BUSTED - GT Shadow forex robot review - 4 brokerages at once!

[PipCop]

Well so much for that. Another robot down.

Surprisingly, my live account is still alive, while this one with default settings got killed.

I am starting to think there is no robot that actually works.

[pipdetector]

James,

Was it really with default settings? As far as I remember the recommended setting was Balance Factor = 2000 or more. In case of this EA it was 500.

Here are quotes from the manual:

BalanceFactor (default = 2000.0)

$3500 is a minimal setting,
$4000 or higher is recommended.

I guess the reason was that FXPro did not offer microlots. So shortly speaking GT was running too hot from the beginning on FXPro and this killed it, I do not think this should really count.

I am much less avid GT supporter that I was a couple weeks ago, but I cannot accept the fact that it will be discarded from tests, because the test was not using recommended settings. This way any system can be discared.

[cogs]

Hi,

Just wondering if it made back the money you paid for it?

I have been playing with robots for the past few years now and it really does appear that it would take a really complex bot to operate dynamically like the market does, and to the extent of our own minds as humans who actually create the market.

I have found some simple bots that do work during certain conditions but most need baby sitting, which actually isn't too much of a problem either as you get a break and can get a chance to remove emotion.

I bought a few licenses of this one but gave up some time ago.

Robominer still lives,,,,,

[pipdetector]

If there was a superintelligent EA (I say super because it would have to be more intelligent than each of us, because we ARE intelligent and it hardly means that we mulitply our accounts), then making money on FX would be piece of cake, so if everybody started to make a lot of money the money would become less and less of value. The only option would be to make the EA superexpensive -- so then again we would not have it (so I guess we are bound to get inferior EAs). Who would really sell the hen that lays golden eggs?

(Now if some one says that they created artificial intelligence super etc advisor that will always make you money in a more or less 100 KB snipet of code they simply lure you into parting with your money, full stop.)

Coming back to GT/RM, their concept is quite simple and there are two basic conditions that will need to be fulfilled: a) the price range cannot be exceeded too much b) you need to have some safety allowance in your capital to manage situation when price range is exceeded. That's why the EAs author insisted that we use Balance Factor = 3500$. Anyone, who used this value would have be able to sustain quite a large range breach...

[cogs]

Third condition: These two bots will only be this successful on AUDNZD which is long term sideways ranging.

Has anyone been successful with this bot on any other pairs without having to operate dynamically with the settings?

Originally I had it running on several pairs, and quite successfull, but virtually all other pairs are trending with occasional sideways ranging.

I heard another seasoned trader say some time back, "No robot will ever be capable of trading like the human mind", Once you understand the philosophy behind trading this comment holds more credence. Unfortunate in a way, like you said pipdetector "we would all multiply our accounts.

GT gave it a good go with the AUDNZD.

[pipdetector]

Cogs:

Yes, my assumption was also that we are trading AUD/NZD. As to other pairs the range between upper and lower bounds is sometimes so large that you would need to use Balance factor of 12000 or more to be on the "safe" side and it could take years before your position would hit target. So it would hardly make sense to jump on it.

Only narrow range currencies are good candidates for GT/RM.

However, I ventured into trading USDJPY long trades with GT-Shadow assuming that it should not go below 87.00. I had a bit of a cold shower in Autumn 2009, when the pair plunged below 85.00. But it's all right now. I still trade it, but I reduced the trades size. My assumption is that you can use GT/RM to play counter trend game when the pairs are touching historilcal lows or highs. As usual the key is position sizing. If the positions are not too big you should be able to sustain a couple of hundreds pips boundary breach and watch the price to come back to your original positions.