How to manage the monthly EAs?

[Samuel Jackson]

Hey Tanya,

Yeah good recap.

For selecting the EAs we are doing a couple of things when we trade them on demo. First is we are actually applying a final filter that removes strategies that MAY have been overfit and also then trying to catch the EAs in their profitable phase.

I think it’s important to wait the full month personally before moving anything onto mock demo with over 10 trades and good performance, also I like a week as a shorter filter too.

For the short filter I am happy with a few trades and a profit factor of 1.1. For the longer filter I like to see more trades and a profit factor of 1.1 along with a drawdown value that aligns with what was shown in the backtest.

A longer filter would also be smart in my opinion (say 3 months) but it’s a balance between managing all the accounts also so I like 1 month and 1 week for simplicity.

I would suggest that you think of a few things you would like to try and then have three mock demo accounts and compare the results over a few months to see what works best (remember and record everything in a spreadsheet).

Of course you have to find the balance with time and effort that works for you. I don’t have a lot of free time so I adjust my systems to suit.

[Tanya Jay]

Hey Samuel,

– So, you use both short filter (1 week) and long filter (1-3 months) to pick the winning EAs. My question is, isn’t 1 week filter too short, let’s say for H1? Maybe 1 week is good for M5 and M15, but not for H1 and H4 due to the number of trades?

– Speaking of time and effort, I myself have a lot of free time every day, however, I don’t want to trade M1 or M5 if the results aren’t as consistent as higher TF (maybe because of the news or other factors). I noticed on my demo account that when I picked M1 and M5 using 1 week and 1 month filters and put them on a live mock account, they didn’t perform as well as the previous week. I’m not sure if it’s because the market condition changes too fast or something else.

– Another question I have is that you mentioned it’s ideal to run a full month on a demo before moving the winners to a live account. After 1 month, do you run Reactor to generate complete new EAs (let’s say 10 portfolios with 30 EAs each)? OR do you optimize the parameters of the previous month’s EAs?

– How often do you generate new EAs using Reactor?

– Just curious, what is FSB for? When to use them? Do I REALLY need FSB when I already have Expert Advistor Studio? How do we put both of them into use and benefit each other?

[Samuel Jackson]

Hey Tanya,

Good question re timeframe. It would depend on number of trades really, if your H1 is making 3 trades in a week on average then it’s fine but like you say if it’s only making 1 or two then two weeks would more appropriate for H1.

I tend to stay away from M5 and M1 personally, the lower timeframe the more of an impact noise is gonna have which is totally unpredictable so I stick to M15 and H1 mostly (H4 and Daily also).

For how often to add new EAs it would depend on how many on your demo account are still trading well generally (ie have a profit factor of 1.1 over the complete time on demo would be good ones to keep). In do tend to just put a complete new set of EAs up once a month but it’s not the only way.

Do you have FSB also? It is great but you don’t need it. In my opinion it’s best when you have a particular trading strategy that you are trying to create. Both EA studio and FSB pro have their strengths and weaknesses but I wouldn’t be overly concerned about rushing to learn FSB pro unless you want to do something that you can’t in EA studio.

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