EA - Does it really work?

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It's now two weeks that I have been playing around with EAs - some that came with MT4 and the others that I downloaded from around.

I tried everything: Only short or long or both - M5, M15, H1, H4, Daily - Concentrating on EUR/USD after updating the history.

The results are depressive - the most run the deposit to 0. The best gets it to near even - but still negative.

Hence my question on the title:Am I waiting my time?

 

If you are "playing around" then yes, you are wasting your time.

 

Oooookay.......

Do you have any suggestions so that I play less and work more?

 
the tramp:
Do you have any suggestions so that I play less and work more?

I think that first of all you need try to undertsand why each EA is taking the trades that it takes, and the basic trading concept thats being exploited. Then its often worth taking a closer look at the results that the EA produces, and trying to determine if the winning and losing trades have anything in common.

For example, does the EA do well in strongly trending markets, or in ranging markets etc, are the stops and targets the EA uses sensible

Does the EA work well in high or low volatility markets, does the EA do well at particular times of day etc.

Its also probably worth looking at a non EA based approach, its very rare that people are able to trade EA's profitably (other than by random chance) without a considerable amount of experience

I think you have to accept that most people writing EA's tend to be relatively inexperienced, and ideas they are based on are often pretty much worthless, but they might at least provide a starting point for looking at things in more detail.

Once you start critically looking at a chart, all sorts of stuff will start to come into focus.

 

I've also been playing around with EAs for just over 2 months now. I've tested many EAs over multiple time frames, and over multiple currencies. Some EAs I've found in forums.

Since I'm a programmer, I've also coded many EAs ranging from the simple MA crossover to complex systems. All based off ideas from forums, some I made up, and some from forex systems websites.

All have very depressing results over the long term.

My next goal is to 'collect' a whole bunch of EAs, classify them into what market they work best under, code an EA that will identify the market type, and apply the EAs based on market type... Hopefully I won't have run out of steam by then.

I've also started testing some paid EAs over the past month. Megadroid seems OK. Fapturbo is a total flop on the recommended settings on the IAMFX.

I still see no light at the end of the horizon tho... I may end up trading manually despite being competent programmer.

Oilfxpro, do you turn your EAs on and off every so often depending on their performance? How do you decide what EA gets used, and what gets benched?

 
oilfxpro:
I use a system made up of 45 EAS, each E A caters for different market conditions.

I think most people who are doing OK with EA's are taking a similar approach. You'd be mad not too.

 
oilfxpro:
Those people selling single EAS for one type of market conditions are scammers,the ones using 45 crap EAS are going to lose money because 45 EAS have to be quality EAS(NOT THE CHEAP JUNK ON FORUMS OR THE SCAMS SOLD ON FORUMS)

I'd love to prove you wrong, but I'd be in danger of giving away part of my edge, and thats not going to happen

oh well

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