selena1
Verified member
These days it is hard to miss the many advertisements for trading robots that promise easy success at trading. The idea of a program that automatically trades for you while you are asleep or doing other activities sounds like an ideal situation. No emotions, no demands and no loss of sleep. Just collect the money like it was your own private ATM.
As a professional trader, I have of course had opportunity to check into many of these systems, after all we all look for ways to make our lives better, easier and for what will give us more free time. I must admit that the concept was intriguing; had technology really come so far that a trader could actually trust a program with real money? I had visions of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator robot in an unstoppable onslaught of taking down one trade after another. Then I recalled that the Terminator was based on a computer system that went AWOL and was out to destroy the humans it was built to serve as soon as it was trusted. What if this program did the same with my money? Shivers ran down my spine. What was the reality with these systems? Could they be trusted?
After a review of a few systems I realized two things:
There is no Arnold Schwarzenegger waiting to terminate your account
There is no Sky-net system that can conquer the trading world for you.
Most trading robots have safety protocols that prevent an account meltdown. Limitations vary from a specific number of failed trades to a specific total account loss before the system will activate a complete shutdown of all trading. It seems that the programmers themselves are Sci-fi enthusiasts and had their own fear of an arising Terminator because they ensured that it would never happen. Unfortunately, there isn't likely to ever be such a threat anyway since most of these systems are based on very simple trading rules. There is definitely no Sky-net here, which also translates into less than spectacular results.
As a professional trader, I have of course had opportunity to check into many of these systems, after all we all look for ways to make our lives better, easier and for what will give us more free time. I must admit that the concept was intriguing; had technology really come so far that a trader could actually trust a program with real money? I had visions of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator robot in an unstoppable onslaught of taking down one trade after another. Then I recalled that the Terminator was based on a computer system that went AWOL and was out to destroy the humans it was built to serve as soon as it was trusted. What if this program did the same with my money? Shivers ran down my spine. What was the reality with these systems? Could they be trusted?
After a review of a few systems I realized two things:
There is no Arnold Schwarzenegger waiting to terminate your account
There is no Sky-net system that can conquer the trading world for you.
Most trading robots have safety protocols that prevent an account meltdown. Limitations vary from a specific number of failed trades to a specific total account loss before the system will activate a complete shutdown of all trading. It seems that the programmers themselves are Sci-fi enthusiasts and had their own fear of an arising Terminator because they ensured that it would never happen. Unfortunately, there isn't likely to ever be such a threat anyway since most of these systems are based on very simple trading rules. There is definitely no Sky-net here, which also translates into less than spectacular results.
