CANDLEBOT – quantity does not mean quality
Greetings, dear visitors to the expert testing section. Today is the special day when I can share with you my opinion and the results of my CANDLEBOT expert testing.
The CANDLEBOT advisor is one of the most unique robots I've encountered during various tests. What makes it unique is that it works with 29 different candlestick patterns and, in many ways, has a high potential, unlike other robots.
The point is that the advisor doesn't use any dangerous capital management methods, but only a clearly defined profit target and stop order. A detailed review of the advisor was previously provided, listing a number of the settings and patterns it uses. You can read the article about this advisor by clicking the link .
We previously conducted a detailed test of the Expert Advisor in the Strategy Tester for some of the patterns. You can see the results of the preliminary test for individual patterns in the image below:
The basis for testing the expert advisor on a demo account was the advisor's uniqueness, as well as its solid preliminary tests in the strategy tester. To be honest, this was the first time I'd encountered an advisor with such a wide range of patterns in its trading strategy, so unlike the various tests I've conducted with other robots, I was driven by my own interest.
I was curious how the advisor would perform if all 29 candlestick combinations were taken into account, without prioritizing stronger signals, and vice versa. To test it, we opened a demo account with $10,000 in the account, which is equivalent to $100 on a cent account.
Next, the expert advisor was installed on a VPS server so it could monitor the market 24/7 and not miss a single candlestick pattern. We decided to conduct the testing itself on the EUR/USD currency pair on an hourly chart. All settings were set to default, meaning all patterns were enabled.
The test itself began on August 30, 2015, and ran until September 14, 2015. The expert advisor was in the market for two weeks, so preliminary conclusions can be drawn based on these results. You can see the CANDLEBOT test results in the image below:
As you can see, despite my praise and expectations, the EA showed negative results over two weeks of trading. However, the loss isn't critical and is quite ridiculous considering how long it was used and the deposits it handled. Over the full two trading weeks, the EA opened 14 positions and incurred a loss of $43.
The drawdown didn't even reach the 3 percent mark taught in textbooks, but only 2.37 percent. In terms of profitability, the profit factor is extremely low at just 0.89. The expert advisor closed only 35 percent of orders with a profit and 64 percent with a loss. However, it's worth remembering that the profit was set at 70 pips and the stop order at only 40, so the ratio is generally acceptable.
Now let's analyze why CANDLEBOT showed such weak results. If you'd observed its trading, you'd have noticed that it's simply unfair to set the same stop loss and profit target for all patterns. If we compare the Doji effect, the pattern yields a 40-pip profit at best, while if the Hammer candlestick pattern is triggered, the price can easily move 70-100 pips per day.
That's why I observed a pattern where the price would move about 30-40 pips in our favor on weak patterns and then reverse, triggering a stop order. Therefore, when working with this advisor, you simply can't leave all the patterns alone; you need to select them by group and set your own profit and stop orders for them.
Alternatively, you can set an expert advisor on the same currency pair, but include and adjust the profit and stop orders according to the same pattern.
In conclusion, I'd like to say that, despite the negative test result, the expert advisor possesses tremendous potential with the correct stop orders and profit targets. Another significant advantage of CANDLEBOT is that it doesn't require a large deposit, so with just $10 in a cent account, you can find the optimal patterns and settings for this expert advisor.
