sPhantom Auto Trader Diskussion

I guess we all try to make use of the money we pay in a way or another, less experienced traders won't even be able to chose the right entries to lay recovery trades, otherwise they would be doing it manually.
The main problem, we use minimum lots in grid trading [even without martingale] to overcome the peak of the swing, and they trade like hell with hundreds of pips each month, but as you said, with Sphantom, people trading 0.1 and 0.2 lots on 1k accounts, and if they traded 0.01 lots, the EA would be useless for 10 pips per 1 or 2 trades.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, that other grid traders are multi-currency, and so your risk is diversified if the EA pays attention to correlation issues, but grid trading one currency carries a lot of risk!

Brendan777 posted: A hint for you newbie SP users, sometimes when facing deep DD, you need to set your own level 3, 4, 5, and etc. for retracements (SP only sets 2 levels, woefully inadequate). That's how I got out of the current mess, and probably the same way Ken did it.

I have become much more proactive in managing SP’s losing trades. I am using a 105 pip stop loss on each trade and I am adding another trade every 30 pips after Sp put its second trade on. I did get stopped out of the first two trades. The second trade did not hit the stop, but the stopreset_pw ea took me out at 80 pips for some reason. I have switched over to the Swiss Army Knife for stop loss management now. I hope it performs better. I was 6 trades deep by the time price turned. It was interesting to watch as Empire Robot took the exact same trade, but it put its first trade on a little after Sp took its second trade. I was 6 deep on Sp and 5 deep on Empire. I was trading 1.67 lots per trade on Sp, so Friday, I got hit with a $3,300 loss. Monday, the remaining 4 trades closed at a $2,785 profit. So I lost 515 bucks on this excursion. Had that second trade not been closed by mistake, I would have made 900 bucks.

Every time you take a trade, you risk a 250 pip loss on one trade and, on a pair of trades, you risk about 470 pips. If you size your trades properly, and carry a reasonable stop loss (proven through the examination of trades, and not just some number pulled out of your ass because it just feels right) you can afford to put on more trades manually, every 30 pips, and have no more exposure than what you have using their default stops on two trades. Now, you can bitch and moan about automation, hands free, blah, blah, blah, but I have never had an EA that I have not had to intervene on at one point or another. Like it or not, this is not growing a garden, its balancing a baseball bat on your nose. I manually compound my trade sizes after every trade, and I will manually adjust every trade that goes south on me. It really is a small price to pay one every couple months.

For the most part, Sp’s trades are in and out pretty quickly. For those occasional ones that don’t, once the second trade opens, I put limit orders another 4 trades deep every 30 pips. That’s’ it. Now you’re in monitoring mode. When price turns, you can close out the trades for a profit and cancel your remaining limit orders.

If you don’t understand trade sizing, you need to. If a 1,000 pip SL scares you more than 100 pip stop loss, then you do not understand trade sizing. Trade sizing brings all Stop Losses into equality. Size your trade and you will not lose any more on a 1,000 pip stop than a 100 pip stop. Sp is still drawn down 4/5ths of their big hit. With proper trade sizing, you would have already broken out to new equity highs since that draw down. You will not make as much as them on a percentage basis, but your returns will be very good and more consistent. It’s the difference between being successful and finding ever new and inventive ways to offer what you bought to the lowest bidder (read bitching).

I cannot stress enough, the importance of running multiple EA’s. While you care about what each account does, you care more about what your portfolio does, and if it’s all in one account, that ain’t good for the portfolio. Last week, even with the $3,300 hit on Sp, I closed the week out with only a 43 dollar loss. Tonight, now that everything has closed on Sp and Empire, along with my other systems, I’m up 6 grand since the market reopened yesterday.

Michigander posted:

Like it or not, this is not growing a garden, its balancing a baseball bat on your nose.

If you don’t understand trade sizing, you need to.

I cannot stress enough, the importance of running multiple EA’s. While you care about what each account does, you care more about what your portfolio does, and if it’s all in one account, that ain’t good for the portfolio.

Well said Ken!!!

The most important statements ever made on MFB!!!

Read it, read it again and make it your mantra. Every EA fails. EA trading is ALL about Diversification, Risk Mitigation and Money Management at a portfolio level.

It is not EVER set and forget.

I cannot stress enough, the importance of running multiple EA’s. While you care about what each account does, you care more about what your portfolio does, and if it’s all in one account, that ain’t good for the portfolio. Last week, even with the $3,300 hit on Sp, I closed the week out with only a 43 dollar loss. Tonight, now that everything has closed on Sp and Empire, along with my other systems, I’m up 6 grand since the market reopened yesterday.

