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A Case Against Automated Forex Traders

By DailyForex.com Team
The DailyForex.com team is comprised of analysts and researchers from around the world who watch the market throughout the day to provide you with unique perspectives and helpful analysis that can help improve your Forex trading.

One of the unique parts of the Forex trading world is the fact that it's most common trading platform was built with the EA, or expert advisor in mind. With a basic programming language built in, it is possible to build auto trading programs which allow the trader to go on about their lives while the platform executes trades for them.

The one thing that all automated Forex traders have in common is that they are based on hard coded mathematics. While proponents of this kind of trading will cite the various advantages, they all have serious flaws in their ability to adjust and react to the markets.

For example, the element of trading psychology is taken out of the equation is you are using an automated program. In fact, this is the number one reason people buy these programs in my experience. While this is in fact true, it doesn't take into account the psychology of the trader when the program takes serious draw downs. It also doesn't take into account the trader's psychology when the market conditions change and the system doesn't understand that. (A common flaw in the realm of systems)

Speaking of not understanding changing conditions, there is a well-known system that absolutely imploded a few years ago when the financial crisis hit. The idea of the system was that every time one of the "?carry trade" pairs fell, in other words all of the XXX/JPY pairs, it was simply a buying opportunity. While this was true for a couple of years, once the markets finally fell for good – the system simply kept buying more and more, and eventually blew up any account it was trading.

Another major problem I have with automated trading systems is that they aren't aware of the news. While I am not a news trader, I certainly don't place a trade 5 minutes before the Non-Farm Payroll report! The hard-coded system out there doesn't know any better, and if they get a signal at that time, you will be in the market. Unfortunately, those time periods are very volatile, and you never know what you are about to deal with.

Most importantly, I find that if you are focusing on the profits only – as the very idea of auto trading suggests, you simply don't want to learn about the markets. Not understanding the markets is akin to being an uninformed investor. Successful Forex trading demands hard work and forethought, and having someone else program a "?Get rich quick" program won't likely yield the desired results.

DailyForex.com Team
About DailyForex.com Team
The DailyForex.com team is comprised of analysts and researchers from around the world who watch the market throughout the day to provide you with unique perspectives and helpful analysis that can help improve your Forex trading.
 

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