Let us talk about your Expert Advisor. What principle is it based on?
The Expert consists of two parts. In one part, the entering/leaving points are detected, profits/losses are fixed. In another part, the volumes of positions to be opened are defined. In the Expert's body, all this is sorted together indiscriminately, but I myself see the logic.

Detection of where to enter/leave is built on the MACD meeting its signal line.

Roman, why was it MACD that you had chosen for your EA?
According to the test results, the MACD alerts gave the highest profits compared to the most of other indicators at the same risk level. Generally speaking, it is still the only trading system that I have tested and that has given a positive result both within the sampling and outside it. Other indicators can have even better profit/risk ratio within the sampling, but then they miraculously lose all profits gained by the "back-breaking labor". But I am still in quest of a better system since the drawdown of this one is too large to be used in real.

Expert Advisor based on what indicator are you testing now?
At least two indicators are tested: Bollinger Bands and Kagi Charts. It will perhaps be a combination of both or it will be MACD. But I do not want to complicate the system in order not to "overoptimize" it. I will perhaps add one rule to the existing strategy, which will probably help to reduce losses. So I will not reinvent the wheel. As they say: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush...

How do you place your stop orders? Are they dynamic or fixed?
The stop orders are fixed. Stop loss is placed at a distance of 50 pips, Take Profit - 125. It is one of trading strategy optimization elements. According to the one-minute chart tests for the period from 01/01/2001, these are these distances for stop orders that give the best results for my system. Though, to be honest, these distances gave the best results for other strategies I tested. These parameters seem to be good for EURUSD at the present time...

After making an unsuccessful trade, you use 0.1 lot in the trade that follows it. Do you think this works?
This worked on tester for a long period of time. Judge yourself: the sampling is 1.8 million minutes, the amount of trades is a bit over one thousand. It is statistically representative. For such investment management, there are only good points. Actually, this is the only thing that saves me now. So my answer is: It works as for now.

What part of the deposit can your Expert Advisor risk with?
34 percent of the deposit. But the maximal drawdown is 91.82%. This is why I will not go to the real market with this Expert.

What do you think of the Championship? Will it bring any help to the entire branch of automated trading?
I like the Championship. Everyone gets what he or she wants to get from it. As to the branch, I cannot say exactly: I did not see the branch as it is, I do not know its participants, I do not see the turnover, well, I cannot even say whether this branch exists. I think it will arise thank to the Championship. This will be the help of the Championship for the branch. The help for developers and customers is, in my opinion, here and now. Developers can show due the Championship that automated trading is not a fantasy: it exists, it works, it earns money. The customer will see this and, if the profit/loss ratio suits him or her, will pay.

Should such competitions be conducted in future?
Of course, they should. It will be helpful for us, developers: we will show up and, perhaps, get prizes. This will also publicize the industry. I think you are also interested in development of this branch. Investors/customers are interested, too. They would like to know whose nerves are stronger: those of an automated strategy or of a person managing the investments, where is it safer to invest. Positive signs are all around.

Did the Championship influence your views of automated trading?
Not very much. As I wrote before, I was initially aimed at automated trading. The Championship has just fastened my opinion: automated trading is absolutely real.

One more idea: we always want to improve our EAs. The most important thing is not to make the cup run over. Well, I have not found any errors in my Expert, it trades as it was planned. I did not draw any conclusions about the Championship - it is not time yet, two weeks are still before us.

What do you think of your competitors: Ldaminani, Hendrick and Zonker?
I can only remark that all our trading strategies are rather nervous, allow large drawdowns (though everyone loses money in their own way), but this is the price of the risk. Otherwise, we all would have about 12 to 13 thousand.

Would you, Roman, say that the First five are stable, i.e., one could trust them to manage accounts?
Well, I would not trust this to my own Expert Advisor, unambiguously. I have already written, that it allows a drawdown of maximum 91.82%. This is, of course, the matter of personal preferences for each investor what risk to run, but I think nobody would run this risk. As to ldamiani, his maximal drawdown was 38.7%, profit - 211%. If such characteristics would be kept for at least three years, I would trust him. I would repeat: we need a longer trading history. Hendrick: drawdown of 28.3%, profit of 184.1%. This looks even more beautiful, but, again, the trading history is too short. If he keeps these results for over three years, he is the best of us. Zonker: drawdown of 70.2%, profit of 134.7%. I would not invest.

Who, in your opinion, will be in the Top Three by the end of the Championship? Do you think you will manage to take a prize place?
If the market goes flat and we all are brought to a stand, I will take the first place, and the Top Three will be the same as it is now. But, judging by the widening of Bollinger Bands, the year is not expected to be closed calmly. So the fortune will shuffle all of use many times within the resting few days.

Thank you, Roman, for your interesting interview.