For those of you not familiar with The Forex Autopilot System, this is a forex trading software with the ability to analyze the market trends and place trade orders all on its own.
This software is usually categorized as an expert advisor, since this software not only renders advise but instead runs the trading operation, I like to think of it more like a virtual trader rather than an expert advisor. Anyway, these are technicalities which are not really that important, as long as you get an idea of what the Forex Autopilot System is about.
Now, the idea of these few lines is to share with you a personal experience using the software, so whether you already have it or you are about to get it, I invite you to try a couple of new setting I have been using to trade with it, which has delivered better results for me.
Here the story, and why I am making this suggestion:
When I first downloaded the Forex Autopilot System, I did what anyone else would do, I opened a demo account and I started testing the software. At that time, just by chance I decided to fund the demo account with $3,000 of paper money and put the system to work.
When configuring the system, I carefully followed the instructions in order to set it up correctly. Among the parameters you are asked to set are the lot size and the maximum number of orders.
These two parameters limit, on one hand, the value per pip of your trades (for example: if you set the lot size to 0.1, then each point of variation -pip- in the market will translate into 1 dollar of profit or loss) and number of trade orders that you will allow the software to place simultaneously.
These settings are important because you must trade paying attention to the size of your account, and therefore, the margin you have to manage your trades safely. This is probably the single most important factor to consider when trading within the forex market.
The creators of the software advise you to use a 0.1 lot size ($1 per pip) and a maximum of 1 trade order at a time, as this is deemed by them as the safest approach. However, in my opinion, those setting will not always be the safest approach, as that will depend of the amount of money you are investing.
Anyway, at that point those were the settings I started using in my paper money account, but after a few days using the system with great results, I realized that at $1 per pip and using a $3,000 margin, I could take almost 3,000 points of variation before having my trade closed due to stop out, so this meant that I had a very comfortable margin.
I then figured, why not set the Forex Autopilot System to open a maximum of 3 trade orders at a time, as this will still allow for a safe margin -$1,000 per trade-, and then see what happens?
I thought this would be a good idea because I had seen that the software rarely needed more than a $200-$300 margin before closing a trades for a profit, so with a 1,000 points of variation margin per trade and 3 trades at a time, I would be able to pull more profits while still playing it safe.
The result: simply astonishing, because when I first started at 1 trade at a time the Forex Autopilot was placing 1-3 winning trades per days depending on the market conditions, so you can imagine, with the limit of trade orders set to 3, it began to place 3-9 trade orders daily, which in turn grew my paper money from $3,000 to $6,154 in just over two weeks. And again, the software rarely used more than a $200-$300 margin in order to close each trade for a profit.
So, when I switched to real money, I followed the same pattern, that is, I set the Forex Autopilot System to trade a maximum of 3 orders at a time, but -and this is important- since I did not start with $3,000 but with $500, I changed the lot size from 0.1 ($1 per pip) to 0.01 (10 cents per pip). That way I was giving the software a over a 1,000 point of variation margin to place each trade order safely, allowing my account to grow proportionally without the risk of blowing it due to a lack of margin.
This approach accelerated my performance while keeping me away from loss. Therefore, I would advise anyone to tweak a little bit these settings, taking into consideration the amount of money you are investing, so if you are starting small, maybe with $300, set the lot size at 0.01, and no more that 3 trades at a time; if you are starting with $1,500, then you could set the lot size to 0.05 and no more than 3 trades at a time.
Using a small lot size with a higher number of trades at a time, is also a good way to split your risk and increase the chances of growing your account, because the Forex Autopilot may get it wrong at times, and if you have it set to place only 1 trade order then you could spend days waiting for it to close it while you are probably losing opportunities for good trades, whereas if you allow the system to place several orders at a time -always with a safe margin-, maybe it will place a bad trade that will get stuck for a day or longer, but in the meantime the Forex Autopilot will remain placing winning trades and growing your account while you wait for the that bad trade to be closed.
Check this strategy on your demo account first and see for yourself how it can help the little robot perform better while keeping your money safer.