Forex Espionage Review – It Sucks!

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Another new MetaTrader 4 expert advisor launched last week. Since it's name is "Forex Espionage" I was astonished at the lack of secrecy surrounding this event. Even I noticed all the emails accumulating in my spam folder. Normally when we here at the Trading Gurus review a new trading system we perform lots of backtests, forward test on a demo account for a few months, then forward test some more on a live account before delivering our final verdict. In the case of the latest forex "robot" let loose on unsuspecting trading accounts around the world all that won't be necessary. Here is our considered Forex Espionage Review. It Sucks!

Why do we say this with such conviction? Take a look at our backtest results below. Compare them with the results on the Forex Espionage sales letter. Do you see any similarity? I don't.

We'll get on to our backtest results in a moment, but first a few other things we noticed amongst all the hype.

  • Forex Espionage is promoted by Steven Lee Jones, who is apparently based in Manchester, England. The guy in the videos doesn't speak with a Manchester accent, or any other UK accent that I recognize come to that.
  • Steven has apparently promoted quite a few forex trading systems apart from Forex Espionage.
  • The manual is horribly confused even about the basics. Should you be trading the original or turbo version of the EA?  On the GBP/USD or EUR/USD pair? Using 30 minute or 4 hour bars?
  • The Turbo version includes some "risk management" input settings. Any advice on how to use them? Yes – "Use your EA with best money management and never trade/risk more than you can afford to lose".  The second half of that sentence is sound advice at least, particularly in relation to this robot (or should that be robots?)

Moving on to backtesting, the first difficulty we had was deciding which version of Forex Espionage to use to try and duplicate the results shown on their website. It seems the original version didn't work too well, so Steven released a new "Turbo" version a few days after the launch. It's not at all clear what the difference between the two systems is. The original version of the Forex Espionage manual stated that the "EA comes with four parameters", but the screenshot showed only two – TrailingStop and Lots. It seems as though the screenshot was nearer the truth, and that money management settings are conspicuous only by their absence. The Turbo version comes with five input settings – Lots again, plus RiskManagement, RiskPercent, Hedge and Magic. Maybe the "Turbo" version is the original version with trailing stops removed and position sizing  added?  If so the manual doesn't explain that to you.

The backtest results on the Forex Espionage site look as though they might be based on 30 minute bars of the EUR/USD pair for the first quarter of 2008 using no money management system, so that's where we started with our own backtests.  This is what we discovered for the "Original" expert advisor:

Forex Espionage Original EA Backtest Results for Q1 2008

Now a total net LOSS of $1394.10 doesn't really tie in very well with the profit of "$52,937.00 in 30 days" described on the Forex Espionage home page, so we tried backtesting the "Turbo" version.  This is what we discovered:

espionageturbo-q108-1

As you can see, at least the "Turbo" version made a profit in the first three months of 2008, but $5809.90 in 3 months is still a whole lot less than the "more than 3,400% profit" in three months promised in the Forex Espionage sales letter.

As we did with the Boston Technologies "Robot", we then tested the "Turbo" version of  Forex Espionage over the first quarter of 2009:

Forex Espionage Turbo EA Backtest Results for Q1 2009

Looks like the robot turbocharges your losses in the post credit-crunch market environment, doesn't it?  You can see the detailed results for this backtest below, but before you do that look carefully at the screenshots on the Forex Espionage website.  Our backtest summary shows 3851 bars over 3 months with 56.10% profitable trades resulting in an overall LOSS of $5602.80. One of the Forex Espionage backtest summaries shows 2264 bars with 37.93% profitable trades over a 3 month period. Another one shows 25637 bars with 92.86% profitable trades over a 1 month period. Do you suppose the same EA produced both those sets of results? I very much doubt it. Certainly not using the input settings described in the manual, at least.

So there you have it. There is our proof. Here is our conclusion after an in depth review. Forex Espionage sucks!

