My experiences with FX Autotrading a live account

Hi All,
Please see reponses:

One problem is not enough information. In setting the Fixed Fractional you need to know the typical stop loss. How do you find that?? You end up trading the signal in a fixed lot or e-mailing the provider. Trading history is already there.

In order to fixed the risk on a trade you need to know the predetermined stop loss. If signal provider not using stop loss or has variable then you cannot preset MM on FF. Some do have rigid stops like Fxmaster (80pip), etc.

Another thing to be careful of is the Max Positions a signal provider uses! Some will do as many as 6 positions at one time. If the provider wins a trade it's great. If they loose it's -x # pips times 6. In a matter of a couple of hours I lost 25% of my account. Using the Fixed Fractional at 4%, I had the stop loss right. The problem is the number of positions, the provider I had was using 6 positions. All 6 positions opened and lost 4% each. The result would have been the same on the fixed lot or the Fixed Fractional. (Both were at .1)

It was 4% loss most probable due to your levarage setting.

A nice option to have would be to limit the # of open positions for your account. (1, 2 .. or all 6) There are providers I would like to use but they can open more then 2 positions at one time. At the present 2 positions are all I would like open at one time.

Not possible, each system is broken down into sub-system, e.g on multiphase Short X 2, medium X 2 and long X2, you are trading a system due to the performance of the 6 positions, not 2.

Just a little rambling from me. hopefully it can help someone!
 
1) The introduction of a Trailing Stop function on the portfolio management.

They told me this function is available if you use MetaTrader 3 when placing an order using FX-Auto, but as I have MT4 I'm unabale to do this.

If you are using Mt4 then you dont have a Autotrading account, if you have an autotrading account, then you also have a MT3 login. You can use the TSL function on MT3 and apply it to your desired trade.
It applies to any trade, whether it was manual or autosignal.



Also I'm not sure if it applies to trades opened by the Signal Providers.

2) Commission being charged on winning trades only

This is a bit more radical! I suggested that clients shouldn't get charged commission on losing trades.

Commission could be 2 pips for winning trades, so signal providers would still get paid the same rate, just that it would be performance-related, and give them an incentive to perform well !

The reply back from FX-Auto was that they were not making any changes.
If others on this forum agree with my suggestions, maybe we could petition FX-Auto to bring about these, and any other changes. Maybe a web-poll or survey would help.

It would promote scalping by signal provider to target 3-4 pip all the time with 300pip stop loss and cause them to deflect their current strategy that may be working perfectly. This is not benefit to anyone.

What do you think?
 
Quote from fx-auto:

1) The introduction of a Trailing Stop function on the portfolio management.

They told me this function is available if you use MetaTrader 3 when placing an order using FX-Auto, but as I have MT4 I'm unabale to do this.

If you are using Mt4 then you dont have a Autotrading account, if you have an autotrading account, then you also have a MT3 login. You can use the TSL function on MT3 and apply it to your desired trade.
It applies to any trade, whether it was manual or autosignal.



Also I'm not sure if it applies to trades opened by the Signal Providers.

2) Commission being charged on winning trades only

This is a bit more radical! I suggested that clients shouldn't get charged commission on losing trades.

Commission could be 2 pips for winning trades, so signal providers would still get paid the same rate, just that it would be performance-related, and give them an incentive to perform well !

The reply back from FX-Auto was that they were not making any changes.
If others on this forum agree with my suggestions, maybe we could petition FX-Auto to bring about these, and any other changes. Maybe a web-poll or survey would help.

It would promote scalping by signal provider to target 3-4 pip all the time with 300pip stop loss and cause them to deflect their current strategy that may be working perfectly. This is not benefit to anyone.

What do you think?
More...

Well said FX-245,

I totally agree with you on NO-commission for loosing trades.
 
Quote from auslanco:

Well said FX-245,

I totally agree with you on NO-commission for loosing trades.
More...

Auslanco, It was SpecialFX's brilliant idea ...

PS: fx-auto, could you please use the 'quote' function in this forum, that would make it a bit easier to read your appreciated replies ...
 
Quote from FX245:

Auslanco, It was SpecialFX's brilliant idea ...
More...
Thanks, FX245.

I appreciate FX-Auto's fast response, thank you guys!

The point they make - about my idea of commission being paid only on winning trades - is a good one, I hadn't considered that before.

I agree that scalping would be a very bad thing to happen indeed, both very risky and with a limited "upside" reward.

In fact, their reply has got me thinking, what's to stop a signal provider from scalping anyway?

Indeed, right now they would make money whether the client lost or gained from their signals!

About Trailing Stops, I'll look into the option of using MT3, thanks again.
 
Quote from SpecialFX:

Thanks, FX245.

In fact, their reply has got me thinking, what's to stop a signal provider from scalping anyway?

Indeed, right now they would make money whether the client lost or gained from their signals!
.
More...

Bottom line is signal provider needs to make money to attract users, nothing is stopping them to scalp but if it is unprofitable it is a lost cause. Scalping with 3-4 pip spreads is widely known to be unprofitable.
Better to have a winning system off 15min chart upwards.
 
fx-auto,

Could you please comment on our desire for more detailed statistics on the available systems? It seems like something that all of us on this forum agree would be a wonderful addition to your platform.

Thanks in advance!
 
Quote from fx-auto:

Bottom line is signal provider needs to make money to attract users, nothing is stopping them to scalp but if it is unprofitable it is a lost cause. Scalping with 3-4 pip spreads is widely known to be unprofitable.
Better to have a winning system off 15min chart upwards.
More...

In the end we will only auto-trade the most "successfull" signals (consistency as my first criterium) - so it is in the interest of the signal provider to provide the best possible signal.
 
Some comment....

The automating trade system has different profitable parameters, so may be will be better for signal provider to set parameters for more profitable trades, but has less profit in pips. For manual trades, is bad motivation for more profitable trades, it is problem of psihology. For our's liders what have more what 50% winnings trades will better if they will get 2pips for profitable trades. I thing fx-auto can try this, in other cases they can return to 1 pips per trade commision. I just want to say that is is not too simple at first look....

PS: The most strong factor in forex trading is money and time, and more people loose this money becouse they need money at short time period. The money gets who don't need money.
 
I agree that there are several important characteristics to trading systems. From my experience, very high win % systems with smaller avg. win than avg. loss suffer from large sudden drops in equity once in a while, although they look good most of the time. The most consistent systems for the long term usually have a payoff ratio greater than 1 (avg. win / avg. loss) and a winning % of around 50%. This is not true of all systems (if you have a 90% win rate and your average loss is only twice as big as your average win, you still have an excellent system on your hands), but system providers who focus on win % above all else usually are not the ones I would bet on. In the extreme cases, I have seen many people have their accounts wiped out or nearly wiped out by a few highly volatile days from system providers who value win % above all esle.
 
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