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Greetings. I’ve been using the Forex Autopilot expert advisor for quite some time now – actually ever since it was released on the market – but I was always a worried about trading with it using dealing desk brokers. Maybe you’ve had the same concern as me; the requotes, the stop loss hunting, the conflict of interest, etc. That’s why ever since I started testing MetaTrader 4 (MT4) based expert advisors such as forex autopilot I always wished there was an easy way to run them on an ECN platform.
Up until recently due to increased competition among forex brokers one could not even dream of the possibility. Thankfully today there are some brokers that offer ECN powered MT4 platform accounts. If my memory serves me correctly the following forex brokers will give you this capability: ATC Brokers, FastBrokers, and MB Trading. However, to my knowledge out of all these three only MB Trading offer a non-bridged MetaTrader 4 trading platform. The other brokers employ special plugin software that routes all trades taken on the MT4 platform to some other ECN backend platform. According to MB Trading their platform is a more “native” MT4 ECN solution in the sense that they’ve actually modified the MT4 software itself to make it work in an ECN trading environment – MT4 was originally designed with a trading desk in mind. What they’ve essentially done is remove the dealing desk functionality out of the MT4 platform and MT4 server (backend stuff).
*Please bear in mind that as I type this MB Trading MT4 platform is not officially available to the public – it is still in the testing stage – but an MB Trading official told me they plan to release it soon (I know it’s vague, but I’m sorry I can’t give you an exact date and apparently neither can they)*
With this in mind I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see how well a popular expert advisor such as the forex autopilot robot works on an ECN platform. I chose forex autopilot for this test because it is a scalper EA that I thought would work with MB Trading’s highly active price feed (it’s really fast moving compared to most dealing desk brokers I’ve dealt with). So thus came to be this very post you’re reading. I started running forex autopilot on my MB Trading MT4 account February 02, 2009 and so far the performance has been quite good.
Checkout my performance statement below (pdf format):
So far I am convinced that Forex Autopilot can work just fine in an ECN environment. It handles 5 digit brokers just fine (MB Trading happens to use 5 digits) and during its operation I haven’t noticed any odd behavior.
In case you are curious I used the following CORE forex autopilot settings:
LotRiskReductor 1.5
MaxOrders 1
MaxLots 100
StopTime 0
aaa & bbb – default
TakeProfit 50 (5 pips! – don’t forget with 5 digit brokers you have to add an extra 0)
StopLoss 3000 (300 pips – by default stop loss is set to 0 but I don’t think it is wise to trade without one)
PeriodMA 21 (default is 100 but I find 21 to be better)
The rest of the settings are all default.
That about does it for this post. I will make an announcement when MB Trading opens their MT4 platform to the public, but until then I advise you to wait patiently – I’m sure the wait will be worthwhile.
If you wish to know more about Forex Autopilot see this link. If you wish to chat with other forex autopilot users or are looking for optimized settings checkout the forex autopilot forum at:
http://www.forexautopilotforum.com
Cheers,
Alan
http://alansforexblog.com
Hi,
I heard that there is an advanced system based on Forex Autopilot, and that is fapwinner. For dealing deal brokers, we can add an algorithm(which is the stealth mode)to the EA, so that the brokers can’t cheat by hunting the stop loss. Anyway, seems like you have some good results with Forex Autopilot. Good job. 🙂
Regards,
Dan (CEO of FTP)
Yeah I’m aware of the stealth features and of the fapwinner solutions..but I haven’t really looked into it to be honest. As far as stop hunting if you set your SL high enough it makes it that much harder for them to hunt it without it looking REALLY obvious…If you’re going to go with a dealing desk broker it’s best to stick to reputable ones that are based in a good jurisdiction AND are well regulated…
nice report:-)
being a noob – which 2 or 3 brokers would you say live up to being reputable according to your answer above…?
Well since MB Trading is not live with their MT4 platform I’d say you’re going to have to take your chances with a dealing desk broker. Some of the more reputable ones are FXCM, FXDD, and IBFX.
Or you can give these guys a try:
http://www.fastbrokers.com/index.php?VA001
They offer an ECN + MT4 solution, BUT only for accounts $10,000 and up.
For smaller accounts they forward you to FXDD.
Hi Alan,
I was wondering – what gmtoffset would you set if scalping with fapt on this broker – I had terrible results with the scalper pairs on MB MT4 demo:-(
Thanks!
This is NOT fapturbo that I was using and thus there is no need to set any GMT setting. I haven’t tried fapturbo on mb mt4 demo yet myself.
Once again, this is the original (classic) forex autopilot!
But as for setting a GMT setting just use the “market watch” time. Subtract or add from the official GMT time and you will get the proper GMT setting (ie..-5 -2, 0, etc).