Have u analyzed how they exited last time. before a major event?

Michigander posted:
I cannot stress enough, the importance of running multiple EA’s. While you care about what each account does, you care more about what your portfolio does, and if it’s all in one account, that ain’t good for the portfolio.

very well said!

Updated:14 Hours ago

I am happy that i think everyone have had the possibility to get out from this bad trade with no losses (or slight losses)! I can see that everyone have his strategy to fix the poor MM of this Scrap! But i want to warn the thousands traders who do not own a license of this Scrap, to not buy it: we are making these 'improvement' (everyone in his way) only becasuse we already have this, but 1 thing is sure, this scrap will be not very prfoitable in the long run (a scalper that keep a position for 1 week is a nightmare), and also if will earn pips in the medium term, the risk will be so high that i don't know if it will have a good risk/reward ratio. I run only EA where R/R is good, at least 1.5!
These are only personal opinions and for sure some will not agree!
In the meantime in my bigger real account (i run S-Crappy on a smaller account) in 1 week (the same timer needed by Scrappy to close this basket) 51 trades with + 291.2 pips!
Not bad at all!
Green pips to all!😀

Congrats all!

corre71 posted:t 1 thing is sure, this scrap will be not very profitable in the long run (a scalper that keep a position for 1 week is a nightmare), ]

Not complety defending Sp here, but you do need to pick your battles. While having a trade open this long is infrequent, they do happen. I would encourage everyone to download the trade history in a .csv format, open it in excel and look at what you are trading.

Michigander posted:

corre71 posted:t 1 thing is sure, this scrap will be not very profitable in the long run (a scalper that keep a position for 1 week is a nightmare), ]

Not complety defending Sp here, but you do need to pick your battles. While having a trade open this long is infrequent, they do happen. I would encourage everyone to download the trade history in a .csv format, open it in excel and look at what you are trading.

Dear Ken, i am happy that now we are able to speak in a kind way! I am not involved in any battle, only posting to avoid other people buy this so called 'EA'. I think noone can defend S-Phantom because the vendor disappeared with our money leaving us alone, and everyone deciding how to try to fix this 'EA'!
I appreciate your analytics capabilities, but u must admit that that S-phantom has the risks of a Grid-Martingale Strategy, but not the pips! For the target it has (12 pips) it must be considered a 'Non aggressive scalper' but it's not! As you know, when u run a Grid-martingale Strategy (or other high risk strategies) you have an advantage and a disadvantage: the advantage is that the System generate a lot of pips and, excluding few periods od deep DD, is almost steady in generate profit! The disadvantage is that since the strategy is risky, if u don't want to burn the account and have a safe MM, u must use a small lot size! Do u agree?
Here u have a risky strategy, but not the pips! I have found a scrap on the web of a grid strategy, modifed by me is running on a demo account and made in few more than 2 months more than 1.500 pips! waitng for a DD period and will go live and will send you the link to myfxbook account to check i am not only speaking!
The problem that S-Phantom need time to close a trade has a direct impact on his profitability: as i have showed you in a statement few posts ago i have in the meantime closed + 291 pips, while S-P was struggling in the last trade!
Also, as i have posted before, is not so difficult to reach with the right strategy few pips gains!
Following the link to my real account running from 19/02/2014 my strategy FX Pride! It's a real account and uses a custom start date because on this account, after a good starting with my manul trading on a mine heiken hashi system, i was fooled by the Elliottician strategies of EWI and the Wyckoffian Theory of the VSA scraps! The account was supposed to be closed, but after i decided to use it for my new strategy! As you can see the start is not bad at all! It works very good on EU and on GU is still in testing phase (also if it is in a live account, because i do not rely on BT). Maybe GU strategy will be removed! Soon will be added USDCAD! The strategy is not optimized because since i have a day job i do not have the time! As you can see only this afternoon i have closed 6 profitable trades on Gu and i am on a 20 winning streak!

FX Pride:

https://www.myfxbook.com/members/corre71/activtrades-classic-fx-pride/869744

damn, my trade is still open...

@corre71 I think you're still missing the point here.


It is exactly what it is. A HIGHLY risky HIGHLY leveraged animal.

Nobody is trying to argue that sPhantom is not a very high risk EA. I obtained sPhantom AFTER the last draw down exactly BECAUSE of all the things you continue to complain about. At the same time you started FX Pride.

