FAP Turbo Settings Update

UPDATE:
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Many of you know that I have been following the much hyped FAP Turbo Expert Adviser – and that at one point I have even recommended this system (and I still do with some caveats). I will skip the formalities and jump right to the punch so to speak regarding FAP Turbo developments and setting recommendations.  I even have special “FAP Turbo Stop Loss Override” expert adviser that I have coded/written myself that I will be giving FX Robot Man readers for Free!

Much has been happening with regard to FAP Turbo as of late. One major thing was that the FAP developers created as Forum for their clients, so FAP Turbo users from all over the world have been discussing improvements, problems, solutions, observations, broker recommendations and so on. These discussions are yielding quite a bit of information – and perhaps too much information for the casual user. Here is a summary of the discussion I have been following:

Brokers and Pip Spreads

In the past few weeks ODL Securities has shutdown FAP Turbo users – they simply refuse to support a scalping EA on their platform. This is bad news for FAP Turbo users but unfortunately it comes with the territory in the Forex world.

IBFX continues to support FAP users, but I highly recommended that FAP users do not trade the GBPCHF on IBFX. On my live account I have witnessed spreads on the order of 30 pips – which is simply untenable for a scalping EA. If you still insist on trading GBPCHF, please do yourself a favor and keep the risk less than 3% and set “Scalper_OneTrade=1.”

Although alot of different brokers are being discussed, many of them are not CFTC regulated, and I simply don’t think it is worth switching brokers just to trade one EA in my portfolio of multiple EAs. I have had a pretty good experience with IBFX thus far so I will continue with them for my accounts under $3500.

ECN brokers. If you can meet the minimum account size of the MT4 supporting ECN brokers such as ATCBrokers (an introducing broker for HotSpotFX), and also FXCM – then it is probably worth considering them for your main broker. ATCBrokers specifically says that they allow scalping, so no worries about that. We haven’t been able to pin down the spreads just yet, but I am assuming they can’t be worse than IBFX ODL etc. and are probably better.

Before you open an account, be sure to check that they will allow “hedging” on the MT4 accounts (so you can open buy and sell orders on the same pair at the same time).

Personally, I would like to see the FAP Turbo developers modify FAP Turbo so that it can be ported/bridged to Oanda using a platform such as FxSpyder. Oanda has some of the best spreads in the business, and they even publish their spread history by time of day right on their website. Again, I would love to trade FAP on Oanda!

Spreads, Volatility and the Holidays

The main problem experience by FAP Turbo users has been issues with untenable spreads. I notice this mostly on GBPCHF, but the other pairs as well. This can be a big problem because trades that would have closed profitably on a demo account with a fixed spread, do not close on the live accounts and can potentially get stopped out (which is another issue altogether). I don’t really see this issue going away, but there are some things you can do to deal with it.

Be aware though that the financial markets are very volatile right now anyway due to economic conditions, and that the Holiday season is historically even more volatile and has less liquidty. For the love of all that is good, just take a break and spend some time with family. Turn your trading off until after New Years, kiss a baby (preferably not a strangers baby), and simply enjoy the holiday. The pips will still be there when you come back.

Now, how to deal with the spreads…

First, avoid trading GBPCHF – or at least use low risks and set Scalper_OneTrade =1;

Second, consider turning on OneTrade for all scalping pairs. The reason I suggest this is because it may take longer for a trade to close out a profit than it does in a demo account with a fixed spread.  If you have to stay in a trade longer, that give you more opportunity to be stuck in a trade during an Asian break-out, and the stops for the Scalper strategy are not tight enough in my opinion.

Some of you may have experience a large negative trade in the EURGBP or USDCAD last week that pretty much wiped out 20 trades worth of scalper profits. OneTrade=1 would likely have prevented this.

Third, consider decreasing your risks, especially until after New Years. At one point I had my risks as high as 25% on FAP, but now I am trading with risks of 5% or less and OneTrade = 1 for all pairs.