Strategy Tester Report
Espionage-Turbo
Symbol EURUSD (Euro vs US Dollar)
Period 30 Minutes (M30) 2009.01.05 00:00 – 2009.03.27 22:00 (2009.01.05 – 2009.03.28)
Model Every tick (the most precise method based on all available least timeframes)
Parameters Lots=1; RiskManagement=false;
RiskPercent=10; Hedge=false;
Magic=9958433;
Bars in test 3851 Ticks modelled 2203938 Modelling quality 90.00%
Mismatched charts errors 0
Initial deposit 10000.00
Total net profit -5602.80 Gross profit 19153.10 Gross loss -24755.90
Profit factor 0.77 Expected payoff -136.65
Absolute drawdown 8765.30 Maximal drawdown 8770.30 (87.66%) Relative drawdown 87.66% (8770.30)
Total trades 41 Short positions (won %) 15 (60.00%) Long positions (won %) 26 (53.85%)
Profit trades (% of total) 23 (56.10%) Loss trades (% of total) 18 (43.90%)
Largest profit trade 1436.00 loss trade -1839.00
Average profit trade 832.74 loss trade -1375.33
Maximum consecutive wins (profit in money) 8 (6482.20) consecutive losses (loss in money) 3 (-4192.60)
Maximal consecutive profit (count of wins) 6482.20 (8) consecutive loss (count of losses) -4192.60 (3)
Average consecutive wins 3 consecutive losses 2
# Time Type Order Size Price S / L T / P Profit Balance
1 2009.01.05 08:30 buy limit 1 1.00 1.38905 1.37430 1.39960
2 2009.01.05 09:10 buy 1 1.00 1.38905 1.37430 1.39960
3 2009.01.05 09:26 s/l 1 1.00 1.37430 1.37430 1.39960 -1475.00 8525.00
4 2009.01.05 18:30 sell limit 2 1.00 1.37440 1.40420 1.33044
5 2009.01.05 23:00 delete 2 1.00 1.37440 1.40420 1.33044
6 2009.01.08 01:00 sell limit 3 1.00 1.36355 1.37690 1.35611
7 2009.01.08 05:30 delete 3 1.00 1.36355 1.37690 1.35611
8 2009.01.09 11:30 buy limit 4 1.00 1.36830 1.35360 1.37873
9 2009.01.09 12:22 buy 4 1.00 1.36830 1.35360 1.37873
10 2009.01.09 15:26 s/l 4 1.00 1.35360 1.35360 1.37873 -1470.00 7055.00
11 2009.01.12 00:30 sell limit 5 1.00 1.34385 1.35720 1.33641
12 2009.01.12 00:45 sell 5 1.00 1.34385 1.35720 1.33641
13 2009.01.12 09:00 sell limit 6 1.00 1.34060 1.35360 1.33394
14 2009.01.12 09:01 sell 6 1.00 1.34060 1.35360 1.33394
15 2009.01.12 09:09 t/p 5 1.00 1.33641 1.35720 1.33641 744.00 7799.00
16 2009.01.12 09:29 t/p 6 1.00 1.33394 1.35360 1.33394 666.00 8465.00
17 2009.01.13 01:30 sell limit 7 1.00 1.33755 1.35300 1.32545
18 2009.01.13 09:30 delete 7 1.00 1.33755 1.35300 1.32545
19 2009.01.13 20:00 sell limit 8 1.00 1.31910 1.33220 1.31222
20 2009.01.13 20:39 sell 8 1.00 1.31910 1.33220 1.31222
21 2009.01.14 08:49 s/l 8 1.00 1.33220 1.33220 1.31222 -1311.30 7153.70
22 2009.01.14 09:00 buy limit 9 1.00 1.32940 1.31620 1.33650
