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

[Ken Long]

The system of cascading trends this strategy uses is great. Almost all of the open trades were still within their greater trends and would have most likely come back. The problems occur because there is no exit strategy other than a take profit, all losses are held open and unlimited.

This is easy to fix. You can set an automatic stop loss, a stop loss-trailing stop combination, or a Heiken Ashi indicator exit on the current time frame, or the next higher time frame.

This will most likely, incurr more losses, and lower the performance. Whether that can be made up by increasing the trading is the question?

If you would like to read the rest of Don's responce, and more of my rantings, its posted on the ForexPeaceArmy review forum. Don has lots of postings here as well.

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public...obottrader.com

[6282]

Ken, initially i intend to buy this ea, but after searching much later for it result that others has feedback, i drop the idea, is good not to use this ea with the recommended setting, or the account will be in great risk. to use it with a stop loss should be more appropriate, so the return will be relatively smaller.

Wish you successful trading, good luck.

[Ken Long]

I havent bought this EA, for much the same reasons. It is basicaly a moving average EA, the Heiken Ashi Smoothed is a moving average indicator , and any attempt to mechanicaly control its drawdown will drastically hurt its performance.

Plus, it needs a dedicated server. It would drain my computer, and eventualy cause it to crash.

The only good idea I have would be to manually manage drawdowns, with stops and targets, and to wait them out if necessary, as long as they are still in their trends. But most important is to keep the system trading, not sitting. It doesnt make any money sitting on its trades. One of the bigest benefits of a computer is it can do what we cant. It can trade quickly and constantly, without rest, and without hestitation. Any person can manage a position trade, but only a computer can trade the micro trend without exhaustion.

I still want this program, I think I can manage it, but I need a VPN service to run it sucsessfully. That will probably be next week. Meanwhile, the Demark Lines makes a very good discresionary trader.

[6282]

Fully agree with you Ken and thanks for your input.
Wish you full luck, always.

[Fabio]

Hi Ken et all,
as you suggested I jumped to Pip Cop to continuing the discussion on Steinitz.
Honestly, till today , I'm still happy of Steinitz EA robot .
I started a demo on Oct. 29 with $2000 and today
balance = $2592
open trades= $363
so still a good profit.
Following our previous discussion on mql4, I tried to do the following:
On the 10 charts that i have opened with "long term" TF set to 1=Month, and I changed the switch TF on H4 i.s.o D1. With this parameter , in case the currency pair is ranging , the EA is looking if H4 trend is different from the upper TFs. If it's different then it take H4 as upper timeframe . For me this is real a good strategy and the EA is flexible enough.
What's I tried also is to open other 10 charts with the same currencies pair but with High TF set to H4 in order to let EA work more for a short TF trend . But unfortunately the additional 10 EA does not enter trade on the currencies that are still open. So it does not solve our problem that we discussed before ;-)
Ciao
Fabbio

[Ken Long]

Fabio,

I find this strange.

I expected that it wouldnt scale into a trend , opening and adding new positions while one was still open on the same chart. This is usually a self check clause thats programed in, but it should be able to open new positions on the same currency pair if a new chart and time frame are used.

quote from Don Steinitz:

"Theoretically you can run the robot on the same currency on different chart(s) by placing the robot on one of eight different time frames. Our magic number sequence uses a random number, name of currency and currency timeframe to distinguish each currency from another."

Is there a limit to how many different charts can be open at once on MT4? I could theoreticaly see running this robot on several different time frames as opportunities presented themselves. basicaly the shortest time frames would be the work for the robot, the work thats hardest to do on ones own. But when a stable trending opportunity presented itself, it would be beneficial to open longer term positions.
I would consider running programed trades on every time frame up to H4. At the higher time frames its easy enough to manually manage the trades, but the program could still be beneficial as an indicator , or to open the trades, or even to manage them if theres no limit.

This could be an interesting way to diversify the trading, across multiple time frames, and multiple currencies.

[Fabio]

Hi Ken,
may be I have to try changing the MagicNumer then ;-)
But he says the MagicNumber for each chart is chosen randomly. I do not know I have to try it ;-)
I'll let you know
Ciao

[Ken Long]

Fabio,

I'm still not sure what the magic number is, or how it is applied. I still have a lot of studying to do on this language. I understand the basic concepts as they apply to trading in general, and some of the basic programing concepts, but I'm still fairly new to Forex, and any concept of programing or systems analysis goes back more than a few decades.

Bye the way, if you read the origianl postings from the RoboMiner they have anouther robot thats not listed here, the Shadow, thats supposed to have the adaptability to convert to either of their robots, and almost any situation.

[PipCop]

The magic number is simply an ID that is applied to an order when placed that the EA can refer to later. So, if I open an order, I could give it a magic number of 123. Then the EA can review open orders and find ones that have the same magic number of 123 and manage them. This allows you to run a second EA on the same account, providing you have assigned a different magic number to the second EA. So EA #2 would use 456, and open trades on the same account, but now it can manage it's orders by looking at the ID of the order. This ensures an EA only works with orders it has placed.

[Ken Long]

Interesting, I have to work on the mql4 language, not so much to write code initialy but to be able to understand all the different user parameters that are available, and to be able to edit and assemble systems from the pieces already available.

It seems that by using these magic numbers we could install an unlimited number of instances of this robot. Thereby using it to trade several different time frames, and holding strategies. For example, trading the 15 min or 1hr bars, taking a partial profit at an initial change and holding the rest on a longer time frame. Repeating this process over and over accumulatring a large trending position.

As well this number can be used to initiate new instances of the same trading chart when the system gets stuck holding a slow trade. The biggest losses this system takes are from inactivity. The goal should be to keep the system active, constantly pumping out those 20 pip trades. Anytime the 1min or 5min trend fails and the system goes into a holding pattern, its time to initiate a new trading chart, and put a trading stop on the old one, not the same as a stop loss, that should be automatic based on a longer term trend signal, but a trading stop, so that chart doesnt initiate new trades, as simple as reseting the lot size to zero. That way the system doesnt overtrade.


Aside from these EA's that are already built, compiled, and tested, theres a huge opportunity here to create simple scripts to control individual trades, and to create our own EA systems by combining and editing the pieces that are already writen.

Once one learns this language, and the structure and capabilities involved, creating these sytems is not that difficult. The difficulties seem to be centered around the desire to create something marketable, designed for dummies, plug and play, set and forget style. But creating practical systems to assist traders who know how to trade, and are willing to participate and do the work necessary seems very reasonable. Rather than something designed to think for you, something designed to assist in the implementation of your ideas, much like entering your orders into a platform with a few more variables.