How did you come to trade and when?
I started working for Equis (Makers of MetaStock) in November 1999 and I had to learn everything I could about stock and futures trading. I also had to know the MetaStock software inside and out since I had to deal with customers, write indicators and experts for the platform. After a few years, I thought: Well, I can trade, I know technical analysis just as well as any gurus if not more...

As far as I know, you have developed a multitude of technical indicators and EAs for MetaStock and MetaTrader 3/4. Tell me, please, from what you have began?
Well, I was going to college for a computer science degree and learned C++ programming while working on MetaStock programming language. After a few years, I started writing DLLs for MetaStock to overcome some of the MetaStock language limitations. I only started working on MetaTrader 3/4 in February this year. When I first saw the language for version 4, I thought: Well, this is plain C++ with added trading functions. I was very happy to see how straightforward the language was. Like everyone else I guess, I used CodersGuru tutorial to get me up to speed in the beginning and I'm sure there is plenty for me to learn still.

Which of your indicators and expert advisors do you consider to be the best ones?
Well, first of all: I don't really create any indicators, I program existing indicators and play with them but I won't pretend I created anything new. Same with experts, I have my own ideas and I do adjust some existing strategies, but I can't claim any of it. Like many people say, any indicator is only based on the open, high, low, close and volume values. You can only do so many things with those data: oscillators, moving average, patterns and trendlines. I like simple things like a DEMA and TEMA for longer-term trading, I will often just use a trendline for shorter-term trading.

You have to understand that I believe everyone should create their own system so that they fully understand it and can adjust it... I think even if I had created the "holy grail" and sent it to people they would come back and tell me: It sucks. So my goal is more about providing tools, training and support to people and not about writing profitable experts.

You know both development environments: MetaStock and MetaTrader 4. Which of them would you call the best one?
No contest, MetaTrader 4 is the best ... For programmers. For customers – I don't know, it seems to me that MetaStock users are more programming savvy than MetaTrader users. So it feels like the MetaTrader people would want something easier to work with (like an Easy Language type of thing) while MetaStock users would want the power of MetaTrader 4. Anyway, as a Forex trader and programmer, I consider MetaTrader 4 to be by far the best one.

What do you think of the Championship?
I think it is a great idea. Most brokers had their in-house contests, but this really makes it the "World Championship", so it is more appealing. Not just because of the prize money, but also for the recognition one would get by winning the Championship. Also it would help to advertise the automated trading feature present in MetaTrader. I was in Vegas for the Forex Traders Expo last week or so, and still a lot of people came to me and asked "What is automated trading?" and once I told them they still could not believe it was fully automated. A lot of gurus insist on execution and how it has to be fast, mechanical. They insist on how you have to respect your own rules, well an automated expert is the perfect solution for all this, but not enough people realize it is available yet.

If you were not a staff member of the Championship Sponsor, would you participate?
Of course, I would. Like I said before, beyond the money, there is also the aspect of recognition. I don't know whether I can write a better expert than the next guy, I don't know who else out there writes experts. To be able to tell myself "well, you finished in the top 10" would be a great validation. On the opposite side, if I finished last, then I would just reconsider my career path.

On what principle would you create your expert advisor? Or, say it in another way, what expert advisor will win, in your opinion?
If I actually had a useful answer I doubt I would tell people, but in my opinion it will be about the market. Is the market trending or not? Does your system look for that and adjust accordingly? For example:

if(Market is in Trend) { Use MACD system } else { use RSI system }

So your system would be classical trend/flat EA?
Well, classical ... the tools are the same for everyone, how you manage your money, how you size your positions, how you filter your trades (Days, Time Range etc.) is what makes the expert good or not. To me, spending time figuring out if you need to use an RSI of 14 periods versus an RSI of 20 periods is a waste of time. So, yes, I guess a classical trend/flat EA that is adaptively combined with some other simple filters.

What would you wish the Participants of the Championship?
I wish everyone good luck on the Championship and in their trading activities.

Thank you Patrick.

Created: 2006.09.22  Author: MetaQuotes

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