23 2009.01.14 09:16 buy 9 1.00 1.32940 1.31620 1.33650
24 2009.01.14 14:35 s/l 9 1.00 1.31620 1.31620 1.33650 -1320.00 5833.70
25 2009.01.15 14:00 sell limit 10 1.00 1.31430 1.32990 1.30187
26 2009.01.15 14:43 sell 10 1.00 1.31430 1.32990 1.30187
27 2009.01.16 11:00 buy limit 11 1.00 1.32235 1.30850 1.33090
28 2009.01.16 11:13 buy 11 1.00 1.32235 1.30850 1.33090
29 2009.01.16 12:46 s/l 10 1.00 1.32990 1.32990 1.30187 -1561.30 4272.40
30 2009.01.16 12:49 t/p 11 1.00 1.33090 1.30850 1.33090 855.00 5127.40
31 2009.01.16 22:30 buy limit 12 1.00 1.32595 1.31100 1.33694
32 2009.01.19 08:30 delete 12 1.00 1.32595 1.31100 1.33694
33 2009.01.19 21:00 sell limit 13 1.00 1.31415 1.32630 1.30938
34 2009.01.20 07:00 delete 13 1.00 1.31415 1.32630 1.30938
35 2009.01.20 08:30 sell limit 14 1.00 1.29860 1.31300 1.28883
36 2009.01.20 08:42 sell 14 1.00 1.29860 1.31300 1.28883
37 2009.01.20 14:00 sell limit 15 1.00 1.29575 1.30980 1.28676
38 2009.01.20 18:00 delete 15 1.00 1.29575 1.30980 1.28676
39 2009.01.20 19:52 t/p 14 1.00 1.28883 1.31300 1.28883 977.00 6104.40
40 2009.01.20 20:00 sell limit 16 1.00 1.29185 1.30580 1.28308
41 2009.01.21 02:00 delete 16 1.00 1.29185 1.30580 1.28308
42 2009.01.22 05:30 buy limit 17 1.00 1.30005 1.28430 1.31282
43 2009.01.22 07:01 buy 17 1.00 1.30005 1.28430 1.31282
44 2009.01.23 08:56 s/l 17 1.00 1.28430 1.28430 1.31282 -1574.00 4530.40
45 2009.01.23 09:00 sell limit 18 1.00 1.29085 1.30750 1.27609
46 2009.01.23 15:30 delete 18 1.00 1.29085 1.30750 1.27609
47 2009.01.26 07:30 sell limit 19 1.00 1.29225 1.30510 1.28592
48 2009.01.26 07:41 sell 19 1.00 1.29225 1.30510 1.28592
49 2009.01.26 14:44 s/l 19 1.00 1.30510 1.30510 1.28592 -1285.00 3245.40
50 2009.01.26 21:30 buy limit 20 1.00 1.31485 1.29940 1.32695
51 2009.01.27 02:19 buy 20 1.00 1.31485 1.29940 1.32695
52 2009.01.27 04:00 buy limit 21 1.00 1.31910 1.30360 1.33131
53 2009.01.27 07:35 buy 21 1.00 1.31910 1.30360 1.33131
54 2009.01.27 08:38 t/p 20 1.00 1.32695 1.29940 1.32695 1210.00 4455.40
55 2009.01.27 09:00 buy limit 22 1.00 1.32265 1.30770 1.33364
56 2009.01.27 10:05 t/p 21 1.00 1.33131 1.30360 1.33131 1221.00 5676.40
57 2009.01.27 11:24 buy 22 1.00 1.32265 1.30770 1.33364
58 2009.01.28 00:30 buy limit 23 1.00 1.31770 1.30370 1.32658
59 2009.01.28 01:54 buy 23 1.00 1.31770 1.30370 1.32658
60 2009.01.28 07:18 t/p 23 1.00 1.32658 1.30370 1.32658 888.00 6564.40
61 2009.01.28 07:30 buy limit 24 1.00 1.32445 1.31230 1.32922
62 2009.01.28 07:44 buy 24 1.00 1.32445 1.31230 1.32922
63 2009.01.28 09:00 buy limit 25 1.00 1.32435 1.31140 1.33090
64 2009.01.28 09:03 t/p 24 1.00 1.32922 1.31230 1.32922 477.00 7041.40
