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

**PipCop** · 2009-02-09, 03:36 PM

The GT-Shadow by Forex-Goldmine.com is very similar to the RoboMiner robot (also under review at PipCop) but with more advanced features. From the site description:

Whereas the RoboMiner can only trade the AUDNZD and EURCHF currency pairs, the GT-Shadow can be set to trade any currency pair that you desire to trade. Like the RoboMiner, it trades using a custom grid strategy, but in the case of the GT-Shadow, you can define every aspect of that grid, including where it begins, how many Pips there are between each level, and many additional settings. It is for this reason that, unlike the RoboMiner, which is recommended for beginning traders, the GT-Shadow will appeal to and is best suited for traders who are experienced with using EAs.

I am testing this using all default settings, except ALLOWFORSPREAD = TRUE and LOTSIZES = 0.01 (there are two), on the AUD/NZD pair, 1 hour chart, and the FG-provided set file which they provide on their site.

UPDATE 10-1-2009 - Changed "BlockNegativeTrade" = TRUE as some trades were closing in loss although they did not have to.

UPDATE: Restarted these 2009-2-10 at 9:30 PM to fix a mis-matched lot size issue between brokerages.

UPDATE: 2009-03-11 - Gain Capital (Forex.com) wiped out my demo account, so I am no longer testing on their system for this review.

UPDATE: 2009-05-18 - FXDD wiped out my demo account, so I am no longer testing on their system for this review.

I am testing this on 4 brokerages at once - Alpari, IBFX, and FxPro. I tried to setup FXCM but their system would not give me a demo account so they're out of luck!

In no particular order, the brokerage statements are shown below:

x1d

**PipCop** · 2009-02-09, 03:36 PM

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Should I buy/use this EA on a live account? - Government Required disclaimer - Earnings disclaimer

gtshadow_fxpro

RCAcad7403 · 2009-02-09, 07:37 PM

Ok cops, good luck with this one. I am personally not fond of the grid systems BUT they are still a bit more appealing than others. Obama will be here in FT. Myers FL for a town hall meeting and I GOT TiCKETS! I waited in line all night and was one of the lucky 1500 people that got tickets.
Look for a market rally

off of the stimilus vote, if it gets approved.

vogelezang · 2009-02-10, 02:31 PM

Pipcop,
I've been testdriving gt-shadow for 2 months now and trying to go live with ibfx. Ibfx is driving me nuts though "please send us a scan of your creditcard" "we can't see the left edge, can you send another one" "we can read the scan of your passport but the picture is a little light, can you scan it a little darker? ". Busy 2 weeks now and still no money in my live account (although I pulled my creditcard last week)
But that is just side-info.
Real reason for posting: Please check your lotsizes. Seems like IBFX and FXDD gave you a mini-account (as needed with the relativly small deposit) Whereas the others gave you a standard account. Profits will increase tremendously with a standard account, but so does the risk for a margin call

.
As for forex.com: tried to go live with them too since they seem to have a low spread

, but gt-shadow just wouldn't trade. I've e-mailed with their customer service and they where most helpfull in explaining how most broker

send 4 digits behind for the spread

and they would send 5. GT-shadow has the option to change to 5 digits so I changed that, but no result. Then forex.com changed my spreads to 4 digits, but still no results. At last I asked my money back and am now cluttered up in red tape with ibfx.

**PipCop** · 2009-02-10, 03:24 PM

Sorry to hear about your account hassles!

Someone else also pointed out the account snafu, so I will get that resolved this evening and restart them all so we can do a proper side-by-side comparison. Thanks for pointing it out though, I do always appreciate the second review!

**PipCop** · 2009-02-10, 09:38 PM

I should add, I am also noticing GT-Shadow is not working with Gain Capital (forex.com) so I will check in with Jerry as well and see if he has any advice.

Jey · 2009-02-11, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vogelezang

Pipcop,
I've been testdriving gt-shadow for 2 months now.....

