I read all these forms on the discussion of EA’s and frankly I have not read a straight answer to the question. Then to be honest some of you have the worst spelling and grammar so it’s hard to understand what your saying. I have been trading an FX demo acct through Oanda for a couple of months and actually delayed going live in FX now that I found a tried, true and tested trading system in the US stock market. A lot of the things that I have learned in FX and technical analysis has taught me to watch for pull back, enter a position and make money. I do, however want to start testing EA’s on a demo acct with FXCM, due to low spreads. One I have looked into is called Forex Fury, they have a website and the information is posted there. But after reading forum after forum I just want to know, do and can an EA system work. I know there are tons of them out there so I don’t plan on buying piles of them to test. Willing to go through a few but EA’s work???
Hi there
An EA is just a program; it simply does what it’s programmed to do. In that sense your question is like asking “do programs work?” So, if you have a strategy with a positive expectancy that can be completely automated, then yes, it can be turned into an EA that will “work”. Too often EAs are viewed as an easier way to trade. I think creating your EA system is harder and takes more knowledge than normal trading. To achieve success using EA’s takes a broad knowledge of the underlying trading principles as well as knowledge of the EA’s code and operation. If an EA has a good strategy backing it, It should do fine. Something you need to be aware of when it comes to EAs is that it’s incredibly easy to throw together a piece-of-crap system and tune it to work on historical pricing. I could easily create two EAs a day with historical results that look fantastic, but which would most likely fail in a forward-testing or live-market test. Be very skeptical of back-testing results.
Thank you simonnash for your response to my post. Let me clarify that when I asked about EA’s I actually meant the ones you can purchase that are already programmed, like the one mentioned in my original post. I do however understand that that type of EA take some programming and adjusting also. I also am not looking for the name of a particular one to purchase, but am open to suggestions.
Exactly as there are some good and profitable manual strategies and many unprofitable, the same is for automated trading: many unprofitable eas and few potentially profitable; but this is not enough: as there are good manual traders (few) and (many) bad manual traders, there are some good automated traders and some very bad in this: using the same good strategy (automated or manual) some will earn money, some will lose; so some will lose money also using good and profitable strategies? yes, absolutely and they are the most
People think that using EAs is an easy task: nothing more wrong
Discerning a good EA from a bad EA requires time and a lot of study. Then u must analyze the history of the ea looking at his stats (drawdown, stagnation period and many other elements) and on these u have to set your money managment rules
Using EAs is very difficult and not for all as manual trading is not for all
Thank you corre71 for your input. I have seen some of your other post and you seem to have a lot of insight into the market, EAs, etc. I plan on trying both manual and automated EAs one at a time on a demo acct, adjusting settings, using low spreads and then I am going to post everything I find along with the settings that I used to achieve those results. Any suggestions on an automated EA that might be a good starting place.
Hi Mondoggy,
I am in the same boat as you. I can trade okay on my own but have a real hard time either entering or exiting when I should due to being in the states… I have to go to work during the US session, and sleep during the EUR session and I either miss trades or don’t get out in time. I would like to find a conservative EA that will produce 15 - 40 pips/day (I’m not greedy and don’t like risky “out of the park” trades).
Would you keep us updated on your results with Forex Fury or if you find another good prospect?
Thanks!
Forex Fury? What is this? I have checked the website and does not look good.
3 accounts Are showed:
1 real account which closed many trades in loss and then stopped to update
1 demo account which is not updated from some weeks
1 demo account on Thinkforex with a very short trading history
It is a scalper with a low average value for winning trades so a demo is not significative and also trading history is very short.
If u add that the developer is unknown, i ask myself why someone should consider to buy and to use it
Automated trading is more dangerous than manual trading because u allow a software to risk ur money. So is important u learn how to evaluate an EA before to start Automated trading or at least ask to some more experienced an opinion about the EA u Are watching. Better to stick with some EA used by many other people which has showed to be profitable and Forex Fury for sure is not One of these
An EA which produce every day 15/45 pips does not exist. Also good eas will have drawdown and stagnation periods. Wher this occurr 95% of the users stop to use them and so they lose money also on a good strategy
Secrets to earn money on Automated trading Are simply
Learn to correctly evaluate an EA
Trade only with money u can afford to lose
Use appropriate money managment
Keep confident also when the EA will start to lose money
To paraphrase Winston Churchill(well, a bit)…
Some ea’s work for some of the people, some of the time
Eventually all ea’s are rendered useless a situations change and the ea is no longer relevant, no matter how good it may once have been.