65 2009.01.28 11:33 buy 25 1.00 1.32435 1.31140 1.33090
66 2009.01.28 13:47 t/p 25 1.00 1.33090 1.31140 1.33090 655.00 7696.40
67 2009.01.29 08:03 s/l 22 1.00 1.30770 1.30770 1.33364 -1491.00 6205.40
68 2009.01.30 08:30 sell limit 26 1.00 1.28930 1.30160 1.28419
69 2009.01.30 08:59 sell 26 1.00 1.28930 1.30160 1.28419
70 2009.01.30 10:00 sell limit 27 1.00 1.28920 1.30230 1.28232
71 2009.01.30 10:43 t/p 26 1.00 1.28419 1.30160 1.28419 511.00 6716.40
72 2009.01.30 15:00 delete 27 1.00 1.28920 1.30230 1.28232
73 2009.02.02 08:00 sell limit 28 1.00 1.27205 1.28350 1.26883
74 2009.02.02 08:09 sell 28 1.00 1.27205 1.28350 1.26883
75 2009.02.02 16:11 s/l 28 1.00 1.28350 1.28350 1.26883 -1145.00 5571.40
76 2009.02.03 21:00 buy limit 29 1.00 1.29830 1.28340 1.30918
77 2009.02.04 01:30 delete 29 1.00 1.29830 1.28340 1.30918
78 2009.02.04 20:00 sell limit 30 1.00 1.28860 1.30340 1.27794
79 2009.02.05 05:00 delete 30 1.00 1.28860 1.30340 1.27794
80 2009.02.06 08:00 sell limit 31 1.00 1.27795 1.28990 1.27362
81 2009.02.06 08:07 sell 31 1.00 1.27795 1.28990 1.27362
82 2009.02.06 16:11 s/l 31 1.00 1.28990 1.28990 1.27362 -1195.00 4376.40
83 2009.02.10 05:00 sell limit 32 1.00 1.29470 1.31850 1.26406
84 2009.02.10 07:00 delete 32 1.00 1.29470 1.31850 1.26406
85 2009.02.10 16:00 buy limit 33 1.00 1.29775 1.28480 1.30430
86 2009.02.10 17:35 buy 33 1.00 1.29775 1.28480 1.30430
87 2009.02.10 20:24 s/l 33 1.00 1.28480 1.28480 1.30430 -1295.00 3081.40
88 2009.02.11 02:30 sell limit 34 1.00 1.28880 1.30290 1.27970
89 2009.02.11 03:07 sell 34 1.00 1.28880 1.30290 1.27970
90 2009.02.12 08:30 buy limit 35 1.00 1.29095 1.27830 1.29683
91 2009.02.12 09:12 buy 35 1.00 1.29095 1.27830 1.29683
92 2009.02.12 15:15 t/p 34 1.00 1.27970 1.30290 1.27970 906.10 3987.50
93 2009.02.12 15:16 s/l 35 1.00 1.27830 1.27830 1.29683 -1265.00 2722.50
94 2009.02.12 15:30 sell limit 36 1.00 1.28150 1.29780 1.26751
95 2009.02.12 17:16 sell 36 1.00 1.28150 1.29780 1.26751
96 2009.02.13 09:30 buy limit 37 1.00 1.29080 1.27780 1.29746
97 2009.02.13 09:31 buy 37 1.00 1.29080 1.27780 1.29746
98 2009.02.16 00:07 s/l 37 1.00 1.27780 1.27780 1.29746 -1299.00 1423.50
99 2009.02.16 09:30 sell limit 38 1.00 1.28240 1.30210 1.26087
100 2009.02.16 10:00 delete 38 1.00 1.28240 1.30210 1.26087
101 2009.02.17 02:18 t/p 36 1.00 1.26751 1.29780 1.26751 1395.10 2818.60
102 2009.02.17 11:00 sell limit 39 1.00 1.27075 1.29120 1.24755
103 2009.02.17 11:30 delete 39 1.00 1.27075 1.29120 1.24755
104 2009.02.17 14:00 sell limit 40 1.00 1.26410 1.27720 1.25722
105 2009.02.17 20:00 delete 40 1.00 1.26410 1.27720 1.25722
