A Novel Idea for Profiting from EAs

[DennisL]

How many of us have tried countless EAs, both free and commercially sold, only to be disappointed by their horrible results over a period of time longer than one day, one week, one month, or more?

Here's a novel idea for profiting from EAs: Using any one of them that you have -- preferably the worst performing one -- do the following, which does require manual trading:

1. Launch your EA on the MT4 platform, with the lowest lot size allowed by your broker (should be 0.01 with many brokers).

2. Wait for your EA to place a trade.

3. As soon as your EA places a trade, immediately close that trade, shut off the EA, and manually open a new trade in the opposite direction with an appropriate lot size for your account balance and your risk tolerance.

4. Manually monitor the new trade and close it as you see fit. Alternatively, when you place the new trade, set S/L and T/P suited to your account balance and your risk tolerance.

I have not tried this myself yet. The thought just crossed my mind minutes ago, reminiscing about all of the garbage EAs that I have purchased and for which I have received refunds. (Thank you, Clickbank!)

Go ahead, give this concept a shot, and post your results here -- as your time permits, of course, as this approach does involve sitting in front of your computer monitoring trades.

[TalonD]

decompile the EA and reprogram it to trade in reverse.

[mastergunner99]

When looking to maintain an edge in the market, I think it's safe to say that not all trading systems are 100% inversely correlated. One's psychology and management of time, money, and emotions plays a significant effect on one's trading.

I think it is very possible to lose a trading system on both sides if you don't have proper management.

[DennisL]

Originally Posted by TalonD

decompile the EA and reprogram it to trade in reverse.

If one is not a programmer, how does one do this?

[simbafx]

It wont work. By the time time you understand why, you'll be well on your way to being a profitable trader. Its worth spending a couple of months thinking about this.

[marcus1rex]

This is not a "novel" idea. It's old hat, and it doesn't work. How do I know? Been there done that.

[quantisan]

This assume price goes from A to B and the EA failed because it betted on B to A. However, as we all know, prices don't go in a straight line. Betting on a wrong direction is just one of the many reasons a trade could fail.

Putting it another way, the probability of success to failure in a trade is not 50-50.

[andre82]

old stuff.... boring. Read more books rather then trying to implement Expert Advisor, or at least try expert advisor which is designed just to analyze the market.

I dont trust EA which are doing automatic trades. Been there..

[SDC]

Originally Posted by quantisan

This assume price goes from A to B and the EA failed because it betted on B to A. However, as we all know, prices don't go in a straight line. Betting on a wrong direction is just one of the many reasons a trade could fail.

Putting it another way, the probability of success to failure in a trade is not 50-50.

How do you figure that ?
Correct me if I'm missing something but if you open a trade at 1.500 the trade is either going to end with the price higher or lower it so its 50/50
unless you close it out at 0.00 P/L which doesnt count as a trade.

[andre82]

There is old saying:

"There is 50% on 50% to guess which direction forex market will go, but 90% of those guesses are wrong"