Today I want to write a post about a very delicate topic, the world of forex affiliate programs and in particular, the world of automated trading and its relationship with affiliate marketers. I have been giving this topic a lot of thought for the past few days and since I had not written about these matters for a while, I have decided that it was time to tell you (and any affiliates reading this), what I think about affiliate marketing schemes in the forex market and why I have never and will never be anyone's affiliate when dealing with automated trading systems.
To start I want to tell you a little bit about my story. When I had the idea to start this website in the fall of 2007, they were practicaly no forex expert advisor review websites out there besides CK's from Singapore. I had the idea to start this website because, as CK, I was intrigued by the automated trading world and I wanted to have that glorious automated trading system that would turn 500 USD into a million in a few years. As I started, I decided that they were two ways in which I could do things.
One way was to start my website as CK, review and comment and also gain profits from the affiliate links to expert advisor sellers on my website or the other way was to make the website without any affiliate marketing whatsoever and just say my straight opinion about the system's, their trading, etc. It is obvious that the first way offers a much larger probability towards monetary gains but it was also obvious for me that it would be hard for me to say bad things about things that were bad if I would win money from selling them. Personally I chose at the beginning to work without affiliate links because of this.
As I progressed in my quest for automated trading holy grials, viable systems, etc, I realized that there was much more to this and that being an affiliate marketer to these guys is, for me, just unethical. Right now I feel that the knowledge I have on automated trading is larger than the knowledge the general public has (I have learned a lot of things these past 2 years of automated trading plus all the years I traded previously) so I feel that I have a responsibility to be true to my words and to carefully and accurately evaluate expert advisor systems. I know that there are a few or many people out there who will buy a system just because I give a positive opinion about it, just because I have been honest about my reviews and they know that if I say a system has potential, then I have legimite and valid reasons to say so. There is no money for me to make from saying anything good or bad about anything.
Many expert advisor reviewers have taken an approach similar to CK's first approach. They are just giving their opinions and their testing statements and just leaving the decision to buy whatever they have affiliate links to to their visitors. In my case, there is not a single commercial EA I have found that can offer valid proof of their claims beyond reasonable doubt and that can say with a very high degree of probability, that their system will be profitable in the future. I believe that being a reviewer that profits on affiliate sales just by offering comments without in depth analysis is a dangerous and irresponsible position since it would be exceedingly easy to have a bunch of experts with at least some showing some good returns in the short term and have these results convince people about buying systems which are not long term profitable. Most of these expert advisor reviewer websites lack depth on their analysis and this lack of depth may bring very bad consequences for the people using and buying all these expert advisors. This lack of depth is fueled by the fact that the affiliate links generate revenue for the reviewers so this analisys (which I do and points out to the unprofitability of almost all experts out there) does not benefit the EA reviewers. To sum it up, most reviewers out there may be showing the most convenient truth reflected by their testing without taking into account the most important and fundamental aspects of the trading systems.
Of course, these EA reviewers make a ton more money than me who just humbly makes enough for his VPS fees by means of his ebook and newsletter subscription. Of course, my intention is not to get my money from you, my fellow traders, but from the market out there, reason why I focus so much time on the programming of new strategies. I am also very interested in the protection of my fellow traders since I truly cannot believe that the forex automated trading business has become such an unethical place. This is the reason why I have devoted so much time to the creation of my forex automated trading ebook. Being profitable in the forex market with automated trading systems is possible, it is just not as easy as most people think.
I believe that the path I have chosen is the hardest and that the lack of affiliates may make my website a less profitable business but in the end I feel that all the knowledge I have gained and all the efforts I have put into system development and evaluation will eventually pay off with life long stable profits in the forex market. What I am doing is building and edge against the market, I am not interested in building an edge to get a cut of these (mostly in my opinion) unethical expert advisor sellers.