How did your testing go vogelezang? What results did you get?

vogelezang · 2009-02-11, 02:36 PM

Jey,
The results where pretty amazing. I have blown at least 2 dozen demo-accounts. But all on purpose. If you never try you will never know what the risks are. If you go with the reccomended settings I think nothing will happen, or, if something goes wrong in a test, it will take months and months to surface.
I can stand a loss of $300,- once a month if I want to, so I'm testing with 300,- demo accounts. If you'd take a $300,- mini-demo the minimum lotsize is 0,01. 0,01 is what the creator of gt-shadow advises for an accountsize of $2000,- I think (check the manual if you want to be sure). This is for trading just the AUDNZD. for trading a second currency

a balance of 3500,- is advised.
So far I have not seen a $300 demo trading 0,01 lots blow up. From what I have seen the balance grows fast enough to keep track of the dd.
The worst I have seen so far is a $300 demo which blew up after 4 days because I had the lot size intentionally to 0.02. It made nice profits for 3 days and then it blew up.

If you put it (accidently, that's how I found out and why I warned pipcop) on a standard account it will trade 0.1 lots. I have seen accounts tripple in 2 days. Some of them are even still running and turned 10 times the original size in 3 weeks. I have also seen gt-shadows blowing up accounts in a day because of the same error (on my behalf).
I have no way to predict if an account will survive if you set gt-shadow to overtrade redicoulisly. From what I have seen and what I've learned from a facebook group about robominer (very similar to gt-shadow) both gt-shadow and robominer will work excellent in trending markets. If a market is somewhere in the middle of its historic low or high these 2 ea's can blow an account it seems. I am pretty sure that if you let gt-shadow run at the reccomended settings or even a little safer you will make more out of your money then any bank or other investment will do. Something like doubling your money every year. But I have nothing to prove this and I am not an experienced forex trader. I do reccomend trying everything on demo-accounts and to take your own decisions. I'm only telling you what I have seen. Not how to act.

EternalFxStudent · 2009-02-12, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vogelezang

Jey,
The results where pretty amazing. I have blown at least 2 dozen demo-accounts. But all on purpose. If you never try you will never know what the risks are. If you go with the reccomended settings I think nothing will happen, or, if something goes wrong in a test, it will take months and months to surface.
I can stand a loss of $300,- once a month if I want to, so I'm testing with 300,- demo accounts. If you'd take a $300,- mini-demo the minimum lotsize is 0,01. 0,01 is what the creator of gt-shadow advises for an accountsize of $2000,- I think (check the manual if you want to be sure). This is for trading just the AUDNZD. for trading a second currency

a balance of 3500,- is advised.
So far I have not seen a $300 demo trading 0,01 lots blow up. From what I have seen the balance grows fast enough to keep track of the dd.
The worst I have seen so far is a $300 demo which blew up after 4 days because I had the lot size intentionally to 0.02. It made nice profits for 3 days and then it blew up.

If you put it (accidently, that's how I found out and why I warned pipcop) on a standard account it will trade 0.1 lots. I have seen accounts tripple in 2 days. Some of them are even still running and turned 10 times the original size in 3 weeks. I have also seen gt-shadows blowing up accounts in a day because of the same error (on my behalf).
I have no way to predict if an account will survive if you set gt-shadow to overtrade redicoulisly. From what I have seen and what I've learned from a facebook group about robominer (very similar to gt-shadow) both gt-shadow and robominer will work excellent in trending markets. If a market is somewhere in the middle of its historic low or high these 2 ea's can blow an account it seems. I am pretty sure that if you let gt-shadow run at the reccomended settings or even a little safer you will make more out of your money then any bank or other investment will do. Something like doubling your money every year. But I have nothing to prove this and I am not an experienced forex trader. I do reccomend trying everything on demo-accounts and to take your own decisions. I'm only telling you what I have seen. Not how to act.

vogelzang,

can you send me a link for the facebook group? I tried searching for it on facebook and I could not find it.

vogelezang · 2009-02-12, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EternalFxStudent

vogelzang,

can you send me a link for the facebook group? I tried searching for it on facebook and I could not find it.

I can't post links since I only have 7 posts in this group and you need to have 20 in order to be able to link posts. Look me up on facebook (Ronald Vogelezang) and I'll give you the link.