Today I am going to fulfill another review request and talk to you a little bit about a forex automated trading system called black swan. Today's post will focus on the review of this expert advisor mainly by evaluating the evidence provided on the website and the claims made by the authors. By analysing the expert's statements and the information provided I will also tell you my opinion about the long term profitability of this trading system and whether or not I it worth buying or not.
By first looking at the website, you will see that the black swan expert advisor seems to offer a novel approach to automated trading by offering its customers a "web bot" technology which is supposed to search on the internet data from many sources to make accurate trading decisions. The people at forex black swan claim that with this technology you will be able to achieve very large profits which will give you "financial freedom" and the ability have the life style you "always wanted".
Is there any merit in the expert's techniques ? Is there anything true about this "web bot" technology ? There are several things I do not understand. If the EA uses a web bot system which dynamically searches the internet then how did they manage to do the backtest from Jan to Nov 2009, how did the webot technology "backtest" on the metatrader 4 strategy tester ? this just does not add up. If the expert really used such an innovative technology it is very likely that it could only be evaluated by live testing. But well, regardless of the fact that this technology does or does not exist, what does the backtest tell us ?
The backtest shown on the black swan website has many inherent problems. To start, the period is very small. Why didn't they do backtests from 2000 to 2009 ? Why is the backtest period limited to 2009 ? This are all questions which cannot be easily answered since doing a longer backtest is just easy to do. There is also the problem that the EA takes a small TP, below 20 pips, which means that interpolation errors in the backtest are likely to be a VERY significant portion of profitability, add to that the fact that the EA uses an almost 10:1 risk to reward ratio (you need to win one time for every ten you lose) and a progressive money management system and you arrive to a system which uses very unsound trading techniques with very questionable results.
My opinion from this backtest is that results are definitely going to be very different in live testing. Probably the loses will be far greater than in the backtest and the progressive money management will grow large holes into the account, to the point of a wipeout. Systems with progressive money management (incrementing lot sizes on loses) will ALWAYS wipe accounts, it is not a matter of if, it is simply a matter of when.
Another important matter is the absence of live testing on the black swan website. Why do this people fail to show live trading results if their system is so accurate ? Why didn't they take the time to put up a few live micro accounts to show us the performance of their system under real market conditions under several brokers ? The number of unanswered questions is simply great and there is no good reason why we should put our money where the creators themselves would not.
The complete lack of live testing evidence as well as the lack of any proof of back/live testing consistency, the absence of a 10 year long backtest and the use of progressive money management are the reason why I consider the black swan trading system NOT worth buying or testing. If you however would like to learn more about system that achieve long term profitability and how you can start your profitable venture in forex trading with realistic profit and risk targets 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 !
By first looking at the website, you will see that the black swan expert advisor seems to offer a novel approach to automated trading by offering its customers a "web bot" technology which is supposed to search on the internet data from many sources to make accurate trading decisions. The people at forex black swan claim that with this technology you will be able to achieve very large profits which will give you "financial freedom" and the ability have the life style you "always wanted".
Is there any merit in the expert's techniques ? Is there anything true about this "web bot" technology ? There are several things I do not understand. If the EA uses a web bot system which dynamically searches the internet then how did they manage to do the backtest from Jan to Nov 2009, how did the webot technology "backtest" on the metatrader 4 strategy tester ? this just does not add up. If the expert really used such an innovative technology it is very likely that it could only be evaluated by live testing. But well, regardless of the fact that this technology does or does not exist, what does the backtest tell us ?
The backtest shown on the black swan website has many inherent problems. To start, the period is very small. Why didn't they do backtests from 2000 to 2009 ? Why is the backtest period limited to 2009 ? This are all questions which cannot be easily answered since doing a longer backtest is just easy to do. There is also the problem that the EA takes a small TP, below 20 pips, which means that interpolation errors in the backtest are likely to be a VERY significant portion of profitability, add to that the fact that the EA uses an almost 10:1 risk to reward ratio (you need to win one time for every ten you lose) and a progressive money management system and you arrive to a system which uses very unsound trading techniques with very questionable results.
My opinion from this backtest is that results are definitely going to be very different in live testing. Probably the loses will be far greater than in the backtest and the progressive money management will grow large holes into the account, to the point of a wipeout. Systems with progressive money management (incrementing lot sizes on loses) will ALWAYS wipe accounts, it is not a matter of if, it is simply a matter of when.
Another important matter is the absence of live testing on the black swan website. Why do this people fail to show live trading results if their system is so accurate ? Why didn't they take the time to put up a few live micro accounts to show us the performance of their system under real market conditions under several brokers ? The number of unanswered questions is simply great and there is no good reason why we should put our money where the creators themselves would not.
The complete lack of live testing evidence as well as the lack of any proof of back/live testing consistency, the absence of a 10 year long backtest and the use of progressive money management are the reason why I consider the black swan trading system NOT worth buying or testing. If you however would like to learn more about system that achieve long term profitability and how you can start your profitable venture in forex trading with realistic profit and risk targets 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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2 comments:
As far as I understand, the web bot technology is that their server takes all the trading decisions and distributes them to the EAs, which only execute them.
This can explain why is it possible to perform backtest.
Maxim
Hello Maxim,
That may be it but then the "webbot" technology is not what they mention on their site. It is not a technology that "analyzes" data from the internet in real time and uses it to make trading decisions. It is merely an interface to relay trades ! Thanks a lot for the comment ! :o)
Best Regards,
Daniel Fernandez
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