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I can attest to the fact that "picking good systems is not easy". I was trading systems by AutoTradingBot. This developer has many systems that appear profitable until you start trading them. Based on the large number of systems I traded, it seems like some of them should have made money just based on luck. Shouldn't the goal be to pick a systems that looks profitable and/or has a good sharp ratio before you start trading it? I've tried getting in on a dip but that didn't really change the outcome on the systems I traded. Could there be something about live trading that causes a system to blow up or is this just a matter of bad timing? I noticed that several systems did very well right after the market crash. Unfortunately, I wasn't trading them at that time. The track record on most of these systems is probably not an accurate reflection of how the system performs under normal market conditions. What do you think about waiting until just after a major market pull back and then trying again?
I have been very profitable personally, but I use Striker. But many of the systems are trading on iSystems too.
The key in my opinion is if the developer uses a sound development and review process. This can be seen when looking how profitable a developer is with all systems combined.
1. Check above list for profitable vendor = Tracked PL
2. Check average profit per system of those vendors = Tracked PL / number of systems
3. Choose systems only from the best vendors. Best vendors are overall profitable and each system provides good profits.
Then you have good chances to be profitable.
Number 2 is important, because if a vendor has 250 systems with small average gains, it will be pure luck to pick to right ones. The development process is not sound IMHO. Less is more.
If you do the process above you will find, that only 4-5 vendors really qualify.
You can also check Striker. Since there it's live only, it's easier to identify the best: https://striker.com/ranking.php
On Striker, vendors usually trade their systems with real money, which automatically improves quality. On iSystems, you can upload 100 systems and just build a track record. No requirement to trade live.
I had a bad experience with Striker. I was trading only with one algo for 3 months in march 2022. Lost 50% of my money. Forgot the name. It only made about 3-4 trades a month and wasn't expensive.* I don't like the way it is marketed and protected:
1) You don't know the trades until the next day
2) Can't exit from the algo unless call them during the day and it will take hours to get out some days.
They claim they were protecting the secrecy of the algo developer. This maybe true: most of the algos appear to be performing better than ISystems's average. However, I think ISystems has a lot of experimental strategies that people shouldn't trade.
But I felt locked in and didn't experience the side benefits of the Isystems' transparency.
1) It can be a guide to your own trades in real time
2) One should be able to turn it off before news events that they are usually poorly equipped to handle then turn it back on again.
3) Felt like my money was locked up and I couldn't pull it out to trade on my own hunches or on big market news.
I would go with ISystems for 1,2 and 3. However, I do not know how to start figuring out which algo to work with.
Who told you the Strikers trade their own algos? That was never part of the marketing of my broker which pushed me hard to choose Striker and not ISystems.
Can anyone else share their experience with ISystems? It has been well over a year since the last post and I see little to no discussion on it elsewhere.
It is even hard to anything on google search about it, much less youtube. Is something wrong?
I'm being marketed by a really nice fellow at AMP clearing and am considering leaving my current broker just to take advantage of ISystems.
We looked at the offerings on Striker and iSystems for investment opportunities. I personally think Striker is much better, because it only shows systems traded with real money. This usually includes the developer trading his own systems too.
iSystems is more like a tracking system. Beautifully done from technical perspective, but I don't think you will be profitable there and I don't think anybody will. I explained in detail in this discussion why.
Our investment on Striker however has been profitable.
However: Don't invest into just one system. Go with a portfolio. If your account is small < 20K, there are plenty of systems with micro contracts.
Everything I mentioned some time ago on this topic about selection of developers is still valid in my opinion. You want to go with developers which are profitable with the totality of systems.
The current times a quite challenging for system trading, because the markets are news driven. A specific CPI number can cause large moves in the markets. But on the other hand, a market like we have now is a also a good opportunity to build a portfolio of strategies because many poorly designed strategies will fall apart.
Regarding your remark of no control, no ability to intervene with the strategy:
I understand your concern, but this is something any good developer should manage. Like avoiding CPI or FOMC days etc. A developer knows best when to turn a strategy off. We do this and I suspect other good developers do that too. You want to run strategies when the environment is favorable and when the system behaves like you expect it to behave.
But once again, the developer knows this best.
Therefore you should select carefully the systems, but then don't worry and don't try to interfere. And don't select only one system. Build a portfolio.
While most people seem to create journals to help them with the psychological aspects of trading, the intent of this journal is to document my experiences with isystems.com in the hope that it may be helpful …
. It is my opinion that picking the right systems to trade is very difficult.