Finally, set the risk for the EURGBP to about 50% less than your other pairs. The reason for this is that the EURGBP has a tick value of about $14.85, whereas the other pairs are at $9.15 or less. This means that one pip of EURGBP is worth 62% more in dollar terms. Ideally the FAP moneymanagement would correct for this, but I am not sure that it really is. And, even if it is, because the stops are so wide, and because it is a scalping strategy it doesn’t seem to factor into the lot size calculation in a significant way.

In order for all of the scalping pairs to be on equal ground dollar for dollar you should consider cutting the EURGBP risk by 40-50% compared to the other pairs. i.e if you trade EURCHF at 5% risk, try setting EURGBP to only 2.5% risk.

Scalper_TradeFriday = false

I read one blog recently that advocated setting “Scalper_TradeFriday = true”. I beg you not to do this. The last thing you want to do is expose yourself to an open scalp trade while the market is closed for the weekend. Under no circumstances should you be setting this variable to “true” and I even think the developers should remove this option from the user definable settings.

FAP Scalp Stop Override Expert Adviser

I have spent some time programming a little expert adviser for those of you that are frustrated about the stop loss situation with FAP Turbo. Basically all that it does is allow you to define the maximum loss in pips that you are willing to accept on a FAP Turbo Scalp trade. The default value is 35 pips. Thus, instead of watching a scalp trade go to -100 pips before FAP actually closes the trade, adding “FAP Scalp Stop Override” to your chart would have closed the trade at -35 pips.

Obviously this expert adviser is in the preliminary beta stage of development, so all of the necessary disclaimers about risk of loss, profit, functioning, informational purposes only etc. all apply here. But, with that caveat I believe it works pretty much as intended, but you should definetely only use this on a demo account until we can confirm that it is functioning properly. It operates in “stealth” mode and will not change the order stops placed by Fap Turbo. Instead – it just monitors the trade and closes when the defined loss is hit.

You can download this HERE.

I don’t have any documentation for this just yet, but I think the settings are pretty much self explanatory. One thing that you need to check is that the Symbols in the Stop Override match the way your broker quotes the symbols. IBFX Mini accounts add a “m” to the end of each symbols so instead of “EURGBP” you would need to use “EURGBPm”. Just open up a separate chart and attach the expert. Adjust the settings to your preferences. This only needs to be attached to one chart as it will monitor all open trades and pick out the FAP Scalp trades. Be sure to match the magic number settings in your FAP Turbo to the MagicNumber settings in the “Stop Override” settings.

As always, let me know if you have questions or comments. Feel free to make suggestions about future reviews if there is an Expert Adviser that you would like me to review or provide coverage on.

-Ben

FAP Turbo Settings: Options Request

After observing how the FAP Turbo Scalper strategy works – and it does indeed work (made my live account 25% last week) – I think that this strategy could be much more powerful with a few more options added to the scalper settings.

I sent the following request to the FAP Turbo developers through their new members forum:

Because of the spread issues on live accounts, there are a couple of setting options I would like to see be made available on the Scalper Strategy.

Currently there is a setting called “Scalper_OneTrade” that when set =1 only lets that chart place one trade per session. I think this is a useful setting, but the concept could be much more powerful…

Instead of “Scalper_OneTrade” here is what I would like to see:

Scalper_TradeLimit = X    —>Allow us to choose the number of scalper trades to make per session
Scalper_Trade1Risk = 20  —>Risk level for the first placed trade
Scalper_Trade2Risk = 10  —>Risk level for the second placed trade
Scalper_Trade3More = 5  —->Risk level for trades 3 or more

If we can customize the number of total trades as well as reduce the risks for trades made later in the window (which seem to be the ones that turn into losers) – I think we can have much more power in making profits without losing them all on one late trade that missed the exit due to a wide spread.

We’ll have to wait and see what comes of it, but I am hopeful.

