Envy is a pretty decent EA. It is not, in, my opinion, a scam. I am a relative newbie, but let me share what I think I know.
Envy needs leverage. For US residents like me, the ONLY reasonable option for a broker is FinFx. They offer 200:1 leverage, but you can ask for 300:1 and get it, if you provide reasonable explanations (like you are fully aware that the account may blow out and can handle it). The ease of funding by wire alone is imminently better than all these credit card to Skrill or Moneybooker to broker crap. There’s so many people taking a cut on your account funding that your 10% underwater right out of the gate.
How Envy, or any EA performs can depend on when you start. “Recruit” posted he lost 30% in less than a week. He just happened to start trading the week the German courts decided on their participation in the ESM fund. That week was a bad week to start on. This is the week and event that blew out Envy’s PAMM account.
Envy trades (9) long cycle pairs and (9)short cycle pairs, all in the same account. Both can be pretty margin intensive at times, but the short cycle pairs even more so. That’s (18) charts and literally a hundred trades running at the same time. Set files are provided to you depending on your margin and account size.
I am trading a 5 figure account and my set files are for x3,000 to x7,000 dollars. I keep the max x7,000 in the account and transfer all profits above x7,000 out every week (and there has been a lot). Envy is a martingale and that is a reason to tread cautiously. My set files are configured for 200:1 margin even though I actually have 300:1. I trade only the long cycle pairs too and this has kept me out of trouble.
Envy communicates weekly with their customers, providing their expectations on volatility based on last week’s performance and the upcoming news of the week.
My account was funded in mid May 2012, and I started trading June 1st on a live account and it has turned 75% as of 9/20/12. The day that Envy blew out their PAMM account (9/13/12), I had a closed draw down about 13%. Intraday it peaked at about 36%. YIKES! Back in July, I had a drawdown of about 33% too. The larger drawdowns do occasionally happen when the markets trend strongly (usually on large sudden news driven events) but what amazes me is the speed at which Envy resolves them. Some EA’s I have traded have drawn down 30% and stayed there for months before they resolved or deteriorated further and blew out the account. Toms EA comes to mind here.
I am not associated with Envy. I am just a user. You can see my real account performance on Myfxbook at
https://www.myfxbook.com/portfolio/forex-envy/304859
I know folks are hungry for real information, and I hope this helps someone.
Good trading,
Michigander