Hey, I’ve been listening to a lot of Rob Booker’s podcasts lately and I’m interested in the Finch robot that he talks about so often.
I’m wondering if anyone is currently using the Finch EA and what their performance is like, or if I should just stay away and save my money. Ive heard some nasty reviews & Rob’s myfxbook account isn’t doing too hot right now.
I really like Rob Booker, he is a nice guy, a little eccentric and a good entertainer. I have taken some of his cheap Trifecta courses too. As far as his profitability and robot go I have no idea, he is very transparent though with his accounts. Nothing trading is going to give amazing results all the time.
[quote=“OutofWork66, post:2, topic:146080”]
Nothing trading is going to give amazing results all the time.
[/quote]Exactly, that’s why I don’t believe in robots, you have to make it YOUR system by tweaking it here and there. Nobody’s gonna give you a money maker just because.
Hiya -
I’ve been using the finch for the past year. Rob is very open about some of it’s drawbacks. I should say that there is not just one finch robot. There are a bunch of them. I’m just trading the vanilla finch.
The EA (or robot as Rob calls them) is good at taking a lot of trades and getting a large percentage of wins. However, of course, it’s not 100% accurate and the ones many of that don’t work out end up getting stuck in a large amount of drawdown for considerable periods of time until they come good. Meaning that the open trades are can go quite a long way negative.
The EA works quite well in markets that are in range. It doesn’t work as well in trending markets. Last year it was doing really well for a long time. Lately it hasn’t been going so well.
The Finch does not use a stop loss so you need to trade quite small lot sizes - eg: 0.01 etc. My account is 20K but am only trading about 0.03 max (although I’m probably way too cautious). The theory is that the trades will eventually come good. However, I have quite a few open which are like 6 months old.
If you’re going to trade the Finch you need to either be able to wear a lot of drawdown. Or, have another method of trading (discretionary etc) which you can use to ‘wash’ out the bad trades. Eg: some manual intervention is often recommended. Rob is currently trading it ‘honeymoon’ style which I haven’t tried.
Over the last year I have made 50% in the trades that have closed (which is about 8K) but my drawdown is currently about 7K. The open trades are gradually closing over time. But it’s taking some patience. If I was to start over I would be doing both the finch and some sort of discretionary trading on the side to ‘wash’ the bad trades out.
In terms of Rob Booker - I really like him. I’ve seen a lot of trading educators and definitely like Rob the best out of all of the ones I’ve come across. I think he is very genuine. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. And it often very funny. Nobody is perfect. No system is perfect. The finch isn’t perfect. But I’ve been enjoying wrestling with it.
I like listening to Rob’s podcasts, "The trader’s podcasts " thoroughly entertaining.
It seems to me that all he’s (the robot) is doing is keeping a large enough stop that eventually price comes back. Indeed, price does rotate. But is that the best way to profit? Surely there must be a better solution, such as getting out and avoiding the drawdown and then re-entering.
I just watched his video on how he created the Finch, that it’s based on momentum divergence. If there was divergence, and yet price doesn’t reverse as is expected - and subsequent to that, the divergence goes away - obviously it was a failed signal. Despite the divergence, just because momentum had slowed, it was a false signal that it was saying that price was getting ready to reverse.
So why would one stay in it? The robot (apparently) does, because price will come back, and it often does since price tends to rotate. But at that point, it’s not due to the divergence. I think Rob has said it’s a delayed reaction (clarify this if I’m wrong), but at that point, his same indicator is showing something else. Perhaps even a divergence in the other direction. Why would one presume that it’s due to a delayed reaction to the prior divergence?
Just my .02.
Rob don’t use stops in any of his robots or systems.
I’m a lifetime member with Rob. He is a really good trader and a very nice guy.
I can’t trade finch and be profitble. I’ve lost to much money on that robot 
Finch can not trade on it’s own. You need to help it a lot.
Rob can trade it and be profitble because:
1 he has the capital to take the draw down that finch go thru.
2. He built the robot and it fit’s his trading style so he is confortable taking the draw down.
3. He can help the robot and trade manually to help it get out of the draw down, this works because he is a really good trader.
i agree with both the above comments
that also makes total sense
holding losing positions open without a proper stop-loss is a mugs’ game, sooner or later it will lead inevitably to disaster in non-expert hands