Scientific method – Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence.
In other words, you develop and theory and using the scientific method you rigorously test the theory in an attempt to prove it valid.
Now let’s talk about the Forex Robot World Cup.
Heard of it?
In case you haven’t this is what the people behind the Forex Robot World Cup have to say:
“Creating the first truly professional, automated Forex trading competition that would yield the world’s best functioning Expert Advisor (EA) driven by realistic parameters in live market conditions, and allowing Forex traders all over the world to use these Forex robots in their personal trading.”
This is what I have to say:
They have created a way to scam gullible and lazy Forex newbies into buying a poorly tested wonder robot (EA) for a staggering $995.
They start off by offering $150K in prizes to entice programmers to develop EA’s and enter them into the competition. When they have a few hundred EA’s they launch the competition and for 2 months they test the EA’s on a $1k account. At the end of this two month period whichever EA ends up with the biggest percentage profit is the winner.
What an absolute joke.
Lets get back to the scientific method. The scientific method has been used for hundreds of years to test hypotheses and acquire new knowledge. The scientific method calls for rigorous testing of a hypothesis before the hypothesis can be proven valid. For example, any new drug that is developed has to go through years of rigorous testing to make sure it works and it is safe to go on the public market.
So in the case of an EA. You have a hypothesis (an automated trading method), now to test the hypothesis you turn the method into an EA and subject it to rigorous testing. This is what the Forex World Championship claims to do. However, how rigorous can 2 months of testing be? With 350 EA’s entered into the competition it is highly likely that 1 would have a lucky streak for 2 months. 2 months of testing just isn’t enough to conclude that an EA is profitable.
The problem is market conditions often change. Just because it worked for 2 months it doesn’t mean it will work the next 3 years. The testing of the EA is not rigorous at all, 2 months of testing does not give you enough data to conclude an EA is profitable. You need at the very least 1 year of forward tested data. The problem is no EA will make consistent profit for a year. This is because EA’s do not work there is no easy road to Forex for lazy losers.
The Forex Robot World Championship is really just a mass scale scam. They offer prize money to entice hundreds of programmers to enter the competition. Then they set a 2 month limit hoping that some robot will have a decent enough win streak (With 350 robots it is likely that at least one of them will make a decent return). At the end of the competition they pick whichever random robot got luckiest in the two months and now they have a huge cash cow. They sell the robot at $995 a piece to 2-3k traders and bag a few million dollars. Sure they have to pay out $150k in cash prizes. So they spend $150k to make $2.5 million.
As if that is not enough there is something else. The programmer who codes the robot is made to sign a contract before entering it into the competition. They basically sign away rights to their robot for 6 months after the end of the competition. So basically this means that the Forex Robot World Championship takes ownership of the winning robot and now they can charge whatever they want for it. The creator doesn’t get a piece of the action he only gets the $100k prize money.
It is a perfect scam. They get rich off of somebody else’s work. They invest $150k and get millions of dollars in return.
The absolute worst thing is that Forex newbies gobble it up. This is usually the silly lazy wannabe traders who don’t want to put any work in to actually learn to trade.
Forex Robot World Championship is a joke and I recommend that you don’t buy anything from them.
wolf7050
Ouch… is the kindest way of saying anything going up a one way street!!…They( the schemers) F…. us any way they can!! Learn to trade the REAL way… Dude…It is a hard lesson to learn!! And can’t be strsse enough…God bless us all…Thanks Nick…once again. As always…Buyer beware,
wolf7050
One other thing…after being taken by “bots” for a year I came across Nick B…Dude you saved my financial life. Your on the other side of the world…words can’t express the gratitude I feel about you and your site. You’ve effective AT LEAST a dozen people I’ve referred your site to not to mention…who THEY’VE referd your site to…..Your a one man Army of many recruits….Keep up the good work….your friend always….Wolf
Adam
Nick, an amazing insight into the automated World of Forex!
Thank you for being honest and forthright in wanting to help new traders become successful, education comes in many forms!
Juicyt
I agree totally with you Nick about the scam of a competition. But don’t be fooled, they probably tested those EA’s longer than most most pharmaceutical companies test their latest and greatest drugs. But that is a whole new subject.
I am quoting from memory here, but, I believe the guy that came in second only did because he had 50% of his account on the line and won the last trade he was in to throw his stats up. If wrong however, he would have gone bust. Scientific proof of a great system right there.
dallia
This is a version of my coin tossing Genius contest. Here was my scheme as you Brits say but we Yanks mean a scam. Fill a stadium with 50K or more people. Pack them in. Now pair everyone off and have one person guess heads or tails on a coin. The winners immediately compete against each other for the next round. At the end you wind up with one guy who beat 49,999 people. We would then put him on tour as the Coin Tossing Genius who beat 49,999 people to gain the World Coin Tossing Championship. Put them on Oprah, Good Morning America etc. have them testify about how their faith in God/Sicientology/Yogurt made him a winner. Followed by movie deals and an authorized biography ‘The Biggest Tosser’ — The Most Important Wager Since Pascal! Then pray the guy doesn’t scratch is ass in public and doesn’t like little kids in the wrong way — roasted.
