No need to be a prick, there are about three things that would constitute a lamb being led to the slaughter in that post.
But were the results reliable? http://www.strategybuilderfx.com/showthread.php?t=15309 Better than using someone else's EA why not develop a manual strategy first, then see if it's suitable to be automated, and then see if you can find a similar EA to perhaps use as a template? If you can't find one there are plenty of people advertising EA writing services who will write and test one for you according to your trading parameters. It's not expensive either, these kids can knock up a simple EA in a couple of hours for $50 pocket money! If you're skeptical about EA's and automated trading systems just have a look at the Automated Trading Championship http://championship.mql4.com/. The winner made just over 1200% in a couple of months. There's a bit more work to it than downloading an EA of a website, clicking a button to backtest it, and then expecting it to make truckloads of cash! If only it were that easy
Haha, yes i share your views. But its amazing how many people even on this board ("elite" traders) that think they can just download an EA from a website and then have it print money for them. Theres no such thing as a free lunch. The steps to developing a mechanical system are, in my opinion: *Find an EDGE in the market you are about to trade. *Look at hundreds of charts to work out a practical way in which you can trade and exploit this edge. *Code the idea. This means getting software like neoticker or openquant. What the serious professionals use. *Get data (not free data), and split it up into in-sample and out-of-sample (this should be the most recent data) *Backtest the system it over some timeframe in the past. *Optimise as you see fit. This means changing only 1 variable and leaving everything else the same, noting the results, and then repeating. *Now when you are happy with the settings, then test several different timeframes and market conditions. *Upto this point you have been testing on in-sample data only. *Lastly, to validate the system, you test on out-of-sample data. *If the results are in line with the in-sample testing, then we are ready to go live. *Some people choose to still paper trade or trade small at this stage until the system shows results in real time. Is it easy? No -- but nobody who has ever achieved something great has done so with ease. If you don't want to do the work, and simple just download an EA, buy an ebay system that makes $1million per day for only $59.95!! or scab someone's system from collective2, but the result will be, you will just become like the 90-95%. I know of and have heard of several traders who have done very well, none of them have traded somebody elses system or did it the easy way. And regarding MT4, i have a serious problem with it because it can only be traded through dealer-desks (market maker type brokers) I recommend looking for an ECN broker.
I had an account with alpari uk for about a week, and that was a week too long! I don't mind trading through a dealing desk because intraday I trade counter trend most of the time so fills are no problem but alpari, what a bunch of thieves! Apart from that I found MT4 a bit akward for live trading, too many clicks to open/close a trade.
Cabletrader: I looked into the championship website for expert advisors. The returns of the top 3 were ridiculous. It just seemed too random while I looked at the results. Out of maybe 10 000? participans, im sure a couple of them through randomness can generate a positive return. Or otherwise, why wouldn't these guy use their time trading these enormously profitable systems and get rich in no time? Well, I do actually believe it works, just sceptical of the results from the website you linked. I do believe backtesting, and being able to see how your system fares on historical data is a great way to get feedback. Trendfollowe: Thanks for the informative post. So which one is best: MT4, Neoticker or openquant? Is it much harder to set up your own system with neoticker or openquant than with MT4? I totally agree with you that it is no easy task to make a successful sytem, the evidence is that 90-95% of the market participants lose money. I'm sure you have to be an expert more or less, to be really successful.We all know it takes thousands of hours before you can become an expert at chess,soccer or politics for instance. Thats why im willing to invest a large amount of time(reading 40-50 books), analyse all the data,make further research and backtest etc.
Random, lol, yeah ok. Did you bother to read the trades, the results, and comments from the authors and other contributors? As far as your 'get rich in no time' comment, do you understand the dynamics of the spot market? Have you even bothered to find out? And backtesting, did you bother to read why backtesting on MT4 isn't reliable and how to make it more reliable, or do you just discard every EA that shows negative results when you click the backtest button? And do you have any idea why 90% lose money? It's rarely the strategy which is the problem. You aren't going to get this handed to you on a plate, you have to read and try to understand what you're reading. How can I put this diplomatically, ummm, are you sure you're in the right business?
Cabletrader:You are right. I should have looked more into it. Those were just my spontanous thoughts, just looking at the results. I've previously just been scalping successfully just through experience(no reading)and im in the planning stage now,trying to figure how,and in what order i should learn things so that i can trade on longer time frames successfully.
Don't kid yourself, taking 5 pips here and there isn't trading, it's not even true scalping, they're just lucky shots in a moving market and will eventually lead to total meltdown of your account, guaranteed.
Cabletrader: Well I just think scalping is too time demanding and boring in the longer run(watching the price constantly 16 hours a day). Still, dont you think it is good that someone understand that a lot of time and effort is required to trade successfully, apart from many many others? My perspective at things might currently be wrong, but hopefully this will be improved after enough research and study.