Fractal 4 EA comprises of a scalping strategy and a channel breakout strategy. It trades a total of two strategies. When market is not volatile, Fractal 4 will employ the scalping strategy where it executes many trades with very small take profit levels. Where market is expected to be volatile, it will trade the channel breakout strategy.

Types of Robot : Scalping and Channel Breakout Robot

Broker Platform : Metatrader 4 (work on both 4^th and 5^th decimal brokers)

Back Test and Forward Test Generated With : Alpari UK

Price : $197 (one time payment)

Refundable: No

Pair: Eur/ Usd , Gbp/Usd, Eur/Gbp  (4Hr Timeframe)

1. Money Management

Fractal 4 provides money management. However, the risk parameter does not directly reflects the amount of percentage risk in any single trade. The owner of Fractal 4 recommends specifying risk at 0.3 with 5 aggressive setting.

Scalping Strategy = 1% loss in any single trade if stoploss is hit

Channel Breakout = 1.6% loss in any single trade if stoploss is hit

The data I have collected is based on what has happened to FxEAReview’s forward test. In addition, the scalping strategy may open 5 positions at the same time, and the maximum risk you are taking is up to 5% in any single day.

The owner did not cover the money management in detailed but provides a recommend setting to users expecting everyone’s risk tolerance is the same. This is clearly not a good idea in the perspective of the end user.

2. Drawdown

Although the website specified that we can back test the strategy, we have tried but were unable to do it. Instead, they generated back test results and invite users to visit their blog.

We believe that it is not reliable to write a review based on their generated back test due to the fact that back test results can easily be distorted. We will refrain from using system provider’s back test results.

As such, we were unable to get the drawdown figures from our research so far. We will update you as soon as we have the figures.

Trade Analysis

Scalping Strategy

Scalping Strategy will execute 5 positions every day at 21 00 Hr (Gmt). It may not trade every day.

Order Type = Market Order
Take Profit = 4- 10 pip
Stop Loss = 32 pip
Maximum Opened Positions = 5
Risk Per Trade = 1% per trade

Risk : Reward = 1:0.125

It takes 8 winning trades to recover 1 losing trade.  (May defer because EA manages every trade and exit at different take profit level)

Channel Breakout

It uses build in channel breakouts indicators to determine entry positions. If price breaks, breakouts above or below the blue lines, an trade is entered. The price breakout must occur during the European trading hours in order for a trade to be entered.

Order Type = Stop Order (Place at blue lines as indicated by build in indicator)

Take Profit = Managed By EA
Stop Loss = 32 pip
Risk Per Trade = 1.6% per trade

Risk : Reward = Cannot Be Determined

3. Ease of Use

Product comes with a manual and its in-built indicators.

Risk Parameter requires back testing in order to find out the risk % in any single trade. Forex beginners may  not be able to determine the real risk % .

Following Settings Can Be Optimised

Risk
Aggressive Setting
Take Profit
BEP
Min Stoploss
Max Open Position

We felt that these settings were not covered adequately in the user manual and we do not understand how it is used.

Fractal 4 EA is not easy for usage.

4. Honest Result

FxEAReview believes that forexhope fared badly in this area even though Fractal 4 is a profitable strategy.

1. System cannot be backtested (salespage indicates that it is possible)
2. Money management does not truly reflect the real risk in any single trade

Click Here to View Forward Test Results

5. Weakness (If Any)

There are variations between what the owner promised and what he delivered.

System is backtested to work from 2008 stated by the owner. A general concern is can this strategy works long term?  System cannot be backtested and as a result, we aren’t able to test the long term performance of this strategy.

It comprises of two strategies but money management was not defined for each respective strategy.

Scalping strategy may be spread dependent.

6. Support

Support took 5 days to reply and support personnel provided unsatisfactory answer.

A picture depicting the e-mail reply is displayed as follows:

Click Here to View Our Dialogue with Support Part 1

Click Here to View Our Dialogue with Support Part 2

From the dialogue, you can see that we can getting increasingly frustrated with them not addressing our problem. We have uploaded our own backtest result for them to see but they kept requesting for our result. With waiting time of at least 3 days for them to reply, clearly we do not expect to get simple replies but answers to our problem.

Summary

Fractal 4 EA has two strategies programmed to capitalise on the different market conditions. Strategy performed well in our forward test results.

We believe that the system manual should be improved to educate the system user on the various parameters. Several parameters should be introduced to cater for two trading strategies and money management should be simplified to make it easier for end users.

