It isn't all the MT4 Robot vendors fault you don't make money

Just how many forex robots have you bought ?

5, 10, 100

Have you found one that works?

Did you find one that worked for a while, and now doesn’t work?

Did you really expect life changing money from a piece of software that sells for an average retail price of $97 ?

Over the last 4 Years, I have purchased at least 75 Forex Robots.

Right now, I am only trading one of them, and I am about to buy another when it is released (because I have been beta testing it for 4 Months limited to a single currency pair)

More of that later.

What I have learned is that 99% of the robots available just do not work.

There are several reasons for this, some of which are not directly down to the robot vendor (although most are)

The main reasons the robots fails to earn profit for the user are as follows :-

1:- The system has never proven to make money even for the vendor, and was sold to the public anyway (about 5% slot into this category)

2:- The system has made money for the vendor, but has been optimized for a particular Brokers data and if used on another brokers account loses money (about 9% slot into this category)

3:- The system made money, but by the time it came to market had stopped making money (again about 5% slot into this category)

4:- A particular broker introduces progressively larger slippage, thus eating any profit that may have been there (10% slot into this category)

5:- The system made money for a while (typically 3 Months) but then tailed off. (an amazing 70% slot into this category)

6:- The system made money, but the user wasn’t happy with the amount being made per trade, increased the risk, and busted their accounts when bad times came. (1% … and yes the idiot was me!)

Out of all the systems I have tried over the Years, I could not get over how many lasted just enough time to get you past the guarantee period (number 5 above) and then flopped …..!

I then decided to look more closely at what was going on in this area.

The first thing I noticed was that just about all the ‘work for a Month or two and then Die’ (or WMDs as they have become known in our household … J) is that they were all pretty much scalpers. There was some crossover from number 5 above to number 4 too.

I then decided to look around more closely on the trading forums to see what Traders wanted from a system, and also to see what newbie Traders thought was a realistic expectation from a Robot.

What I discovered was actually quite interesting.

Most newbie Traders feel :-

· It is easier to make money scalping

· They Want to see several (even tens of) trades per Day

· They should Expect to see 80% plus profitable Trades

· That if they don’t see profit within a few Days, they will move on

· Expect a Robot to make money pretty much all the time

· understanding the concept of drawdown isn’t important with the right robot

· That the risk per trade is always too low

· That being in the market overnight should be avoided (and hence scalping is better)

I realized that this tallied with exactly what is being sold out there …. You want snake oil, you get snake oil. It really is that simple.

You also get what you pay for.

So what does work, and what should I pay for it?

Well I have learned that what works is a system that looks to place trades on multiple currency pairs, and looks to place a Trade 1 a Day to every few Days with the overall trading count running at 20-50 per Month tops. The average time in Trade should be around 2-6 Days, and the most important factor is how many pips an average trade makes (both gross and net)

Most successful systems vary this size, and have an average pips made per trade of around 20 pips, with the odd outlier of more than 100 pips.

A good system will look to make 300 pips per Month, and perhaps 3000 pips per annum. Thinking in pips by the way removes any issues with amount risked per trade and should be how you asses any systems performance.

The 2^nd thing to look out for is optimization. No one tells you about this.

Optimization is key……… without it a system will age and fail.

Regular optimization is the only way a system will stay profitable. Period.

The problem is that providing optimization is difficult. Automating it to be seamless is even more difficult.

On top of this snake oil salesman never sell a subscription because they know after the first bottle sold, they wont sell anymore.

Well things are about to change.

Do you remember the system I said I have been beta testing earlier? Well it is close to release, and I am pretty certain that this system is going to make money continuously.

I have already committed to sign up for the multi currency trading system, and the upgraded optimization service too.

This system is called Robovore. It isn’t out as at time of writing this article, but will be released shortly.

Go and have a look at their website here :-

http://www.robovore.com

Although not stated, I know that Robovore receives regular updates (at least once a week seamlessly) I also know that there is a very clever IQ update that the Robovore guys are going to charge a modest monthly fee for too. So keep an eye out for this too.

I am unsure of launch pricing, but if this system comes in at under $200 as the guys at Robovore have hinted, then it is an absolute steal.