Russ
If there is a way to develop a robot which trades automatically, it can be tested using historical data over a period of 10 years or so. If there is a robot out there that works consistently on historical data, we would know about it. They simply are not adaptable. Perhaps one day there will be one, but I doubt it is here yet and if it is possible to develop one, it will probably trade in the long term and 2 months just won’t be enough.
noob4ever
All true, Nick. And also don’t forget that the scientific method also requires a level of repeatablility, a sort of an ‘any fool could do it’ clause. In the case of general relativity, could people other than Einstein make observations that meet the parameters of a relatavistic model at different times throughout history. The answer has been a resounding ‘yes’. So, could any of us get ‘similar’ results with these robots in a variety of market conditions. I seriously doubt it. For one thing, robot parameters aside, how many market and trader variables/conditions can be controlled to satisfactorily test the robot in a truly ‘scientific’ fashion? And yet, this is precisely what must be done for a truly ‘scientific’ test. So, yeah, this is perhaps a good show and definitely a royal scam.
kibed83
Thanks Nick.
Why give away the goose that lays golden eggs?
In short, the forex automatic trading robot is an alluring, great idea that promises a lot, but delivers little due to the random nature of price action in the financial markets. If in spite of all the information in the above article you still have confidence that some of the robots out there deliver the incredible returns promised by their creators, consider the obvious. If the owners of these systems have achieved the Holy Grail of trading, why would they peddle it to you online for meager sums? They would not even need to advertise them, as financial institutions all over the world would compete with each other to acquire these products from them. Instead, large firms and broker ignore the robots and creators. Why won’t you do the same?
Duncs
A right old can of worms to be sure
rsfx
Finding the perfect EA is just another grail trail that ends nowhere, I know because I spent 3 years stupidly searching for it. Systems & EA’s waste of bloody time and a money spinner for those who come up with these ‘Account busting’ EA’s. They really do bust your account, but not in the way that that the desperate or novice trader thinks. Want quick money – BUY A LOTTERY TICKET – there’s more chance of success. LEARN TO TRADE. Anyway, the satisfaction is SOOOO much better when you see your own hard work paying off. COME ON MANUALS!
Visulube
Interesting article Nick.
Tom
It has all been said in the article and the comments. A legal way to scam!
vince
Ask yourself this:
If it worked, doubling your account every month, why is the programmer entering a competition for a poultry sum of 150k? He could make 100’s thousands a week easily.
Art
I have a robot technique that wins 80% of the time, its called my brain. & the only robot that can imitate my robot will take years of analyzing my brain as I trade & adapt to changes.
Therefore the robot will be learning constantly without being able to have a complete code to trade like my brain because my brain grows in knowledge on continuos basis.
That was deep. Hahahaha some of us think of ways to make money off other people but I make money of the forex market.
Cyclone Steve
Hey Nick. Great article. Shows that people will get sucked into anything where they can make money by doing nothing. All you newbies, use your brains and make it work. Nick’s system is really good if you can grasp onto it. (I’ve grown my live account by 4% in 6 weeks after learning his method.) Thanks for your insights into this rubbish that people sell as a scam.
Cyclone Steve
robbo
Nice one. The inevitable flow of morons will justify their stupidity, unfortunately.
spookie94
Sad thing is that most of us, either in the beginning or during a loosing streak, would have given them a second look if not pull out our credit card. Cheers to us who have seen the light and hope that others will open their eyes.
Russ
Sadly spookie94, at the end of a loosing streak called the GFC I paid what I thought was my lost $10K for an automated system origination in Australia (where I live) and lost a further $10K trying to get it to work. It had been profitable for the previous 3 months and I was, and remain, a systems trader. The systems I was trading worked well on CFD’s until the GFC so I was confident that was the way to go in Fx (which it is). I have now spent 18 months trying to make and adapt systems which work for me on Fx. Fx seems a very stable thing to trade. There is no market risk as there is in equities which I love about it but it is a very difficult thing to trade so far. The light was a very expensive thing for me, as is the Holy Grail
Skipw
A year or so there used be some infomercial on TV here in the United States that tried to sell you on some computer software program that would tell you when to enter and exit a Forex trade. I’m sure they made tons of money before regulators shut them down because of all the customer complaints.