Finally, back test should be enabled.

Rating

6/10

Warren Seah

Feel free to use this article on your website or ezine as long as the following information about author/website is included.

New Update

Update 23th Dec 2009

Our forward test account was disabled because the robot did not trade for more than 3 weeks. It was working fine until we applied the new update. We will clarify with the trading provider on this issue.  A new demo account will be opened and forward testing will resume.

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Semi Automatic Trading Strategy

Review Updated = 29th Jan 2010

It is called low maintenance trading formula. System is designed for people who have a full time job and they can spend 15 mins per day to trade the forex market. The system will generate more trades signal if you use 4hour time frame compare to daily time frame.

Broker Platform : Metatrader 4 (Work on both 4th and 5th decimal brokers)
Backtest and Forward Test Generated With : Alpari UK
Price : $149
Refundable: 60 Day Money-back Guarantee

Pair: Any currency pairs including gold and silver ( daily or 4 hour charts )

System Description

It comes with a set of indicators to identify the trend. This is a semi automatic trading strategy and can be traded with any currency pairs. With it sets of filters, the strategy is designed to provide the user with high success rate in each trade.

System trades with a specified stop loss and will scale out profits. When first take profit target is achieved, 50% of contract is closed to realise profits,  stop loss is shift to break even point and remaining contract is trailed to capitalize on the trend for as long as possible.

Other Bonuses

When you purchase the system, you will get a manual and easy installer. In addition, you will also get videos which owner shows you how to setup to how to trade the system effectively.

1. Money Management

System recommends risking not more than 2% per trade.

2. Key Features

- High Success Rates (82% trades are Profitable Trades)
- Specify trend
- Calculate exact stop and take profit levels
- Fixed trading plan

3. Result Comparison

The nature of the system does not allow back tests.

Key ratios to observe

-    Winning Trade (%)
-    Max Draw down

Click Here to View Forward Tests

4. Other Features

Trading 4 Hour Chart

It only trades when daily trend and 4 hour trend are the same. This is a newly optimised feature.

5. Weakness (If Any)

No Back Test

System cannot be back tested

Too Many Signals Generated At One time If trading many currency pairs

Signals must be carefully selected so that you aren’t trading with too high risk. Forex is a closely correlated market.

6. Support

The owner will personally reply your queries within 24 hours. Tested and a FAQ is provided. Future updates to this system are free. System is updated every quarter.

7. A Trade Setup

Eur/Usd 4Hour Chart

Date: 2009.10.19 (Trade from our forward test, can view more info at our forward results)

Trade analysis shows that D1 trend and H4 trend are up. Trigger indicator indicates a high probability setup and we entered at the closed of the green arrow candle. Stop loss and first take profit level are also specified at the trade analysis.

Entry Position- Locate Green Arrow. Entered at the closed of green candle bar risking 2% of account equity.

White solid line- entry price
Red dotted line- initial stop loss
Blue dotted line- 1st take profit level and exit 50% of contracts, stop loss shift to breakeven point plus 1 pip

Price trailed with a 2 bar low strategy.

Red solid line- trailing stop where price exited

Summary

System can be easily understood. And the filters introduced are helpful. Personally, I introduced a few filters and trade in a different way from Dean Saunders. I use my personal filters to forward test this system. It is working very well for me. If you want my personal filters, contact me via the contact form at the navigation bar.

As it can be traded with many currency pairs, it is not advisable to trade all of them at 1 time. By adding many positions trading many pairs at once, you are putting yourself to many risks. From my experience, forex market is a closely correlated market. It is advisable that you trade with a prudent risk management and not over trade the account.

Deciding how much to trade and which pairs to trade is the key to profiting with this strategy.

Rating

8/10

Warren Seah

Feel free to use this article on your website or ezine as long as the following information about author/website is included.

Update

Update 23th December 2009

Our forward test account is in drawdown. We expect to recover the loss and go back to profit zone in the 1st quarter of 2010. This strategy has not been trading regularly over this period of time because most of the signals are filtered. A strict money management has been employed and we see how our system was able to stop us from trading this false signal during this period of time.  Trading will stop on Christmas day and resume in Mid January 2010.

Update 29th Jan 2010

Our old account was disabled due to inactivity for 3 weeks. We opened a new account and started trading. This problem will not occur anymore as we have speak to our brokers and sort out with them on this issue.

