Author Bio

About a month ago I was meeting with the CMO of the largest broker in the US and he expressed his frustration in the commercial EA industry, where people sell their EAs for a few hundred dollars and there is no way to really validate how the EA is really performing. He claimed that his sales team was being asked over and over again how these EAs are really performing.

I then started researching the issue and found out that there are a few forums out there that have a dedicated EA section. People mostly complain about their experience with the purchased EAs and trying to warn other traders from using these EAs.

I started thinking about an idea on how to help the EA developers to properly present their performance information instead of a back testing graph that they all show.

We’ve approached some of the famous EA developers and made the following offer to them:

Link a real account that was traded using this EA to Currensee, which will cost you nothing, and use our performance metrics to measure the performance of the EA over time, including historical performance. Given that this is a real account, if the performance is good we’ll advertise your real performance to our entire trader base (more then 30,000 at this point), and it will still cost you nothing.

As you can probably imagine, none of the EA developers that we’ve talked to have taken us up on our offer. They have decided to hide behind fancy pictures of gold coins falling from the sky, open wallets with $100 bills or traders sitting in front of multiple trading monitors (which always made me wonder why do you need all those monitors if it’s an automatic program, but lets leave that aside).

So here is the proposal one more time:

If you are a commercial EA developer and are willing to stand behind your performance, link your account to Currensee by registering to the free social network and we will dedicate a special spot for you on Currensee highlighting your performance. Any takers?

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.

Author Bio

It can sometimes be pretty lonely standing on our soapbox, waving the transparency flag and calling out passersby who get in Jack the FX Trader’s way (StockTwits, are you listening?). Then we heard about FXBees.com through a review on FX Magnates, and we’ll admit, we were curious. Whenever we hear the words “Forex” and “social network” in the same sentence, our ears perk up a bit (see photo of our Currensee Pips, upon hearing about FXBees.com).

Photo by Erik Veland

FXBees.com is fresh to the Forex social scene, so we’ll cut them some slack, but we do have our reservations:

1. Demo accounts. Demo traders and real traders are the ammonia and bleach of the FX world. In real collaborative trading, every player needs to have something at stake. Want to short the EUR/USD? Well put your money where your mouth is, whether it’s your annual bonus or your lunch money. Any tips or advice from a demo trader should be followed by the disclaimer, “Favorite pairs include Monopoly money and chocolate gold coins.”
2. Blind ignorance. Sounds like FXBees.com lets you scout out the pseudo-shining stars who may be trading in demo accounts and blindly follow them because you trade similar pairs, but you don’t know what their trading strategy is – Fibonacci, Nonfarm Payroll, or cloud formations?

Currensee members share their trading strategies, years of experience, favorite pairs and techniques so you know who you are “getting into a [trading] bed with,” so to speak. Bragging about your performance in pips by itself doesn’t tell a fellow trader much. That’s why Currensee measures individual member performance against the greater Currensee community and the S&P 500.

One of our feature, the Currensee Social Indicators widget, aggregates the Currensee community’s stance on all the major pairs, allowing members to see where our real Forex traders stand on the NZD/JPY.  Whose advice are you going to take – thousands of Forex traders with real money on the table, or the guy “just playing around”?

You already know what we’re all about: real traders, real trades, real time. If we could figure out how to fit it onto a license plate, we’d have them made. In an earlier post, Michelle talked about why we’re having all the fun in this new, democratized Forex market. But with this freedom also comes great responsibility. In a world and a market that is stricken with scams and schemes, we strive everyday to be the voice of Jack (or Jill) the FX Trader who isn’t backed by the big-name banks and attorneys when things turn sour.

FX Magnates sums up the newcomers by saying, “Overall I would say FXBees has promise, but it needs to eliminate demo accounts, and it needs to stress the dangers of blindly following other traders.” We agree on both counts. That’s why Currensee is all about real trades from real traders.

We’re not trying to be harsh on the new kids on the block. In fact, in the spirit of collaboration and transparency, we welcome them to the Forex social media arena. We’ll be watching. Always watching.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.

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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results. Investor returns may vary from Trade Leader returns based on slippage, fees, broker spreads, volatility or other market conditions.