I margin called on this trade taking out about 60% of the account balance but not before withdrawing the initial deposit immediately the account had doubled the previous week. That means I lost 60% of the PROFIT I had made. I am still up 40% over all in a little over a month with my initial investment 100% protected and only my 40% profit at risk. I won't touch it again now until it has made 150% profit on it's current balance (6 to 8 weeks by current performance) when it will again have doubled the initial deposit amount. Then I will start withdrawing 25% each time it doubles leaving the remaining 25% to compound.

It will margin call again.... I know that for a fact. No argument there. But my investment capital is safe and my first true profit withdrawal will be locked away in a month or two. If you don't blindly cross your fingers and hope, you can make a very good return with this EA.

Ken is using stop losses and hedging to manage the risk when it gets out of control. I adopted a different approach where I have run it with a risk setting of 50 and withdraw capital regularly.

Point is. Yes sPhantom will blow your account if you set and forget. We know.
All EAs I have ever come across will do that if you just set and forget, some quickly, some slowly but eventually they all will.

Point is while you continue to write sPhantom off and complain about it there are those who are using it successfully. Ken has gone to great lengths to assist anybody who cares to listen with developing a method of managing the risk involved.

Try this... Turn up the risk on your EA to the point where it will double your account in a month then let us know when it blows up. At the same time turn the risk on sPhantom down to 5 so it will return 17% in a month and let us know what the results are........

It really is that simple. If you don't have a plan to deal with the draw downs reduce the risk.

Try a risk setting on sPhantom that gives you the same lot sizing as your EA and let me know what you get on a trade by trade basis. I'm guessing with lot sizing equivalent to your EA and sPhantom will get very similar results.

frankv65 posted:
damn, my trade is still open...

This trade will be a winning if no major news, from the view of technical analysis.

frankv65 posted:
damn, my trade is still open...

Mine to buddy. Extremely frustrating when I look at how close it got.

Hi All,

My platform was updated to version build 625 and my sphantom stopped working.

I still can attached EA to the chart but don't see anymore info about connection and account verification.

Does any of you have similar problems with build 625?

Thanks for any feedback and help.

Silverthorn posted:
@corre71 I think you're still missing the point here.


It is exactly what it is. A HIGHLY risky HIGHLY leveraged animal.

Nobody is trying to argue that sPhantom is not a very high risk EA. I obtained sPhantom AFTER the last draw down exactly BECAUSE of all the things you continue to complain about. At the same time you started FX Pride.

I margin called on this trade taking out about 60% of the account balance but not before withdrawing the initial deposit immediately the account had doubled the previous week. That means I lost 60% of the PROFIT I had made. I am still up 40% over all in a little over a month with my initial investment 100% protected and only my 40% profit at risk. I won't touch it again now until it has made 150% profit on it's current balance (6 to 8 weeks by current performance) when it will again have doubled the initial deposit amount. Then I will start withdrawing 25% each time it doubles leaving the remaining 25% to compound.

It will margin call again.... I know that for a fact. No argument there. But my investment capital is safe and my first true profit withdrawal will be locked away in a month or two. If you don't blindly cross your fingers and hope, you can make a very good return with this EA.

Ken is using stop losses and hedging to manage the risk when it gets out of control. I adopted a different approach where I have run it with a risk setting of 50 and withdraw capital regularly.

Point is. Yes sPhantom will blow your account if you set and forget. We know.
All EAs I have ever come across will do that if you just set and forget, some quickly, some slowly but eventually they all will.

Point is while you continue to write sPhantom off and complain about it there are those who are using it successfully. Ken has gone to great lengths to assist anybody who cares to listen with developing a method of managing the risk involved.

Try this... Turn up the risk on your EA to the point where it will double your account in a month then let us know when it blows up. At the same time turn the risk on sPhantom down to 5 so it will return 17% in a month and let us know what the results are........

It really is that simple. If you don't have a plan to deal with the draw downs reduce the risk.

Try a risk setting on sPhantom that gives you the same lot sizing as your EA and let me know what you get on a trade by trade basis. I'm guessing with lot sizing equivalent to your EA and sPhantom will get very similar results.

Silverthorne, we are saying almost the same things! Maybe also for my bad english, u have missed the most important parts of my previous posts! As i have stated many times before, my inly goal is to warn new users on the risk involved on this trategy (S-Phantom website does not do it). Following an extract from thei website:
Welcome to sPhantom Forex Expert Advisor
The new opportunity for your success in the Forex Market

As a group of experienced Forex traders we know that for most of investors even when they have a good plan it's hard to control their emotions and make the right decision at the right time.