If you would like to learn more about my opinion on automated trading, the language I have gathered and the long term profitable automated systems I have traded and developed (as well as how to program and trade your own systems !) please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or subscribing to my weekly newsletter to receive updates and check the live and demo accounts I am running with several expert advisors. I hope you enjoyed the article !
To start I want to tell you a little bit about my story. When I had the idea to start this website in the fall of 2007, they were practicaly no forex expert advisor review websites out there besides CK's from Singapore. I had the idea to start this website because, as CK, I was intrigued by the automated trading world and I wanted to have that glorious automated trading system that would turn 500 USD into a million in a few years. As I started, I decided that they were two ways in which I could do things.
One way was to start my website as CK, review and comment and also gain profits from the affiliate links to expert advisor sellers on my website or the other way was to make the website without any affiliate marketing whatsoever and just say my straight opinion about the system's, their trading, etc. It is obvious that the first way offers a much larger probability towards monetary gains but it was also obvious for me that it would be hard for me to say bad things about things that were bad if I would win money from selling them. Personally I chose at the beginning to work without affiliate links because of this.
As I progressed in my quest for automated trading holy grials, viable systems, etc, I realized that there was much more to this and that being an affiliate marketer to these guys is, for me, just unethical. Right now I feel that the knowledge I have on automated trading is larger than the knowledge the general public has (I have learned a lot of things these past 2 years of automated trading plus all the years I traded previously) so I feel that I have a responsibility to be true to my words and to carefully and accurately evaluate expert advisor systems. I know that there are a few or many people out there who will buy a system just because I give a positive opinion about it, just because I have been honest about my reviews and they know that if I say a system has potential, then I have legimite and valid reasons to say so. There is no money for me to make from saying anything good or bad about anything.
Many expert advisor reviewers have taken an approach similar to CK's first approach. They are just giving their opinions and their testing statements and just leaving the decision to buy whatever they have affiliate links to to their visitors. In my case, there is not a single commercial EA I have found that can offer valid proof of their claims beyond reasonable doubt and that can say with a very high degree of probability, that their system will be profitable in the future. I believe that being a reviewer that profits on affiliate sales just by offering comments without in depth analysis is a dangerous and irresponsible position since it would be exceedingly easy to have a bunch of experts with at least some showing some good returns in the short term and have these results convince people about buying systems which are not long term profitable. Most of these expert advisor reviewer websites lack depth on their analysis and this lack of depth may bring very bad consequences for the people using and buying all these expert advisors. This lack of depth is fueled by the fact that the affiliate links generate revenue for the reviewers so this analisys (which I do and points out to the unprofitability of almost all experts out there) does not benefit the EA reviewers. To sum it up, most reviewers out there may be showing the most convenient truth reflected by their testing without taking into account the most important and fundamental aspects of the trading systems.
Of course, these EA reviewers make a ton more money than me who just humbly makes enough for his VPS fees by means of his ebook and newsletter subscription. Of course, my intention is not to get my money from you, my fellow traders, but from the market out there, reason why I focus so much time on the programming of new strategies. I am also very interested in the protection of my fellow traders since I truly cannot believe that the forex automated trading business has become such an unethical place. This is the reason why I have devoted so much time to the creation of my forex automated trading ebook. Being profitable in the forex market with automated trading systems is possible, it is just not as easy as most people think.
I believe that the path I have chosen is the hardest and that the lack of affiliates may make my website a less profitable business but in the end I feel that all the knowledge I have gained and all the efforts I have put into system development and evaluation will eventually pay off with life long stable profits in the forex market. What I am doing is building and edge against the market, I am not interested in building an edge to get a cut of these (mostly in my opinion) unethical expert advisor sellers.
If you would like to learn more about my opinion on automated trading, the language I have gathered and the long term profitable automated systems I have traded and developed (as well as how to program and trade your own systems !) please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or subscribing to my weekly newsletter to receive updates and check the live and demo accounts I am running with several expert advisors. I hope you enjoyed the article !
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