaved very strange. I asked the developer to have a look at my VPS, and he recognized the problem within seconds. Silly me, because it was all explained in the (brief) manual.
So this is the first EA I know to use multi-timeframe.

[Merrygoround]

By fiddling with the FPercentLotSF-parameter, I ruined the test. EA opened a trade of 5 lots. I thought I set it to trade with 10% of Equity. Backtests did not show any trades after changing this parameter, so I do not know if it works properly. Has this EA been tested properly?

I will restart the test, since it has only been running a few days. Much like the demo with FH, I intend to manually increase the lotsize on the DEMO as the capital grows, i.e. at 15k trading with lot 1.5, at 20k with 2 lots etc.

I also noticed that TFOT running on the real account opened a trade (first face, scalping) on EURUSD which did not show up on the demo. This is the first time I have seen a difference between demo and live account. It must be linked to the spread . Sometimes TFOT is spamming in the MT4's Experts tab that the spread it too high. It is nothing to worry about. It seems that a low spread broker is essential for the EA to work. Big surprise, since it is partly a scalper... duh.

[rsmereka]

Originally Posted by Merrygoround

I read that too, but if I remember correctly, TFOT came out before that. Also, how is the difference in performance explained, if the two are copies of one another? The results should speak for themselves, therefore I am running my own demo. I think that anyone considering this EA should do the same, before going live. There is 60 day trial period, I believe.

I have no set to share, since the amount of external parameters is very limited.
The default set:
FirstFace=true
SecondFace=true
MarketExecution=true
GMTTest=2
MM===== MM Parameters ====
MaxLotsOr=5.00000000
FFMP===== First Face MM Parameters ====
LotFF=1.00000000
PercentLotFF=0.00000000
SFMP===== Second Face MM Parameters ====
LotSF=1.00000000
PercentLotSF=0.00000000

There is a very interesting thread about it here: http://www.donnaforex.com/forum/index.php?topic=4371.0 See also a post there about price reduction for EA.

Thanks for the info and the link,

I read the entire DonnaFoex thread and have decided not to purchase TFOT (not right now anyway). There is not enough live account history plus read below.

The DonnaForex thread starting me thinking about Forex Combo and the trouble I have been having with it. I did a custom analysis by pair and, sure enough, it is the GBPUSD pair that is dragging FC down. EURUSD is doing well. So I think of going live with the new version of FC. I know it does not perform as well as TFOT (so they say) but $300 is better than $1000.

Rick

[Merrygoround]

I used the 16% coupon on a Twitter page of Iticsoftware. Someone posted a reference in the donnaforex thread I believe. Coupons are silly, why not give the reduction immediately. Still it is a lot of money. But it is good to see that the support is good, and the EA is updated now and then. Can the same be said of Combo?

I don't fully understand why an EA has to be built for a specific currencypair. That would mean that the trading logic is only applicable for that currency . Why would EURUSD be different from the other pairs? Sure there is more volatility , but I find it a poor excuse for an explanation. There has to be more.

[rsmereka]

Originally Posted by Merrygoround

I used the 16% coupon on a Twitter page of Iticsoftware. Someone posted a reference in the donnaforex thread I believe. Coupons are silly, why not give the reduction immediately. Still it is a lot of money. But it is good to see that the support is good, and the EA is updated now and then. Can the same be said of Combo?

I don't fully understand why an EA has to be built for a specific currencypair. That would mean that the trading logic is only applicable for that currency . Why would EURUSD be different from the other pairs? Sure there is more volatility , but I find it a poor excuse for an explanation. There has to be more.

I actually started to purchase TFOT. I found that by going in a certain way, I could get the EA for $785 and then I applied the Fackbook coupon code and got the EA down to $694. I then re-considered and abandoned the purchase.

I don't know about Combo's support since I have never needed it but the EA is updated once in a while. I just applied an update.

Most EA's are built for a specific currency pair because they exploit a pattern in that pair. Some people agree with you and say that a strategy is no good and is not long-term unless it can be used by any pair on any time-frame. I would tend to agree with this but there are so few EA's that are built for use on any pair.

Rick

[rsmereka]

Originally Posted by Merrygoround

http://www.myfxbook.com/portfolio/go...tfot-31/206472

BTW,

Your link is pointing to your portfolio when you are logged on. Please update the link to point to http://www.myfxbook.com/members/Merr...tfot-31/206472 which is the public link. Better yet, embed 'open square bracket myfxbook close square bracket Merrygoround/gomarkets-demo-tfot-31/206472 open square bracket slash myfxbook close square bracket' No spaces anywhere and, obvoiusly, no quotes.

Rick