It's NOT about the pips!!!

As you probably know, I sell forex trade signals on ZuluTrade. That, however, does me no good because if you look at my stats, my system appears to be a complete failure. No one in their right mind, after seeing my stats, would ever subscribe to my signals. The reason why? Simple. ZuluTrade counts profit in PIPS. Monetary profit is shown in my stats, but you have to go searching for it. So when you pull up my stats page, the first thing you see is this graph...

OOH YEAH that really makes me want to get out my checkbook and invest in this system! Doesn't it do the same for you? (kidding)

But check this out. If you scroll down the page you will see the trading history. Here is a piece of that section...

In the diagram above, the most recent trade is on top. Notice where I circled in red shows that my account at that point was up over $1831, but I am down by 201 pips. Also, the most recently closed trade (circled in green) shows my pip count at -304, but my account profit at over $1415. So clearly, this system is winning. The account is up by almost 18% profit as of this writing in just 3 weeks.

I am very proud of my system, but am frustrated about the way ZuluTrade ranks things. The point I'm trying to make is this: Not all forex trading systems are about capturing the most pips. An effective money management strategy will enable you to lose many more pips than you gain, and yet your account will grow steadily.

Seriously, if you want proof, try my signals on a demo account for just one month. Start with $10000 and if after one month you don't have at least 10% profit on your account then you can assume I have no idea what I'm talking about. But I'm sticking to my original statement...

It's NOT about the pips!

Trying something new

Wow! I can't believe my last post was in January! I'll make sure not to let too much time pass between posts from here on.

Anyway, you probably noticed that Forex Set and Forget has not been producing profits in the last few months. Something changed in the markets the last several months and now the robot is useless until I get around to overhauling it, which will probably never happen.

But fear not, my dear reader friend! I have a *much* better robot now but it's not for sale. Instead I will be providing trade signals as soon as I find a decent service that lets me do it. Right now I am experimenting with ZuluTrade and Rent-a-Signal.

I can tell you right now I'm not liking ZuluTrade very much because they count profit in pips. My new robot loses much more pips than it gains, but earns much more money than it loses. Because of this, ZuluTrade makes my robot look like a complete failure. However, I rather like the look of ZuluTrade in general, so if I can make it work then I might use them. Another nice thing about them is the fact that they give you a choice of about 7 brokers that you can use for autotrading.

Rent a Signal seems to be good too but for me the look is not as attractive as ZuluTrade. However, they calculate profit in both pips and dollars, which works good for me. The main problem I have with them is (from what I can tell) they only support one broker for autotrading. This is the one I will likely go with.

I have my signals already set up on both right now, but ZuluTrade will not allow you to subscribe to a signal provider until they have at least 30 closed trades recorded. I am not quite to 30 trades yet as of this writing. Click the links above to see my stats on either or both.

One more thing...

If you have paid for Forex Set and Forget, I have not abandoned you. These new signals are provided for free as long as you open a live account through the signal provider and set it up for autotrading. But don't throw away your copy just yet because Forex Set and Forget may start working again in a few months. It may be that a new optimization will get it working again for another year or so.

A rough couple of months for Forex Set and Forget

I started Forex Set and Forget on this account a few months ago and it immediately went into drawdown for the 2nd half of November and most of December. This might seem discouraging at first, but when you look at the backtest reports on the web site, you'll notice that even though some months show losses for the month, in the long run the robot shows a nice profit. This is not unlike a professional trader's results, which will show ups and downs with the ups being bigger (in general) than the downs.

As you can see in the chart above, the robot has fully recovered from the drawdown and is now in profit. Nearly 10% profit, which is right on track for 60% annual gains. My research has shown that with the right settings, Forex Set and Forget can easily produce 5% gains per month on average.

Other robots claim to be able to double your account every month, or some other ridiculous claims. However, I am under the belief that a good trader can outperform even the best robots. And I don't see any traders bragging about how they have consistently doubled their accounts month after month. My AME Cross Trader generated 700% gains in 1 week in the 2008 Automated Trading Competition! But I have no right to say that it can do that on a regular basis. Forex Set and Forget can be configured to double your account in a month or less, but it's not worth the risk. At least not for the long term.

Anyway, I lost my chain of thought. Sorry. Bottom line is if you want a nice cash flow or steady, predictable growth, then a robot like Forex Set and Forget is what you need. If you like gambling, then there are hundreds of commercial (and free) robots that will gladly drain your entire account while you shoot for the stars.

New article: How To Invest In Forex With Forex Automated Trading

I published this article in Ezine Articles about a week ago and it just got approved. I think you'll enjoy it.

How To Invest In Forex With Forex Automated Trading

Max-Marc Fossouo interviews Tony Manso

Here is an interview I did last week that may be of interest to you as a Forex trader.

Visit the Forex Set and Forget web site for more information.

Finally, Forex Set and Forget 2.00 is here!

After months of experimentation with and tweaking of Version 1.11, I finally have produced the mysterious and elusive Forex Set and Forget 2.00. Here is a list of changes as they appear on the update page. These mostly pertain to the packaging and installation.

• New software installer eliminates the need for copy/paste into Metatrader folder.
• Check for Updates from the Start Menu.
• Register Live Accounts from the Start Menu.
• Read documentation directly from the Start Menu.
• Install the robot to Metatrader from the Start Menu!
• Completely re-designed entry logic.
• Completely re-designed trailing stop logic.
• New improvements made to the Custom Library.
• All new currency pairs (AUDJPY, EURUSD, GBPUSD and USDCHF). The old currency pairs will automatically use the previous version of FSaF when you load the templates.
• Preset files now included for back testing and/or optimizing.

Bottom line. Forex Set and Forget 2.00 is...

• easier to install,
• easier to apply to Metatrader,
• easier to upgrade,
• more reliable,
• has lower drawdown,
• has vastly improved documentation,
• comes with presets for back testing and optimizing,

and even comes with an all-new Cash Flow Strategy Guide!

Forex Set and Forget v2.00 the excitement is building!

So far I am pleased with the performance and reliability of Forex Set and Forget version 2.00. I'm talking about

• New entry logic
• New trailing stop logic
• New currency pairs
• More consistent results

Just click on the screen shot below to see the results of a three year backtest on AUDUSD. Even just looking at the screen shot you can see a nice profit graph. That is over a three year period. Not many EA's can show that kind of result.

This backtest was run with a $300 starting balance and no money management. In other words, every trade was the same size. The ending balance after 3 years was over $1300. That means a person could have withdrawn 10% of their initial deposit every month from the account and after 3 years still have their initial deposit! Imagine being able to withdraw $5000 per month out of your MT4 account that only has $50000 in it. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

Incidentally, I ran the same backtest with money management enabled, so the trades were at no less than 1:10 leverage, and it still survived the full 3 years, AND had an ending balance of nearly $7000 (2233% profit). Of course the drawdown was insane but even so, it recovered fully and survived the entire testing period.

Anyway, at this time I am tying up loose ends such as packaging, documentation, sales page, ordering page, etc. and I'm close to releasing it to the public.

Get on my mailing list if you want to be notified when the new version is released. OR you can simply purchase the current version and upgrade for free when the new version becomes available. Here's why doing this makes the most sense...

Version 2.00 and higher will be on a subscription basis. You will be able to run on a demo account unhindered. But to run on a live account you will need to pay a monthly subscription fee. HOWEVER, if you buy the current version and upgrade, you will simply pay the $117 one-time and will never be charged monthly fees for your first live account. Most people never use more than one live account