The problem with buying one is how do you know at what stage in its life cycle it is
EA’s work
but often they don’t work in every single market type – so you gotta take action when these events come along - then change again when market changes
protect your capital the best you can - or otherwise diversify the EA’s you run so then you need to change less.
Just like to thank all of you for chiming in on my post. I will do some more research on which EA’s are showing profitable, promise to post all my findings and the settings that got me those results. I have found some interesting information that I wanted to share with y’all Pragmatrading.com. I have not had the time to real dig into it, currently working my shift, so it will have to wait a few days.
Many will say yes and many will say no. Try it out and you will find your answer. I dont have positive views on EA’s but I look forward to see your results. For an EA to show it is working it needs to show results for at least 4 months.
Hi all, I’m trying to get some ideas also about EA’s from those who have experience using it. I found some quite few already on this thread… May I know what other factors would one suggest that makes a good EA?
I’m learning MQL programming because I wanted to make my own personal EA, mainly to just test my own strategies and and work on it 
…thanks in advance for those who would reply.
… and back to this Thread’s Question if EA’s do work…
Lots of experience traders would advice to let go of emotions out of your strategy, stick to your rules, stick to your risk management when it comes to trading, and that’s why EAs were introduced, so in a sense it does work. But, you have to think about this too, if you buy or use others EA, it would be the same thing as like making someone else to decide, make the trading for you, based on his/her strategy. Same thing as you’re relying your investment to that someone else.
You missed the part that the EA developer needs to constantly update the EA to adjust to changing market conditions. If it is done incorrectly the EA that used to be good will rip your account apart when the market changes. This is the key reason why the lifespan of the majority of EA’s is 90 days at most. Some will stop working within days, some times hours. To develop an EA that adjusts on its own to market conditions takes years, usually 3 - 10 years. The developer needs to watch the market and instruct the EA when to change its strategy. The testing for most of the times is done live and not in a demo. If after the 10 years (approx.) the EA developer manages to see consistent profits from the EA and you have to make my word on this, the EA developer will not sell this in EA nor you will find it anywhere. If you are a developer then you need to understand now this will take time and many give up during those years. I wish you good luck with designing your EA.
There is nothing foul in using someone’s strategy in order to profit, which is the whole point of trading. As long as the strategy proves itself many traders do not care why the Euro went up or down. They want results at the end of the day.
Hi Pollar,
Nice points you got here, I’ll keep this in mind. I just created my first basic EA, doing some experiments on different conditions using only two indicators so far, and I’m beginning to understand it more from your point of view… where changes in trend do affect the results, I guess that’s why EA’s still needs to be monitored and adjusted from time to time. I can see it clearly now that for a good EA to work it needs to be able to withstand the three changes, from the different conditions of uptrending, downtrending, and ranging or consolidating time. Thanks for the reply.
My pleasure. Good luck with the project. You will discover more market conditions than the one’s you have mentioned with time. A trader that I know that developed his own EA’s is using 6 of them at the same time. He wont tell me how they work of course but I am guessing when the market changes one EA stops and the other starts working. I am just guessing this.
Whooooaaa, omg omg that’s a good one… I see light bulbs lit up overhead too… thanks very much for this good info on using more than one EA. You’re the man!!! Pollar, I mean you’re the bear… ohhhh whatever - you know what I meant… thank you snow bear man.
It’s my pleasure. It is very common to use multiple EA’s so if the market changes one stops working and the second one starts trading. This guy I told you about developed his own EA’s and unlike the ‘fantasies’ that go with it he doesn’t lay on the beach but he watches the PC al the time to make sure the EA’s are working as they should. Good luck SearchSurf, I am glad I helped.
It works but risky
Everything in life is risky, that’s what risk management is for. I got an email from ddmarkets not to use any EA’s today because the market could be more fundamental. In simple English, a lot of technical strategies might mess up today.