Regardless of the period, a EA should have proper mechanisms that close trades-

The Classic Saying- keep your losses short and your profits long.

4 yr period, 10 yr period- proper money management should never have dd above 10%

Well I completely disagree with "keeping drawdowns below 10%"...

If you are so intent on protecting the other 90% of your account, why not pull it out and put it in other investments??

To me, a 100% drawdown should be expected. Otherwise, what's the purpose of even having money in an account?

The right answer: money is there to absorb losses. ALL THE MONEY. And if you can't accept that, you are wasting your resources.

__________________
Ideas are not trade advice.

So your intent is to have an expert advisor that would inevitably blow up your account?

I don't understand the logic of 100% DD to be expected, unless your being optimistic by being pessimistic- rather a contrast that the worse can always be better?

If you're devising a strategy with an expected 100%DD- you're better to place trades with a blindfold on with 50%+ risk.

Devising a strategy that has 10% or less drawdown means you're making better trades- the point is to be conservative with large gains- not large gains with large risk.

Ratio is the point here.
1:1 or 1:5- your pick- its your dollar.

Walander..TD is viewing money as a tool. This is a psychological difference in a way to view utilization and what money is.

If trade size were to remain the same no matter how much money were in the account, TD 's point is to take the idle money out and put it to work...The loss would remain the same.

The complications come with money management and if the code were to use balance or equity in its calculation of lotsize.

ES

P.S. Now... tieing up the money for some of us is our salvation ☺ ..as if we free it up our net portfolio exposure would be far greater.

This is one reason why 95% of traders fail. Their plan is to "protect capital" instead of swinging for the fences.

Do I expect to blow an account more often than I pull profits off the table? YES.

I can absorb several blown account if I can make 5000% trading aggressively every once in awhile. 5000% may sound unreasonable, but it is very realistic when you get a little good luck. The key is pulling huge profits off the table, and starting over again small.

That's my philosophy.

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Ideas are not trade advice.

ES, Forget about the old cowboy, I am talking about your ummmm... comment. What does it mean ?!!!

Please share your idea. it means alot to me.


sabri

Well...I have had my share of criticism....and sabri...you need to follow winning traders. TD ...believe it or not, talks just like a real trader (he is a coder too). Are good traders gamblers or do they get lucky more often than others?

sabri, I appreciate your candor....but I was chiming in negativley with the others about the big DD. 45% psychologially is heavy....ok it happened more then a year ago....but it could happen again, I suppose. But then again a system that never loses more than once...can lose 20 times in a row....we just never know.

sabri. We use DD% to measure our performance with....well some of us do. Others use yield and accept the DD at any cost as long as they survive. Real traders that make the big bucks seem to share a certain ingredient that I have noticed that I do not have...now remember, I am losing trader. Trading is a result oriented thing...and performance does not lie.

sabri..I hope this helps because I am not really saying anything other than to know thyself and try to do what the winners do.

ES

P.S. Make my Day (said in Clint Eastwoods voice)

I agree with you TDION, after all forex is a high risk business and looking for <10%dd id not a joke. I bought the forexautopilot.com software and got wiped out just after making 100% profit in 4 days!!!
What am saying is this is a high risk venture and dd% must be high. I think a 50%dd is acceptable.
ES always wants a 3%dd monthly on a 500$ deposit. I think its hard to achieve that but am using his wishes as my benchmark. I have some few ideas am still work on and IF they work than i'll surely share with you guys.

Where is HELLKAS ? I need someone to make the EA to open more than one trade IE whenever the condition re-appear, a new trade must open irrespective of the previously opened one. I hope this will increase the chance of making more profit/loss. I think Its worth a try.

I use the EA builder from japan to create these EAs.


sabri