ForexRobotTrader.com robot review - BUSTED! -$3,318

[Ken Long]

lusitano,

Have you tried changing the robots settings to limit such drawdowns, or manualy intervening with your own stops?

From my discussions with other users and with Don Steinitz, it seems this robot has the capabilities to run a large number of exit strategies. I see no reason to allow the robot to hold an uncontroled drawdown .

You can preset fixed stops, trailing stops, exits on a Heiken Ashi indicator change, on the time frame of your choice, etc. You can also manualy set a stop or trailing stop during a trade, as well as take a partial profit and convert the rest to a trailing stop.


I dont have this robot yet, so I cant confirm any of this personaly. I intend to buy this soon, I just need to get a little better set up first. I've had some problems recently testing robots on my trading computer, and I cant take that risk.

[lusitano]

I believe that Don recommends clients to use the settings as they come.

I also asked him about trailing stops a couple of weeks ago and below is his answer.

The reason why I don't have a trailing stop loss if they don't work in the Forex market. The Forex market is too volatile and trailing stop losses get hit way too often


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THANK YOU !!!

Don

----- Original Message -----
From:
To: steinitz@cox.net
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 1:05 PM
Subject: Trailing stop


Don,

Why not having a trailing stop on each trade on the Headge EA, in order to captor more pips, instead of having the set TP ?

JM

[lusitano]

I apologize for the extra writing, but I don't know how that happened.

[PipCop]

That happens when you copy & paste text from your email program. If you want to clean it up, click the "Edit post" button below your text and you can delete the extra stuff and then save it again.

[Ken Long]

Thats a bit of a rigid statement. The fact is, trailing stops do work. It just depends on what you expect from them, and how you set them.
Other than that, he's right. The Forex markets are often too volitile to use a preset trailing stop successfully. Either they have to be set so loose that they give back too much, or they get hit too easily.
Still the method does work, just look at the Demark Lines EA. All it uses for profit taking is a trailing stop.

Regardless, what I had in mind was a bit different. I was thinking more of manualy managing trades that lasted to long. Simply from looking at the results the past three weeks its evident that the system misses lots of good opportunities when its holding an open trade. I would rather keep the robot working, making trades, than sitting holding a position. All it should take is checking open positions once or twice a day, and setting manual stops and targets on any trade that lasts too long, so the robot can get back to trading.

[Ken Long]

Steinitz, is moving back up the line. The way this robot is cranking out the quick hits, all thats necessary is to keep it working. And not sitting on open trades.

What time frame do you have it set on, 5 min?

[lusitano]

5 min is what he recommends. I am no longer testing his EAs due to enormous drawdowns. Don's EAs don't work for me, and I really doubt they work for anyone longer term.

[Ken Long]

This is really unfortunate. I had great interest and hopes for this EA, still do, but the more comments like yours I hear, the more doubts I have.

Do you think theres something inherently wrong with this EA, other than the fact that it doesnt have an aceptable exit strategy? I dont expect any system to have a perfect track record, the ones that claim to, or try to claim to, end up giving it back somewhere else. From what I've seen this EA can do extremely well, it just needs a little help managing its failing trades.

If we just went over the open trades on a regular basis and placed stops on them, and closed any that needed to be closed, and added chart windows if necessary, to keep the system trading. It could improve the results considerably, and also limit the drawdowns.

[lusitano]

Ken,

This is a 100% automated system. You are not suppose to do anything with it other than turn it on a let it run.

Last week I finished testing it for the second time around, because I hadn't tested the new version 3.19.

Exit strategy is just as important as entry strategy, and if you dont have a good exit strategy, you are in trouble.

Honestly, I wouldn't waist your money in Don's EAs. Look at my posts, and there are a couple of EAs there I think are very promising.

[Ken Long]

This robot has never been a 100% automated system. You do have to manualy close the open trades. As per Don's recomendations.


This is its inherent flaw, and where we have a great chance to actively participate and improve the results. A time stop is not meant to prevent losses in price. Its meant to prevent losses in time, and the subsequent missed trades. It works best on flat trades, and needs to be fit to the time frame your trading. Once a month does not work if your trading on a 5 minute time frame.

The only way to prevent price losses and drawdowns is with a price stop. As mentioned a preset trailing stop is not the best alternative, automatic trailing stops rarely are. Automatic stops, targets, and trailing stops are not particularly accurate, although they do work. What they are is more of an insurance policy, they prevent losses and lock in gains.

A more accurate strategy has to be more dynamic. The best this program can do is to exit the same way it enters, on a smoothed Heiken Ashi signal. Not the most accurate technique on either the entry or the exit, but like any moving average system its designed to capture the center of a trending move, not the extremes. That is the nature of this system.