Automated Trading

[Doug Reo-Cocker]

Hi there ! I am on the learning process at forex trading. I am doing my self -study right now. Please help me find reliable software/ robot to choose from so I can practise on my demo account.Thanks and more power.

There are a few robots out there worth looking like FAPTurbo (but it depends too much on your broker spreads) and the Megadroid (extremely low trading frequency), nevertheless if learning is what you want I would recommend you to buy the robot you like the most. This is because robots are really a rulet most don't work, some do (at least for some time) but there's really no way to know it until you test it (because the robots sites are all pure hype).

 

[idreamdou]

I am new to this forum. What is the best way to find info in Forex Peace Army about automated trading? Possibly reviews, ratings and discussion. I tried a search for "automated trading" and this gets a lot of matches. I cannot seem to find an area, such as a discussion thread, etc. that is dedicated to automated trading.

I have played around with demo accounts from FXCM's and FXDD's automated trading platforms. BUT, I see there are several negative comments about these two brokers.

Any info about platforms based on Tradency.com (this is what FXDD and FXCM are based on)?

Thanks!!

Hi dhm4x,

Check out donnaforex.com. She gives alot of good information (for free) on automated trading.

 

[Doug Reo-Cocker]

Hi dhm4x,

Check out donnaforex.com. She gives alot of good information (for free) on automated trading.

I have found this site a couple of weeks ago too: Forex Robots Competition Trading Real Money , it will probably help you guys too. They're doing real money forward tests on some EAs, and some look good.

thx

 

[MikKi]

Tradency

Hi all,

I would like to share some experiences I have with Tradency.
There are quite a few strategies and many of them are profitable. However, You have to be very cautious when choosing strategies for Your portfolio. I was using 5-7 strategies for 3 months with a profit rate of 300%. However, suddenly some strategies started to fail. I was constantly reviewing my portfolio (at least monthly), however, I could not forecast the situation.
This led to significant losses, my balance dropped back to 120% profit overall in the next 5 months. I ceased live trading using Tradency.
This all was happening using the old interface. Fortunately some time ago Tradency introduced their new platform which has a quite good new indicator called T-score. Now I'm testing this through FXCM demo. I observe the followings with my portfolio setup:
a) review strategy performances every weekend
b) choose strategies that have:
b1. at least 200 pips profit
b2. had 0-200 pips drawdown
b3. have a T-score >= 8
b4. did perform at least 50 trades
b5. all of the above for the last 90 days
c) add some of the above strategies to my portfolio: (if equity doesn't permit using all of them)
c1. sort by drawdown ascending, select few with low DD (never select a strategy with 0 DD if Your balance is low - have a look at a higher period of time to get DD value)
c2. sort by win%, select top performing ones
d) set trade amount of each strategy keeping in mind that your exposure should be below:
d1. 1:10 for the safest possible portfolio
d2. 1:30 for a more agressive one
d3. 1:50 at most or account might get wiped out.

I'm running 2 demo accounts now, one started with 8000 EUR (running 3 for weeks), the other with 2000 USD (running for 1 week). Both of them are in profit (500 pips and 77 pips) without big drowdown.

If You use Tradency, please publish Your criteria to select strategies.

Regards,
MikKi

 

[5of7]

Ah, therein lies the rub.

Autotrading = System Trading, but automated.

So you first need a good "system". A strategy for buying and selling.

Your tradency experience was due to correlation. Just about every single commercial EA trades the same thing, and the exact same way, and to make matters worse they all take HORRENDOUS drawdowns intratrade. Like hundreds and hundreds of pips.

So you get a couple or three EA's all doing the same thing, all suddenly taking 1000 total pips of drawdown and at 100:1, 1000 pips = death.

So you have to start with a "system" that you can statistically rely on as your first step.

That's the hardest step.

-Trader 5of7 of TheCollectiveFX-

 

[MikKi]

Ah, therein lies the rub.

Autotrading = System Trading, but automated.

So you first need a good "system". A strategy for buying and selling.

Your tradency experience was due to correlation. Just about every single commercial EA trades the same thing, and the exact same way, and to make matters worse they all take HORRENDOUS drawdowns intratrade. Like hundreds and hundreds of pips.

So you get a couple or three EA's all doing the same thing, all suddenly taking 1000 total pips of drawdown and at 100:1, 1000 pips = death.

So you have to start with a "system" that you can statistically rely on as your first step.

That's the hardest step.

-Trader 5of7 of TheCollectiveFX-

Yeah, I know this and I did know it. It was just hard to find the real and possible DD info. Actually the possible DD (stoploss level) is not indicated anywhere. If You're lucky You can find it in the textual description.
Getting wiser and wiser... Now I'm using only strategies that have minimal drawdown (however, use a larger stop) and I don't use only EAs, at least there are some strategies where it is not indicated.
Actually correlation is a big problem too and it's hard to find good strategies that run on uncorrelated pairs. I still use few correlated pairs...

MikKi

 

[5of7]

If I were to offer one single piece of advice to EA traders, it would be to only use EA's ad a stop gap, or temporary measure on micros only while you train yourself as a trader. Not as a forex trader, but as a "trader". So your skills can apply to stocks/options/futures etc.

ie. There is an amazing, and truly low, low, low risk strategy using options. Most people don't like it because it only does 3-8% per month. My kids do it. But they still need to pick stocks to do the strat on. The advantage of stocks for learning how to trade is that you can learn a signal, then sift hundreds of charts looking for the signal today. Whereas forex only has 3 or 4 really uncorrelated charts.

That's how I teach my kids. I give them a basic strategy. Then every weekend, they look through about 100 charts for the signal. They pick 10 of the cleanest signals, then the following friday on market close, their win/loss is their allowance.

So learn how to trade, it's a great profession, but not one that comes easily or quickly. People who buy EA's want the quick fix, unfortunately there isn't one.

-Trader 5of7 of TheCollectiveFX-

 

[Proots]

FXDD & Tradency MirrorTrader

Apologies for dredging up this old thread. If there is a newer one that would be a better fit, please let me know (I couldn't find one prior to making this post). I've been playing with a demo account for a long time now; testing a few dozen signal providers.

The checklist posted earlier is a huge help in picking the best SP in Tradency. There are hundreds of Signal Providers in Tradency that give the appearance of outstanding track records, until you check their drawdown history. Absolute disaster.

I settled on a provider that had a long history of trades with a decent win ratio, and then out of those there were only a couple that didn't have nightmarish DD records. My demo account is running consistent profits, and I've been assured by FXDD's support that their Demo server spreads are identical to their live server spreads (I've read on FPA and elsewhere that FXDD is notorious for their variable spread).

I guess my only remaining concern that could throw a wrench into this is slippage. I am not sure if the demo account is able to reproduce that accurately.


It's time to bite the bullet, so I figured I would share my future experiences here. I have sent funds to my account, still waiting for them to clear (it has only been two days). I will post results here along with identical trades done on the demo platform, just so any discrepancy between the demo and the real thing will be readily apparent.

 

[Proots]

Just a quick update, I'll be posting about my experience with FXDD's autotrader at MirrorTrader Live Test

I'll be posting side-by-side results of the exact same configuration on the Live and Demo servers.

I am hoping to see my deposit show up today so I can get started.