I promised these guys FPA review after 4 weeks of trading.
6 weeks passed as a matter of fact. One idle - my broker effectively "disabled" scalping in the last week of 2010.
So I have 5 weeks history. This is actually very short period.
So why am I able to review it?
Because:
- - It proves results on both backtests and live forward test and ACROSS brokers. This is very rare.
- - I understand the underlying concept and I'm happy to say it stays inline with the very specific way the Cable is traded by big players.
- - It trades every day, every day in profit. In quiet and big days in troubled times. And if managed properly you can boost results while limiting dangers (the EA cares about "regular" loses but you can additionally protect against dangers of unexpected loss).
The last one implies you have to do something about it.
Yes, first of all read instructions and ask the guys about anything you don't understand. Make sure you really understand it.
That's the key.
This particular EA benefits from choppy and volatile Cable price action. It works best in sideways market. It also works in trending but choppy market.
It will loose in strong trends however. That's why it trades the Cable only - Cable rarely stays in strong, one way trends. If it does - shut the EA down.
You can see it trending on H4 and upper timeframes but when you go to M5 or 15 you can see completely different game. This is the game this EA plays.
By the way - it's time frame independent.
You also have to give it flexibility. The account size cannot be too small. They recommend $5000 and 0.1 lot minimal trade size (the best with 0.01 increments). If you want to trade say $500 you need to find proper broker. I found one. I started as low as $99.43. Now $144.13 but I must admit I push the EA to the limits - I don't recommend it to anyone. But if you leave it on defaults you should still get about 20% in that period. Please remember this is just a scalper - I use it as a side tool. Or supporting fire ;-)
However I do it on separate account. Don't mix it with your other trades - it will affect safety limits and may turn it into loser.
All in all it made me over 44% in five trading weeks. Not bad for a scalper
Moreover, the daily profits nicely repeat everyday - the "default" equity curve is almost linear (mine is parabolic but that's another story).
The trick is it doesn't look for profit in pips in a single trade. It looks for profit in money in all open trades.
This is something you must understand: it may win $25 and $10 in two trades but lose $20 in the third trade. You're still +$15 in profit. This is your profit target, not any single trade target.
But there is a lot more - you can let it go beyond Asia session. But then you have to take great care about market events.
You need to know how the Cable behaves ahead and after specific news. This is something for advanced users.
And of course you need to know how the EA works. It's not explained in the EA instructions but if you're smart observer you'll find it soon ;-)
The dark side of the EA is safety:
- - It trades without any hard stops. If EA/terminal/computer/network/power crashed the trades are left without any control. I'd suggest hot standby computer in some other location. VPS's are dirt cheap nowadays.
- - It looks for fixed profit in money but risks much more. Actually it risks percentage of your account. 10% by default. This looks insane at the first glance: you look for $15 profit against $500 risk! It just works, however expect considerable in-trade drowdowns. One day may blow account if you don't switch it off in time - big days sometimes happen.
Well, equity drawdowns may be unpleasant but you end a day in profit - again, this is just a stupid scalper. Don't blame it if you can do it better. Besides if you can, you don't need it
Anyway you better care about it to avoid big setbacks. They rarely happen if ever if everything set properly but you shouldn't get overconfident. At least to the point where these 10% is less than your overall profit.
- - It has some bugs and you have to control it to shoot stray pending orders from time to time. I check it twice a day at least.
- - It works good on USD based accounts ONLY.
They're preparing newer version. I hope it will be more safe and faster on backtests. The current one is terribly slow. And hopefully better on Risk:Reward.
Now about the purchase: this one is a bit odd as they don't have that fancy web site with all the fake testimonials, all the bells and whistles.
And they don't do it trough any broker. This is the risk you have to consider.
However I made a deal with them - I asked if they're going to honor Money Back if the EA didn't work as expected. They agreed.
And now I'm happy to announce I don't need this extra protection - the EA works as expected and gave me a great deal of free time for my favorite swing trading
I'm attaching my account results (without details). Divide all money figures by 100 - they're expressed in US Cents.
Please remember I push it to the limits as I know where they are. This is my private challenge... Don't do it at home ;-)
Sorry, I don't know how to make it bigger here...
Hope this helps.