106 2009.02.18 07:30 buy limit 41 1.00 1.26000 1.24780 1.26488
107 2009.02.18 09:55 buy 41 1.00 1.26000 1.24780 1.26488
108 2009.02.19 01:30 buy limit 42 1.00 1.25485 1.24240 1.26029
109 2009.02.19 08:30 delete 42 1.00 1.25485 1.24240 1.26029
110 2009.02.19 09:00 buy limit 43 1.00 1.25870 1.24720 1.26203
111 2009.02.19 09:54 t/p 41 1.00 1.26488 1.24780 1.26488 491.00 3309.60
112 2009.02.19 16:30 delete 43 1.00 1.25870 1.24720 1.26203
113 2009.02.20 01:00 sell limit 44 1.00 1.26735 1.27940 1.26280
114 2009.02.20 09:30 delete 44 1.00 1.26735 1.27940 1.26280
115 2009.02.23 03:00 buy limit 45 1.00 1.28620 1.26780 1.30485
116 2009.02.23 10:17 buy 45 1.00 1.28620 1.26780 1.30485
117 2009.02.23 20:30 sell limit 46 1.00 1.28510 1.30910 1.25402
118 2009.02.24 00:56 s/l 45 1.00 1.26780 1.26780 1.30485 -1839.00 1470.60
119 2009.02.24 02:30 delete 46 1.00 1.28510 1.30910 1.25402
120 2009.02.24 09:00 buy limit 47 1.00 1.27315 1.26040 1.27926
121 2009.02.24 09:25 buy 47 1.00 1.27315 1.26040 1.27926
122 2009.02.24 10:42 t/p 47 1.00 1.27926 1.26040 1.27926 611.00 2081.60
123 2009.02.25 22:30 sell limit 48 1.00 1.27275 1.28610 1.26531
124 2009.02.25 23:10 sell 48 1.00 1.27275 1.28610 1.26531
125 2009.02.27 09:13 t/p 48 1.00 1.26531 1.28610 1.26531 738.80 2820.40
126 2009.03.02 18:00 sell limit 49 1.00 1.25955 1.27310 1.25167
127 2009.03.02 18:24 sell 49 1.00 1.25955 1.27310 1.25167
128 2009.03.03 10:30 buy limit 50 1.00 1.26075 1.24380 1.27618
129 2009.03.03 11:00 delete 50 1.00 1.26075 1.24380 1.27618
130 2009.03.03 16:00 sell limit 51 1.00 1.26170 1.27520 1.25393
131 2009.03.03 20:30 delete 51 1.00 1.26170 1.27520 1.25393
132 2009.03.04 00:00 sell limit 52 1.00 1.25660 1.26960 1.24994
133 2009.03.04 01:34 t/p 49 1.00 1.25167 1.27310 1.25167 785.40 3605.80
134 2009.03.04 08:00 delete 52 1.00 1.25660 1.26960 1.24994
135 2009.03.04 17:30 buy limit 53 1.00 1.25425 1.23920 1.26546
136 2009.03.05 01:00 delete 53 1.00 1.25425 1.23920 1.26546
137 2009.03.05 10:30 sell limit 54 1.00 1.25915 1.27220 1.25238
138 2009.03.05 16:30 delete 54 1.00 1.25915 1.27220 1.25238
139 2009.03.06 15:00 buy limit 55 1.00 1.26895 1.25410 1.27972
140 2009.03.06 16:02 buy 55 1.00 1.26895 1.25410 1.27972
141 2009.03.10 07:00 buy limit 56 1.00 1.26725 1.25370 1.27513
142 2009.03.10 11:00 delete 56 1.00 1.26725 1.25370 1.27513
143 2009.03.10 13:27 t/p 55 1.00 1.27972 1.25410 1.27972 1079.00 4684.80
144 2009.03.10 13:30 buy limit 57 1.00 1.27365 1.25720 1.28797
145 2009.03.10 17:55 buy 57 1.00 1.27365 1.25720 1.28797
146 2009.03.11 20:00 buy limit 58 1.00 1.27775 1.26430 1.28541