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Robominer is a grid trading robot. It works in the theory that using prudent money management, no matter what the price went to in its historical operating range, the trader using this strategy will not ever get a margin call. This is achieved by limiting the contract size of the investments to a small percentage of the equity balance.

Types of Robot : Grid Trading Robot

Broker Platform : Metatrader 4 (Work on both 4th and 5th decimal brokers)

Back-test and Forward Test Generated : Alpari UK

Price : $497 (one time payment) or $39.99 recurring monthly subscription

Refundable: No, it allow demo testing by registering with their website prior to purchase

Pair: Aud/Nzd and Eur/Chf

1. Money Management

It is unique in its way because money management is calculated by balance factor in this strategy. In its default setting, every $4,000 in your equity, the robot will add 0.01 volume (1 micro lot). If you have an account size of $10,000, you will start trading with 2 micro lot.

he idea for this strategy is regardless of what how much the price moves, the trader will not ever meet a margin call. This explains for the very small contract size traded.

You can specify the balance factor, but by entering how much dollar to a micro lot. That is if you specify 3000, that will be for every 3000 , the strategy will trade with 1 more micro lot.

2. Drawdown

The Back tested results showed a maximal drawdown of not more than 20% the past 4 years. Positions are entered only with a fixed take profit levels. They will only be closed if their take profit levels are achieved.

Most of the drawdown are paper loss, that is loss will only be realized if positions are closed. Hence, drawdown stated in this strategy is usually not reliable because we could not predict how much paper loss the system will generate during times when it has 10 opened trades lying for a few months and price facing the potential of breaking its historical extremes.

Trade Analysis

Order Type = Market Order

Take Profit = 40 pip ( Eur/Chf)

Stop Loss = N/A (Grid Trading does not trade with a stop loss)

3. Ease of Use

Most of the parameters are explained in the manual provided. Strategy provides a certain level of optimization. However, for those who have dealing first time with a grid trading robot will feel overwhelm. Luckily for this group of traders, you can simply trade with default conservative settings.

4. Honest Result

There isn’t much to compare between backtested and forward test results. Profitable closed trades are the only results you can see. There is also the floating profit you will want to take special attention at the forward tests.

Click Here For Robominer Back Test Results

Click Here To View Forward Tests Results

5. Other Features

Parameters to Take Note (Optional)

Balance FactorFIFO (if NFA regulated)

Stealth Mode

Allow Internal Close (Can be enabled to close position before take profit level is met)

EmergencyCloseAllTrades (Only use this during emergency when decided to switch broker or nearing margin call)

6. Weaknesses (If Any)

- At least $10,000 should be Invested

This strategy should be traded with account more than US $10,000. More money invested to trade with this strategy will increases the probability of achieving a annual return of 33% ROI.

- Select Brokers that Offer Micro Lots Only

Choose brokers that allow trading with micro lots.

- Floating Loss

Accumulated positions may reflect a huge floating paper loss. User must be able to withstand paper loss as system is shown to withstand and close them with profits.

- Difficult to Backtest

Generating 1 year backtest took our team more than 1- 2 hours. It takes a lot of computer resources and 1 backtest can only be done at a time.

7. Support

Provide demo testing before you buy. Support consists of forum. Provide quarterly updates.

Summary

We forward tested trading Eur/Chf with this strategy. We choose Eur/Chf instead of Aud/Nzd because Eur/Chf has a lower spreads than Aud/Nzd. This strategy works extremely well for people who have a lump sum and are concerned about taking too much risk and short term volatility in the markets.

According to the owners, they stated that strategy will bring at least 30% or more per annum. Back tests showed the past 3 years brought in at average 30% ROI per annum. If proven true by forward test, these results beats the inflation by a big fat margin and is a very good investment compare to those you find at the banks.

For investors with small start up capital, it will clearly not be as beneficial to use this system. This is because for one to maximise the full potential of this system, users has to use it over the long term and to start with a considerable amount of capital to reap the full rewards.

If used over the long term, system will bring in small and consistent profits with minimal risk.

Rating

7/10

Warren Seah

Update

Update : 30th Nov 2009

Our demo account was disabled by the broker. It is because robominer EA hasn’t placed any trade in the past 30 days. The above data is a new account and a fresh record will be taken from here.

Update 23th Dec 2009

We are looking forward to better results as we allow more time for Robominer to trade on its own.  Trading will stop on Christmas day and resume soon.

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