In my next FAP Turbo update I plan to discuss potential broker issues. I am still doing the research on this one. My IBFX live account does “okay” but spreads have been getting pretty wide during the pre-Asian sessions which is when FAP Turbo Scalper works its magic. I’ll keep you posted….

-Ben

FAP Turbo Settings

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As it must be clear by now – I am a pretty big fan of FAP Turbo. I was pretty skeptical at first because of the marketing hype, but this system has really proven itself to me. I started writing about FAP Turbo back on 11/26 after I purchased it for $97 to demo test, and at the time I really wasn’t sure what would come of it. Usually after some demo testing I usually ask for my money back, but with FAP Turbo, it is paying for itself over and over (especially now that they raised the price to $149, and now say they will raise it to $399).

You can view the account statements of two separate demo accounts running FAP Turbo with the default settings:

1. FAP TURBO InterbankFX Live Demo Statement - NOTE: Restarted 12/1 due to crash
   
2. I discontinued the MIG account…
   

All of that being said I think their are some recommendations I would make about some minor FAP Turbo Settings changes that you may want to consider. I already blogged about some initial performance results on 12/05 and discussed some considerations about the EUR/USD.

With the newest version of FAP Turbo – version 22 – they have already changed some of the default settings. I think these changes were made in response to the current market conditions surrounding the EUR/USD.

Here are the changes that I noticed in new version 22 versus old version 16:

1. Increased default risk on the Scalper Strategy from 1.5% to 5%. This shows their confidence in the scalper strategy.
2. On the EUR/USD Long Term Strategy they decreased the MaxOrders from 5 orders down to 2 orders. This shows the difficulty of the current EUR/USD market.

I think both of these changes a very welcomed. And are a move in the right direction, but there is at least one more setting change I believe you should consider.

Scalper_OneTrade = 1

If every broker had fixed spreads of 2-5 pips all the time, then I think this would not be necessary, but I have noticed that with my broker, this is not the case. Even when FAP Turbo is right about a trade, the spread can prevent it from closing out at a profit which leaves you exposed to reversal risk.

The Scalper Strategy does have something called a “SimpleHeightFilter” that blocks trading if the market is too volatile – but that doesn’t get you out of the trade if the market become volatile after you already entered.

So, for Scalp Strategy on GBPCHF, USDCAD, and EURGBP you may want to consider setting Scalper_OneTrade =1 if you have wide spreads during pre-Asian trading. The first scalp trade of the trading time for FAP Turbo seems to “always” be a good one, but sometimes the second and third trades make me nervous on the pairs mentioned above. EURCHF seems to do okay, but I feel more comfortable just doing OneTrade per day for the other three. With that, I also feel more comfortable pumping the risk up on those OneTrade pairs to the 10-25% range (but don’t take on more risk than you are comfortable with).

Price Going to $399

The last thing I want to mention is that I recieved word from the Creators of FAP Turbo that they may increase the price AGAIN. They already increased in from $97 to $149. Now they think they can get $399. Apparently the massive response to this system has forced them to hire more support staff etc. and so they are going to increase the price. Here is the quote straight from the email I got:

Please don’t forget to subscribe to FX Robot Man email updates through FeedBurner. I only write something about once a week so no need to worry about me sending you a bunch of email.

a.) FAPTURBO FORUM!