147 2009.03.12 01:00 delete 58 1.00 1.27775 1.26430 1.28541
148 2009.03.12 02:30 buy limit 59 1.00 1.28265 1.26930 1.29009
149 2009.03.12 03:02 buy 59 1.00 1.28265 1.26930 1.29009
150 2009.03.12 20:11 t/p 57 1.00 1.28797 1.25720 1.28797 1436.00 6120.80
151 2009.03.12 20:15 t/p 59 1.00 1.29009 1.26930 1.29009 744.00 6864.80
152 2009.03.13 21:00 buy limit 60 1.00 1.28915 1.27620 1.29570
153 2009.03.16 00:00 buy 60 1.00 1.28915 1.27620 1.29570
154 2009.03.16 09:05 t/p 60 1.00 1.29570 1.27620 1.29570 655.00 7519.80
155 2009.03.17 01:30 sell limit 61 1.00 1.29910 1.31290 1.29066
156 2009.03.17 02:08 sell 61 1.00 1.29910 1.31290 1.29066
157 2009.03.18 04:00 buy limit 62 1.00 1.30245 1.29050 1.30678
158 2009.03.18 07:59 buy 62 1.00 1.30245 1.29050 1.30678
159 2009.03.18 13:25 t/p 62 1.00 1.30678 1.29050 1.30678 433.00 7952.80
160 2009.03.18 13:48 s/l 61 1.00 1.31290 1.31290 1.29066 -1381.30 6571.50
161 2009.03.18 19:30 buy limit 63 1.00 1.32225 1.30030 1.34878
162 2009.03.19 02:00 delete 63 1.00 1.32225 1.30030 1.34878
163 2009.03.19 06:30 buy limit 64 1.00 1.34480 1.33160 1.35190
164 2009.03.19 06:52 buy 64 1.00 1.34480 1.33160 1.35190
165 2009.03.19 09:00 buy limit 65 1.00 1.34545 1.33180 1.35355
166 2009.03.19 11:15 t/p 64 1.00 1.35190 1.33160 1.35190 710.00 7281.50
167 2009.03.19 17:30 delete 65 1.00 1.34545 1.33180 1.35355
168 2009.03.23 08:00 buy limit 66 1.00 1.36740 1.35490 1.37295
169 2009.03.23 09:51 buy 66 1.00 1.36740 1.35490 1.37295
170 2009.03.23 14:11 s/l 66 1.00 1.35490 1.35490 1.37295 -1250.00 6031.50
171 2009.03.24 02:00 buy limit 67 1.00 1.36425 1.35130 1.37080
172 2009.03.24 05:53 buy 67 1.00 1.36425 1.35130 1.37080
173 2009.03.24 14:05 s/l 67 1.00 1.35130 1.35130 1.37080 -1295.00 4736.50
174 2009.03.24 14:30 sell limit 68 1.00 1.35255 1.36690 1.34289
175 2009.03.24 14:43 sell 68 1.00 1.35255 1.36690 1.34289
176 2009.03.25 09:33 t/p 68 1.00 1.34289 1.36690 1.34289 964.70 5701.20
177 2009.03.26 13:00 buy limit 69 1.00 1.35785 1.34480 1.36462
178 2009.03.26 14:45 buy 69 1.00 1.35785 1.34480 1.36462
179 2009.03.27 11:05 s/l 69 1.00 1.34480 1.34480 1.36462 -1304.00 4397.20

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Comments on Forex Espionage Review – It Sucks! Leave a Comment

July 21, 2009

Jason @ 3:20 pm #

Glad there are other people out there doing decent "real" reviews. I've just completed one on the 'stock index secret trade' that is spouted about the net. An naturally it doesn't do what it says on the tin like 99.9% of the c%$p on the net. Anyway, keep up the good work,

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