Now with help of MQL and MetaTrader 4 we have created an automated system which does all the steps for you so you can easily control your investment without any direct involvement.

We have a group of live analysts, in addition to our advanced market watcher software, who will deliver safe signals to the trader's account. It's completely an automatic process and there is no need for trader involvement, intervention or time commitment.

sPhantom is compatible with all accounts types including ECN or Non ECN accounts. It doesn't use a hedge strategy, so it can be used by all US or Non US clients.

Here is the live real test of sPhantom Expert Advisor.

So, S-Phantom is not what i was supposed to be!

All we know that S-Phantom is a Ganbling Bot: u make a bet that before the next margin call u will have earned some money!
The problem is that u don't know when this event will happen!

Now, please, go to read the websites of other Gambling bots: Forex warrior, Forex cantata anf Grid Me up FX! They clearly states the risks involved in their strategy!

Now, i am not saying that S-Phantom with manual intervention cannot be profitable, i am only remarking excatly what u are also saying, that it is very risky! Also i am adding that for most of the people it will be an account burner, because u know that in thousands people here following this thread not more than 10 will be able to deal with this beast (also if everyone is thinking to be next W.D Gann). I am also dealing with it, but with different approach using it as a night scalper!

As for the profitability, i want to demonstarte with facts that S-Phantom is not a so ggod pips machine: please, read the attachments and u will see that with a crap i have found on the web i have 50% more pips than S-Phantom in the same period (As for the grid strategy, the attchments are 2 because i have started to use it first on an ECN demo account, after on a demo account from the same broker when next i will run it live)!

As for the risk of my strategy i cannot agree that with a similar lot size i will have the same risk of S-Phantom! The account is public and u can see that the monthly (read good, monthly not yearly) gain is 4 time bigger of the maximum DD! I am not saying that for sure will be profitable for the end of the year (noone can predict the future), but the strategy, and not only the MM, is more stable (it has a logic that does not wait always for the S/L or the T/P to be hit to get out of a trade). Also the EA runs 24H/day with no manual intervention and also do not need to be switched OFF for major news!

P.S: now i am on 26 winning streak and + 666 pips in 6 weeks (also in my tests in demo on USDCAd in 1 month i had not 1 single loss)!

So, i am only saying that only few people can manually deal with S-Phantom (most of the people will have even worster results)! And also that everyone think to be Robert Prechter!

Again green pips to all and thanks for ur attention (and excuses for my bad english)!!!!😀

I'm not even going to try any more. Forget pips. You can't spend pips. You need money to buy things. Stop focusing on pips and start focusing on your equity and return on investment. You'll make a lot more money that way and you can spend that stuff!!

Does this make sense.

What would you rather have

1 trade of 1 lot with 10 pips profit for a total gain of 10 pips
10 trades with .01 lots with 10 pips profit for a total gain of 100 pips

I'll take the 10 pips thanks.

tsmorek posted:
Hi All,

My platform was updated to version build 625 and my sphantom stopped working.

I still can attached EA to the chart but don't see anymore info about connection and account verification.

Does any of you have similar problems with build 625?

Thanks for any feedback and help.

You didn't drop it on a chart with a white background did you? The text is set to white and only shows on a dark background.

Silverthorn posted:
I'm not even going to try any more. Forget pips. You can't spend pips. You need money to buy things. Stop focusing on pips and start focusing on your equity and return on investment. You'll make a lot more money that way and you can spend that stuff!!

Does this make sense.

What would you rather have

1 trade of 1 lot with 10 pips profit for a total gain of 10 pips
10 trades with .01 lots with 10 pips profit for a total gain of 100 pips

I'll take the 10 pips thanks.

My friend, be sure i know i need money to buy stuff, i am 43 yo and not living of air!!
Lot size must be commisured to the balance to have a safe MM!And this is not my opinion! So u can trade 1 full lot if u have enough balance, if not u will loose ur money, and u know! Anyway, the world is nice because everyone is free to take his decisions! Only time will say who is right! In the meantime i am showing publicly a real account with full stats, and i think are not so bad! Not sure it will be so nice forever, but at least now i am showing some facts!😁 Soon more accounts will be added (most with real money)! Do u agree? I do not see on ur page no one sytem! Pls, show us ur stats and let see ur equity curve! So ur words will be reinforced by facts!