:: How to avoid the Scammers to find the Real Thing? These are my personal 'rules'. ::

welcome to my lens...and no... it's not going to be another lens about Expert Advisors plagued with affiliate links all over.

i have been interested in Expert Advisors for months now... and have traded live with a couple of them, with some level of success.  through the process, i have learnt a lot of things!

here, i'll aim to share with you everything i know about Expert Advisors.  and in so doing, hope that you 'll know enough to differentiate the scammers from the real thing.  i've fallen prey to scammers before... so i do know what i'm talking about here.

i just hope that with this lens, you will have enough knowledge to help you find your own 'best' Expert Advisor for your needs.

:: Things to consider when selecting an Expert Advisor ::

forward-testing an Expert Advisor is the easy bit. finding one that's worth spending your money and time on is much harder. for that reason, i've worked out some guidelines which i use in my selection of Expert Advisors prior to purchasing them.

i've been a victim of Expert Advisor scammers before, and i strongly believe that the below guidelines will help in seperating the scammers from those who are trustworthy.

the seller of the Expert Advisor must :

>>> 1.   be the creator of the Expert Advisor. he should be responsive to emails and must be willing to articulate on the Expert Advisor's strategy without the need of a purchase.

>>> 2.   have a proper website that lists the kind of after-sales support that he offers. avoid those who sells mainly on eBay.  having 'free upgrades' is great!!... as it's a sign that the seller is committed in his business and customers, and that he appreciates the fact that Expert Advisors must constantly evolve to stay profitable in an ever-changing market.

>>> 3.   provide a demo version for potential customers to forward-test, or have a live demo / forward-test running where everyone can see the trades or statement (either on a website that's being updated constantly, or by providing a read-only investor login ID and password like what i've done at http://www.ckowyong.com/blog.  the minimum would be a forward-test statement that spans no lesser than 1 month, and no older than 1 week. back-test statements, in my opinion, are worthless. 

:: Are you a victim of scammers?  I was, but now I know better!! :: 

so many Expert Advisors out there make amazing claims, but how many do actually provide reliable information to back them up?  only about 5% of them i would estimate.

we cannot blame Expert Advisor sellers for not providing enough information to help buyers make an informed decision.  we can only blame ourselves for not doing our due diligence before parting with our money.

wasted money on a non-performing Expert Advisor is forgivable, but losing one's trading capital by using a bad Expert Advisor is just plain irresponsible.

that's said, whether an Expert Advisor is good or bad is also, to a certain extent, subjective.  2 investors with the same Expert Advisor, trading the same pair, same settings and timeframe may have very different results. 

as i've mentioned before on my blog, understanding how an Expert Advisor works is KEY for anyone who intends to auto-trade with it.  it's important to know the strengths and weaknesses of the Expert Advisor.  the investor should know when to let the system ride out the storm on a losing trade, and also when to manually interveen to cut the losses short. 

knowing when to disable the Expert Advisor is also very important.  leaving open trades over weekends and letting it trade through a major new event are just 2 instances that could make or break an account.

having good communications with the Expert Advisor creator is also critical, especially when you have doubts and queries on why the Expert Advisor is behaving in a certain way.  an online forum where the customers can interact with the creator would be ideal.

i hope the above guidelines have been helpful.  if you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to email me at ck@ckowyong.com

to everyone's success!! - ck

http://www.ckowyong.com/blog  

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