Currently programmers are working hard to get a forum up that is accessible for FAPTURBO buyers only so that people that are already set up and making good gains can help other people that still struggle with the settings.

b.) FAPTURBO POSSIBLE PRICE INCREASE TO 399 USD

We are totally overworked and we are thinking about increasing the pricing of Fapturbo to 399 usd.. just to limit the purchases.. please understand we do not want to close anybody out from this opportunity but the price increase to 19 usd did not help .. as people realize how good the robot works once the settings are in place word of mouth drove even more to our site..

c.) MORE SUPPORT

We hired more support staff that is undergoing training

d.) UNLIMITED DEMO ACTIVATIONS

Now you can activate an unlimited number of demo accounts Heres the Video Link:

–> NEW VIDEO: How to activate fapturbo properly
http://fapturbo.com/activation.htm

e.) MENTORING SESSIONS TWICE A MONTH

Until Next Time…

-FX Robot Man

FAP Turbo Reviews: Performance Update

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There has been much said about FAP Turbo in the last two weeks or so – including my “first impressions” review post here. In some FAP Turbo Reviews I have heard some people say “don’t believe the hype” and others tell me that they paid for their $150 purchase within one trading session.

Although FAP Turbo includes “Live Statements” 3 (or 4) different accounts built right into their sales page (which is very clever by the way) – I decided to run my own demo accounts and judge the performance myself. Here is the performance update for each account:

MIG Investments Demo Platform – FAP Turbo Demo Account

Settings:

• Start Date – November 26th, 2008
• EURUSD Long Term Strategy – Default Settings
• EURCHF, EURGBP, GBPCHF, USDCAD – Risk increased from 1.5% to 5%

Performance:

• Equity Gain $1,544.95 representing a return of 10.5% in 8 trading days
• Maximal Drawdown of 5.79%
• Profit Factor of 3.31
• Floating Loss on EURUSD is $29 or about 0.29%

InterbankFX Demo Platform – FAP Turbo Demo Account

I originally started this account on 11.26.08 along with the MIG Demo, but something happened over the weekend and the platform locked up when trading restarted. Thus, I had to restart the demo afresh on 12.01.2008

Settings:

• Start Date – December 1st, 2008
• EURUSD Long Term Strategy – Default Settings
• EURCHF, EURGBP, GBPCHF, USDCAD – Risk at 5%

Performance:

• Equity Gain $626.81 representing a return of 6.3% in 5 trading days
• Maximal Drawdown of zero%
• Profit Factor N/A
• Floating Loss on the EURUSD is $293 or about 3%

Digging Deeper into FAP Turbos Own Results

I decided to download all 4 livestatements that FAP Turbo uses in its marketing material and do some Pair-by-Pair analysis to see what kind of risks they are taking and also check for any manipulation. As far as I can tell there is no manipulation at all, but I did notice that there are a couple of trades (1 here and there, a few in the 10k account) that were made with different EAs. I won’t mention their names (the EAs that is), but feel free to contact me if you want to know how to uncover these…I don’t think it matters too much.

Scalper Strategy by Account ($370, $2.5k, $5k, $10k)

As you can see, the best performing pairs for the FAP Turbo Scalper were the EUR/CHF and the EUR/GBP. As far as the the GBP/CHF goes, it really depends on the account. It appears to be positive +107 pips on the $370 account, but down on the others. Although all accounts have been going since October, the $370 account stopped trading the GBP/CHF on 11.20.08 which is where the negative pips started to accumulate on the other accounts for that pair. I’m hesitant to call this a doctored result – but you never know. Also, I think that your broker unfortunately makes a huge difference with the Scalper Strategy.

Based on these results you might be tempted to stop trading the GBP/CHF and the USD/CAD but I think I need to caution against this. Every pair will go through good times and bad times. In fact the GBP/CHF and the USD/CAD are actually net positive on my own MIG and IBFX demo.

Consider the MIG Demo for instance…

FAP Turbo Results by Pair on the MIG Demo Account

Risk Settings for Scalper Strategy

So what kind of Risk Setting to you need to use on FAP Turbo to match the extraordinary “double your account every 30 days” type of results? Well, as far as I can tell the trick is to give extra weight to the best performing pairs. Looking at the FAP Turbo accounts, and assuming a stop loss of about 50 pips on the scalper strategy, I think that the FAP Turbo accounts are using a risk setting of 1-5% for GBP/CHF and USD/CAD but are using risk settings of 15-35% on the EUR/CHF and EUR/GBP. I may be wrong, but that is what the math suggests. Look at the last EUR/GBP trade on the $2.5k account for 12.04.08. It was a sell trade of 3.11 lots off a balance of around $8,500. If you think of a 50 pip stop loss and $14.60 per pip at IBFX you get (3.11*14.6*50)/$8,500 = 26.7%.

