Help! In Need of Users to Beta Test and Peer Review my Automated FX Trading Station

Trading Systems Expert Advisors and Automated Trading
1

Hello Everyone!

I’m a software developer and FX trader. Two years ago, I started work on creating a stand alone desktop application to perform automated (and manual) Forex trading that connects to and works with Meta Trader 4. I finished this application quite a while back and have been solo testing it.

The premise is that the application has a built in setup rule editor, allowing individual users to create their own set of conditions for automated trading. Each of these rules is a file, and they can be exported and shared among other users of my program. My intention is that by allowing these trading rule files to shared among many users, I can build a community of users like ourselves who may have a competitive edge amongst a system that is mainly dominated by the large institutions who have access to info before we do.

My application, named Kontrollur, utilizes technical’s that are easy to understand and work with, and live streaming fundamental news data. Combining both fundamentals and technicals into a full fledged software app I feel provides a super rich experience for the user. The automated setup files that I have built in to the software have been performing in the black for me over the past 6 months (wasn’t even my main intention, but w00t!). I have felt that you guys could probably write a better set up rules than I can, but the ones I have written (using the program itself) perform quite nicely.

My website and deployment system is mostly complete. The software program is operational, and now is the time to look for bugs or improvements. I plan on releasing this product to the market this summer.

I know Babypips is a great community of users, and I’m calling on some of you who would be willing to download and test my application; report buggy issues, and most of all write a review or comment online on it. The beta code I provide will allow you full access and lifetime use of the software.

If you are interested, please visit Kontrollur - Automation in FX Trading and if you would like to download a beta, contact me and I will send you a code.

I sincerely look forward to talking with many of you. Hoping for some good reviews! I did initially post this in a different area of the forum, but this is probably the correct place for this posting.

Oh, and Robopip- I’m counting on you to be one of the testers!

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

2

Hi again.

When I initially made this post a couple of days ago, I was braced to expect a deluge of requests coming in for beta keys. I am somewhat shocked that I have had no responses yet.

There must be somebody here who is willing to test drive my program! I’d really appreciate some feedback on it.

Hoping to hear back from some courageous traders!

3

This was the expected outcome. I don’t see any merit to your application whatsoever.

I don’t see a need to externalize technical trading rules into your application (and for $500). The application you designed would only have the ability to support pre-built indicators and rules that you have chosen to include in it. There’s is no flexibility in that.

As a result, any user of your application is limited by what your application can support. And from what I’ve seen, what your application can support can just as easily be supported in MT4. And so if that’s the case, why purchase your application instead of just coding strategies using native MT4 infrastructure?

Advanced automated traders wouldn’t require it either. The stuff they work on wouldn’t be supported by your product nor would they need any assistance in creating trading applications; since they can all code themselves.

Basically, you are trying to entice impressionable traders into buying an additional layer of latency for $500. And not just nothing to gain, but they also have something to lose: flexibility and freedom of design. Well, at least the GUI looks cool.

PS. Please correct me if I am misunderstanding. But neither your website or thread said much.

4

I have had this conversation before about being disappointed by up take. Clark’s tried to educate and offer free software to people only to find the uptake is minimal.

I would say although the feedback is not exactly what you want/expect its still useful. I suppose if someone is a simple automated trader they can use MT4 for myself I hand code everything into be-spoke algo containers. One thing that I think would help you is (and i’m sure we missed this). In bullet points what does your framework give you over coding in MT4?

5

I appreciate your post. Admittedly, it was not what i was expecting to hear, but nonetheless I asked for some honest feedback and that is what you provided. To be true, I am a programmer and not a marketing specialist so perhaps I have not
done the best job possible describing this platform. Maybe I can elaborate a bit:

Kontrollur is designed to allow ordinary, non-tech savvy people to create sets of trading rules using an editor which I have tried to make easy to understand. A user will not be performing any coding whatsoever. My platform is designed to give expression to people who do not wish to learn a programming language. The rule editor allows a user to focus on ideas they feel are important, such as time of day. A user can open up the editor and create a new rule to place a long trade. This user wishes for this rule to only trade during the first hour the market opens in NY. She will select points for the NYC open using the drop down tree editor. Then, she can elaborate on her rule by choosing the Major Psychological Handles portion of the tree, and select NOT R1 Warning. She does not want a trade to open if the price is approaching a major handle.

In this way, our pretend user can craft a set of conditions she would like to match for a trade to open. She can then export this rule, or all her rules out of the software as XML files and share them with her friends who are also using the software.

I hope I’ve clarified things a bit. Kontrollur is really about being able to make rule sets and share them with a community, without having to do any MQ4 coding.

Now, you have mentioned the fixed limit of indicators. Yes, you are correct. There are only a finite amount of indicators included. I have built the editor and logic engine in such a way that the indicators are easy to understand and use. I wanted to steer away from making things appear too intimidating to the novice. I do feel that the indicators that are included (2 momentums, 3 price levels, fundamentals, global strengths, market timing points, anchor charts and the future release of chart patterns) allows the creation of some pretty solid rules. Users can watch the rules at work in a real time logic viewer and see how the engine loops through all the conditions also.

Okay, the biggest point that I think you hit on is the $500 price tag. I mean, we’re all here because we want to make money, right? But honestly I am not sure what the price tag should be. Would you balk at $100? $200, $49.95? This is not really set in stone. And your feedback has greatly attributed to my reconsideration of this factor.

I hope that I have painted a clearer picture of what Kontrollur is all about.

6

Hi Pipwhip. Thanks for your reply!

I have tried to elaborate a bit in response to Clark’s honest questions. To reiterate, Kontrollor is designed to allow the non-programmer the ability to create their own set of automated trading rules using a built in editor, and share them with a community. Kontrollur will analyze as many rules as a user wishes it to. You can create 100 individual rules, as specific as for one single currency pair at one specific time of day when certain conditions are met. You can disable 15 of those 100 rules, and let Kontrollur analyze at the remaining 85.

My intention is to build a community of people who come up with some nifty rules, sharing among other people. I will be continuously working on updates, adding new chart patterns, maybe another row of indicators if the need or requests for them are present.

Price may be an issue. I did list on the website a $500 price tag, but I may need to rethink this. I have an incredible amount of time invested in this product, and I honestly believe this is product that belongs on the market. I will have to see what the market says it’s fair value is. If, after time, the market responds with FREE then I guess that will be the price. But I have my own trading account that is hungry for funding so I do want to try to get something for it.

Does this help any?
Thanks!

7

Thanks for the clarification.

I don’t want to burst your bubble, but there is already free software that does what your’s does and more (ForexSB comes to mind). I’m going to assume that you have done your market research before designing your own.

So if you already knew that, what’s unique about yours?