...would you enter it in the MetaQuotes Software Corp. Automated Trading Championship? I developed an EA and optimized it on 2006 data. When I maxed the lot size and backtested it on the last quarter of 2006, the period of the contest, it would have placed second in the contest. Now I am weighing the pros and cons of entering the contest, if there is one this year. The obvious pros would be the prize money, the fame, and perhaps the opportunity to sell the EA to buyers who have deep pockets. As for the cons... I am concerned that once I release a copy of any program I write, the possibility exists for unauthorized use.

I am interested to know what other programmers think about entering their EAs in the contest? What are the pros and cons, and would you enter if you thought you had a chance to win?

http://championship.mql4.com/

I see your point about unauthorized use. However, if you do not give your EA to anyone else except Metaquotes, it should be relatively safe... of course unless a crooked employee there swipes your program from the server and uses it. As for giving out ex4 files, it is as good as giving the program out as it can be cracked.

If you are looking for capital to trade, then you should trade it with a risk capital you can afford and then use the real live results to solicitate additional funds. Just posting the live results in the commercial section of various forums should generate enough interest for you to start a managed fund type of deal.

Good luck.

Hi,

I would not call myself an exceptional programmer, but I can write EAs from scratch. Anyway, first you have to be aware that the MT4 backtester is highly unreliable even with 90% modeling quality. You also have to realize that the backtester relies on the assumption that all of your orders would have been filled without slippage and that there would have been no broker downtime -both these factors are very real realities when trading with an EA live.

So, I would say that you should go for it. If your EA is as good as you say it is then you may indeed win the competition, if the competition is run again later this year. You could then use any money won to trade with on your own live account with your EA - so you have nothing to lose!

Good luck

I definitely would - and intend to have more than 1 contender ready for the next championship, which I read Metaquotes said WOULD take place same time this year. Why? well, for the money of course and when you consider that the Zonker 'pretend' EA came close to scooping the prize, I reckon that something that even traded randomly would stand a fair chance. I'd be happy to sell that one to the highest bidder if it won....