Risk of 26.7% seems high – but because scalper trades during the quiet hours and closes so many trades at a profit – maybe you could handle it on a smaller account. Ultimately it is up to you, but I don’t think I will be playing with settings much higher than 5%.

What About the EUR/USD Long Term Strategy

Okay – many of you have probably noticed that the EUR/USD Long Term Strategy in FAP Turbo doesn’t seem to perform that great right now. In fact, many have suggested not trading that strategy at all. Now, if you want to turn off the EUR/USD Long Term for now, that is fine – but let me say that I think it will be profitable once the pair breaks its month long consolidation. Here are a few more pictures for you to think about….

First, the performance of the EUR/USD has been pretty bad lately. Here is the performance from accounts on the FAP Turbo Sales Page…

EUR/USD Performance in Recent Months

FAP Turbo Long Term EURUSD Results by Account

Now, before you consider this the final word, I think all traders need to realize that no strategies work 100% of the time under all market conditions. What I generally advocate is to turn off a strategy or decrease your risk exposure if you feel the strategy is entering market conditions that don’t suit that strategy. This is exactly what is happening with the EUR/USD. The EUR/USD is consolidating right now, and the FAP Turbo long strategy is designed for larger trends with some hedging (but hedging only helps so much in a whipsaw). Here is a look at the EUR/USD right now…

EURUSD Consolidation Should End:

EURUSD Consolidation after Huge Drop

So, as you can see we are waiting on the EUR/USD to break from the current triangle. I believe that once it does this, we will start seeing positive results from the FAP Turbo Long Term again. Regardless of the market conditions, I am not sure I would ever recommend increasing the risk exposure above 1% for the EUR/USD. It opens up five positions anyway, and I think 1% risk is plenty. I did a quick backtest from Jan 2008 through November. Right now the strategy is running flat, but don’t give up on it just yet – or at least be ready to turn it on as soon as the EUR/USD breaks out of its range. This is what I found for the Long Term Strategy using 1% risk….

FAP Turbo EURUSD Long Term Strategy 1-Year BackTest

FAP Turbo Long Term Strategy Back Test Graph

Conclusion

Based on what I have seen, I think FAP Turbo is a good system for any trader to have as part of their toolbox. That being said, I don’t think it is the only tool, and I also don’t think that most traders could tolerate the risk setting required to match the “double your account every 30 days” claim that they use in their sales pitch. Most traders lose money. I’ve had my ups and downs, blowing up accounts here and there and even doubling a couple here and there….based on what I have learned here are my thoughts on FAP Turbo:

• Based on the last 10 days of trading, most traders, even at low risk settings, will do better with FAP Turbo than without.
• With a $1,000 account and 1.5 to 5% risk using just the scalper strategy – I think FAP Turbo will pay for itself in 1-2 weeks.
• Don’t give up on the EUR/USD Long Term – watch for a break out (probably to the sell side) and then turn on the EUR/USD with 1% risk.
• Succesful traders that stay in the game use low risk and shoot for 3-5% per month. I think that this is very possible with FAP Turbo.
• If you have a small account – say $100 sitting in a blown account – it may be worth a gamble to use just the FAP Turbo Scalp Strategy and use like 15- 25% risk on each pair. I think that you could potentially double that account very quickly with those settings as long as you turn it off if there will be major announcements between 21:00:00 and 1:00:00 GMT

Here is the promotional video and a link if you think you want to give it a shot….money back through ClickBank if you don’t like it. Remember the piracy protection will disable your account if you ask for a refund!