Performance Testing Scams?

[ozzymandius]

In a nutshell:

How easy is it for vendors of EAs to doctor the trading results we see on FPA "live account tests" and/or myFXbook.com?

I ask because I have been sorting through all the EA performance tests and I see post after post from various FPA traders calling out this or that EA as a scam - despite the live testing results being stellar.

So either:

(a) traders are not using the EAs correctly or
(b) traders just have bad luck or
(c) most of the EAs being tested here really are scams.


If it is (c) then that implies that the EA vendors are somehow modifying/hacking the "live" trading results from their brokers. Is this even possible? I could understand if one or two nefarious and clever EA vendors know how to hack such results. But I would be surprised if the majority knew any such techniques, as it implies a level of hacking sophistication.

I am still leaning toward (c) myself, especially upon investigating many EA vendors' websites. Many of these guys are clearly just affiliate marketers, using the likes of JVZoo and ClickBank, with a ton of standard affiliate marketing hype on their sales pages. They don't come across as real traders at all.

But then again, all their "verified" test results look amazing...

So what gives?
Can live, verified test results on myFXbook and FPA be easily modified by unscrupulous vendors? If so, that defeats the purpose of these testing services.
Are most EAs just useless scams that will blow up your account?
Or are some EAs out there really the near-holy-grail systems they claim to be?
Anyone have experience with solid EAs that actually work well enough, month after month?

 

[Pharaoh]

The FPA pulls all data from the broker. The vendor can't alter the numbers.

The only info which can be hidden at the FPA is account number, name on account, pending trades, and open trades. Even if open trades are covered, floating P/L is always displayed.

Every closed trade from the initial deposit is displayed. There is no option to change the start date to start from the most recent swing low. There is no option to only show trades with specific comments or pairs.

The only major weakness I can see for an individual FPA test is the possibility of cheating by the broker itself. Imagine a scalper EA and the broker runs the VDP or other malicious MT4 plugins, but with the usual cheat settings reversed for the account. In a case like this, the broker used is likely to be either highly recommended or even required by the EA seller - usually through an IB link.

There is one other potential weakness. Some companies run high risk EAs. They wait until they've got a small live account that's positive and then submit it to PT. People look at the returns, but not the risk which makes a crash inevitable. Since the FPA increases the minimum balance requirements with each failure, the truly scammy ones will open a new website and pretend to have no knowledge of the "other company" that failed. This is why EAR16 and many associated sites got blocked from further PT submissions.

 

[ozzymandius]

Thanks Pharaoh. That was some good feedback.

It seems for the most part, then, that a good chunk of the myFXbook and FPA test data runs are legit. A few EA vendors may be in cahoots with a crooked broker or two but I imagine that would be relatively rare. Another few might be playing the reincarnation game you mention. But that leaves the majority of live tests that are legit. So it's still a bit of a mystery to me why there are so few positive reviews from traders on EAs.

It could very well be the case that most traders who buy EAs decide to manually intervene when trades are not going the way they want, or they shut down the EA during a draw down spike - ending runs prematurely and not allowing the robot to work for extended trials.

 

[Pharaoh]

What I don't like about MyFxBook is that the account owner can keep large amounts of critical information private. I'm not sure, but I think they even let the owner pick the start date.

I have a very bad feeling that at least some brokers make be actively cooperating to improve the performance of some EAs. Then people buy the EA, sign up with the broker, and lose.

 

[ozzymandius]

What are your thoughts on the signals market at mql5.com? Do you feel those posted results might be more accurate? Or are they susceptible to the same potential flaws of MyFxBook?

 

[Pharaoh]

It would be best to open a thread for MQL5 in the "Has anyone heard of?" folder. How easy it is for signals providers to cheat hugely depends on the transparency of the signals sharing service.

 

[Mazshura]

I have never seen an Expert Advisor that meets all security requirements, and any amount could have been trusted without any doubt. So, yes, it is quite normal that there are so many negative reviews on this issue in the market.

 

[Thoris]

There is a share of truth in this, really many companies use some systems, which are aimed at making traders lose money and replenish more, so there is simply no confidence in this approach...

 

[Purecaster]

Yes, it's true, it's hard to find quality results now. Usually they offer either indicators on a demo, or some questionable charts/diagrams with non-existent calculations.

 

[Vo32ss]

We can always check the truthfulness of information. We have charts, analytics and brains after all.
I understand that most of the time it's a publicity move, people want to sell their product and use all possible methods for that.