Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Basics of My Reviews... Understanding My Point Of View and Objectives

If you arrived to this post then you are interested in my reviews about forex automated trading systems. Before reading any of my reviews on expert advisors or forex systems in general you should understand the motivations behind my reviews and the way in which you should look at them so that you truly understand what they are saying and the reason why I reach the conclusion I get to on each particular review. The objective of this article is to explain all this to you as well as the main differences between my reviews and other reviews you may find online. I wrote this article as a Q/A which is a much simpler and fun way to answer the frequently asked questions I get from people who have read my reviews.

Why do you review expert advisors/systems, etc?

I review them because I consider that many people do not look at trading systems in the right way. Many people do not have a lot of experience in the field and are very prone to fall into buying things that are just going to be unprofitable and cost them money both in the form of the product payment and possibly their investment funds. There was also a time in which I lost money with products and I want to spare people this experience through my analysis of commercial trading systems.

Do you receive any money whatsoever ?

I do not recieve any money from the product sellers. I do not get paid for either positive or negative feedback on any products. As a great man once said, "it is very hard to understand something when your paycheck depends on you not understanding it". For this reason I consider that my reviews must remain unbiased and for this reason you will find no sales or affiliate links on my webpage. I just call them like I see them :o).

Why are your reviews on expert advisors so superficial ? you don't even test most of them !

My reviews are made to mimic the position of a buyer, take into account that this does not mean that they are superficial, I spend in average more than two hours on each expert's website. Many EA reviewers approach this market by simply buying and testing everything that comes out, putting their time, efforts and money on the line. Why would you buy an untested, unreliable system which uses unsound trading techniques ? Why should you put your money on the line ? My philoshopy is simple. The burden of proof is ON THE AUTHOR of the trading system. I have a very strict criteria for long term profitability which must be fulfilled in order for me to consider that a system is worth buying and testing. If the evidence is not there, then I won't buy it. That simple. Why should I put my money and efforts in testing something the author did not even bother to evaluate ?

It is a certain truth that any expert advisor seller can run a 10 year backtest of their EA and run a live test on a 100 USD micro account for one year before launching the EA. Why do 99.99% of expert advisor sellers out there fail to do this ? If their experts are so profitable why don't they provide the evidence ?

Moreover, on top of evaluating the presence of the evidence and if it backs or does not backup the author's claims I also analyze the trading technique used according to the statements and I give my opinion on long term profitability and the likehood of backtesting unreliability depending on the trading technique used. Remember my philosophy : The burden of proof is on the seller, if he/she cannot provide the evidence necessary to consider an EA long term profitable then we shouldn't bother.

That's cool. However I have checked many of your reviews and everything is not worth buying. Isn't there any good commercial EA ?

Your right, as I said on the last post 99.99% of the expert advisor sellers out there fail to provide enough evidence to consider their systems worth buying or testing. The evidence is simple to provide if you truly have a long term profitable system, something they just don't have. However there are a few systems which I have considered at least worth buying and testing. Such systems are tested on my newsletter subscription which include winalot and DTS-1. There are also some others which have come close to fulfilment of the criteria but have failed to provide some part of the evidence. The trade machine expert advisors are a good example of this.

Isn't there just an EA you can tell me to buy so that I can finally be successful and live from automated trading ?

I can definitely tell you a few things. I live from the market and my automated trading systems. There is absolutely no commercial EA out there that will let you achieve those gigantic profit targets you might have heard of. There is no way to just sit at the beach and have the profits just magically go into your forex account. There is no holy grail, no magic EA that will always give you profit. Trading profitable automated trading system is VERY hard. It requires a lot of work and effort. The experts I develop are not magical either, they won't give you those enourmous profits either. That is why I am NOT an EA seller. What I offer is an understanding of automated trading, an understanding of how things work, how you can generate steady profits from automated trading systems and how you can trade automated trading systems successfuly with realistic profit and risk targets. I focus on how YOU can be successful in this field, however it won't be easy and it will require a lot of work and effort from you.

How can I learn all this ?

If you would like to learn more about what I have just mentioned and start your track in learning what I have learned about automated trading systems and how they can be designed, programmed and traded successfuly 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. Remember that many of the live accounts on the newsletter are run by independent testers as part of the "EA challenge" projects were people challenge themselves to trade any of my long term profitable automated trading systems on a VPS for at least the next two years, regardless of the temporary draw down/ profit outcomes.

I believe that the fact that subscribers have committed more than 2000 USD to the testing of my systems, speaks a lot about the confidence that the sound trading techniques used generate. The newsletter is also what I consider an excellent guide to guide you weekly through the system's results and talk to you about the behavior you should expect under current market conditions for each trading system. Confidence and an in-depth understanding of the systems you trade is VITAL for your success in automated trading. I have also put my best effort in the making of the videos for both the newsletter and ebook databases giving many hours of footage on many topics pertaining to automated trading ; from market exposure to system design, etc.

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I certainly hope that this FAQ has answered most of the questions you may have had about my website, reviews and my views and motivations regarding automated trading systems, particuarly why I review them and what I expect from commercial expert advisor sellers (which is merely reliable evidence of their claims). Last but not least, if you have any questions which have gone unanswered, please leave a comment here and I'll answer them within 24 hours ! :o) Thanks a lot for your attention ! I hope you enjoy my website !

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