All I can say is…ouch. This past week I was hit with a double loss on the EURCHF pair which has badly dented my FXPro account. It seems that the pair were subject to a large movement and FapTurbo closed out at a significant loss on the trade.

This was doubly painful for me because the software had opened two trades simultaneoulsy so my loss was double. I’m still very uncertain about FXPro as a broker for FAPTurbo as my trading experience has not been that positive.

However, I am pepared to give it at least one more week to see if things can turn around. If not, then I’m going to transfer to another broker as soon as is practical.

What’s heightened my frustration this week is receiving about six different emails from different sources extolling the virtues of FAPturbo and how much money it is making for people. Now, I’m not convinced as it just seems that they are hyping up the product because it’s been a while since the orignal launch.

If you have been sitting on the fence on whether to buy FAPTurbo then my advice at the moment would be to do a lot of research and make sure that any claims made about profit can be substantiated fully.

One place you may want to try is FAPTurbo Review as they have been using the software for 15 weeks and provide a video update each week as to what has happened. They run two live accounts, one with FXPro and one with FXDD. The account with FXPro is in the region of 36% down (reflects what I’ve experienced) and with FXDD it’s 50% up.

Clearly, choosing a suitable broker is a critical element for success.

Yesterday I received an email from Martin at Forex Auto Scalper recommending that I take a look at a new Mechanical Trading System known as the Robin Hood Mechanical Forex System.

I was going to pass over this ‘opportunity’ to be honest but as it wasn’t going to cost me anything I decided to take a look.

You get a 70 page pdf explaining how the system works and what you need to operate it. There are also two videos that accompany the package so I spent the last day or so getting familiar with the contents.

I found everything to be straightforward and easy to understand so I am trialling on a demo account to see how things go. From what I’ve read and seen this is somewhat of a scalping strategy so don’t expect massive pip gains time after time. It seems that the strategy is to make small gains on a regular basis whilst ensuring that there is a sensible money management regime in place if things go against you.

As it’s early days I can’t say one way or the other as to the viability of the system but as it is mechanical it does have the advantage of taking emotion out of the decision making which is attractive to me.

One potential disadvantage that I can see is that trades may take some time to work through so once it is entered you would need to keep a close eye on it for closing. The system author, Daniel Malaby, sounds sincere and is keen to make sure that users of the system understand and apply the rules in terms of trading and money management. So, if you’d like to give the Robin Hood Mechanical Forex System a try then the free download is still available.

I mentioned at the end of last week that I would not be trading with FAP Turbo or Forex Auto Scalper this week as events in the US and general economic conditions seem to be hanging heavily on the market.

This seems to have been a wise decision as reading various reports things have not worked well this week. Right at the beginning of the week I noticed a trade on my Forex Auto Scalper that resulted in a 20 pip loss (this was outside of normal trading time) so I immediately closed it down.

Reading the FAP Turbo forum there are many posts where people have experienced losses, especially on the GBPCHF. Some people have lost a sizeable amount of their bank and are smarting from the experience.

Having said all that I believe there is some evidence that the big losers were using settings that were less than conservative so there is a case for reaping what you sow to some extent.

A very useful site that will provide detail trades on both FXDD and FX Pro live accounts is FapTurbo Review. When you sign up with your email they will send you a weekly commentary on how they fared during the week. They also show the settings they use to help newcomers.

I will watch how things go next week to decide whether I will start up either FAP Turbo or Forex Auto Scalper for trading. As said on many comments I’ve seen being out of the market in volatile times is just as important an investment strategy as being in it when profits are being made.

Again, many people seem to expect these tools to provide instant profits of a sizeable nature. I think this is the wrong approach. Time is on your side because the market is always there and as long as you use compounding sensibly the long term is a better bet for overall profitability.

Yesterday I received an email to tell me that FAP Turbo has a new version to download. The new version 36 is available for download in the members area. Updates include better management of broker offquotes and the ability to trigger sounds when FAP Turbo makes a trade. There is also a facility to have emails sent to you once a trade is made.

This update was issued slightly ahead of the planned one for the 15th January so there is time to install before version 23 becomes inactive. One thing I did notice was that version 36 is valid until mid March so an extra month built in there.

Following fairly quickly on from this email was another one to say that some people were having problems getting the latest version active in their live account. If this happens you will need to go back to the member area and request a new activation code for the live account. To facilitate this FAP Turbo have ‘flushed’ activation codes for existing accounts.

I installed the new version on my VPS yesterday and as it was the weekend I waited until today to fully activate it. As it happened I had the problem described above with activation but it was soon remedied by requesting a new activation code for my live account. All now seems to be working and I will monitor later on tonight when it is likely to trade.

Having used Forex Auto Scalper for a week now on a demo account with FXPro I decided yesterday that it should be added to my live account.

Currently I trade EURGBP and EURCHF live using FAP Turbo. As mentioned my account is with FXPro and their MetaTrader 4 platform is loaded up on my ForexVPS account. This is a virtual server that means I don’t have to worry about running the service on my own computer and the potential problems that might bring.

Having made the decision to trade Forex Auto Scalper on my live account I had to get the EA from my PC to the VPS. I tried a couple of methods but ended up using FileFactory to upload the file from my PC and then download it on the VPS. Not particularly elegant and I’m wondering whether I could have used the Remote Desktop facility in XP, anybody have an idea on that at all?

One of the constraints that FXPro imposes is that I have to use fixed lot sizes rather than the recommended method. This doesn’t seem to have been a problem with FAP Turbo so I’m hoping it won’t be here.

As Forex Auto Scalper trades the EURUSD it is in play from 7AM GMT to 4PM GMT which works nicely with FAP Turbo as that trades from about 8PM GMT through to the early hours.

It will be interesting to see how the Forex Auto Scalper works on a live account as there is always a difference from a demo account.

Check back to see how things go from tomorrow.

This is the first week that I’ve had my full setup done for the FAP Turbo EA. It took  a while to get things working correctly on my Virtual Private Server (VPS), Forex VPS so if you are considering using such a service then please make sure you allow some time to get everything working correctly.

Initially I had problems getting the screen resolution on the VPS correct but did manage this eventually. I think one of my other programmes was interfering somehow. Once I had that set up getting the FX Pro Meta Trader installed gave little problem.

Installation of FAP Turbo went relatively easily although it did take a few attempts for my account to be recognised.

The Forex VPS service costs $35 a month which I think is a worthwhile investment as it means I don’t have to worry about any problems with my broadband connection or other technical issues.

The first week of trading in this way has shown a profit on my live account although there was a loss on Monday which everyone suffered from. Hopefully it will be onwards and upwards from here.