Hello, Andrei. Please tell us about your experience in trading.
I started to trade in the Forex market in July 2005. Several first months I operated with small sums on real accounts and practiced on demo accounts. Having achieved first success, I tried to make the same with larger sums. But while my actual experience was very small and the emotional tension from the operation with large sums was too strong, I was bearing losses. Fortunately, I was clever enough to stop in due time and return to the demo-account for “re-education”. About a year, I was trading only on demo accounts, using different systems and developing my own trading strategy. Already since several months I am successfully using my developments on a real account with a small deposit, continuing testing on demo accounts. I think in half a year or in a year I will be ready to try my knowledge in real trading with serious money.

What are your trading strategies based on?
The basis of my short-term trading systems for Forex is generally the technical analysis. I use automated trading Expert Advisors, based on the set of indicators – it is usually analysis of candlesticks or a set of several moving averages. For a long-term trading, in Forex and CFD market, I use mainly fundamental analysis. Though, to find more competent entry and exit points I use technical analysis, but without indicators – i.e. a clear chart is analyzed in different time modes.

Do you develop automated Expert Advisors yourself?
Nearly half of EAs that I use are my developments. Another half was taken from the Internet. But as a rule such EAs need serious amendments prior to using them. That is why I can say that all automated EAs that I use were to this or that extent refined by me.

Your resources are very interesting and informative for traders. Could you please tell us about the idea of creating a blog, its authors?
The blog was created as a supplement to the main web-site www.earnforex.com. Originally the blog was designed to contain the notifications about the new information available on the site. But after launching the blog it was clear that the visitors are more interested in the new information about the market, technical or fundamental analysis, etc. That is why now the blog now exists independently from the site. They intersect only when the blog notifies about new information about brokers or books, published on the site. There is one author of the blog and the site – me. Though, materials of other authors are often published on the site. Now I am considering the possibility of a permanent cooperation with possible co-authors.

Could you describe, what is your weekly technical analysis is based on? What analytical tools are used for it?
My weekly technical analysis is based on different pivot points, counted by different methods. In this case the source data for the calculation are figures of the previous week. For the calculation itself I use calculators, located on my web-site. I think, the most successful for a medium-term trading are DeMark support and resistance points, and for a short-term trading – using Camarilla equation.

Do you consider these tools efficient and reliable?
Yes, if we can apply the word “reliable” to a financial trading, I consider these tools exactly of this kind. I find them quite successful.

You mainly describe a currency pair EUR/USD. Does it seem the most attractive one for you? Why there is little information about other currencies?
Indeed, I pay attention to the pair EUR/USD in the technical part, and US dollar fundamentally, more than to other Forex securities. There are two reasons. First, I think it is easier for a trader to focus on one trading security. It does not mean that you cannot trade on other pairs, but you should always focus on one thing for a deeper analysis of a currency pair behavior. By force of historical circumstances, for me it is EUR/USD. Others may prefer other securities. Second, there are many other pairs containing dollar or euro, the correlation with EUR/USD will be vivid. The Forex market is a related market, in which almost all securities influence each other. So, analyzing EUR/USD we can forecast the behavior of other pairs, for example GBP/USD or USD/CHF.

Let us get back to the automated trading. Some traders thinks that the automated trading has a very promising future. What do you think about it?
I agree that the automated trading has a promising future. As far as I know, 20% of all trades in financial markets are assumed to be conducted with automated programs. I think, the higher this value is, the more successful is the trading of complex programs, which will then compete not with human creative thoughts and emotion, but with other programs. I also think that automated trading can attract many talented people – programmers, mathematicians, who would have never taken an interest in Forex.

Are you already acquainted with the Automated Trading Championship 2007?
First I heard about it at the end of the Championship in 2006. First I was impressed by the results of the winning EA. But then I lost interest in the results of the Championship, which, in my opinion, mainly depend on luck in such competitions. Traders prefer to present Expert Advisors with larger risks and profit, hoping for a good luck. To use such programs in real life is quite suicidal. Nevertheless, now this Championship is interesting for me from the point of view of using different systems of money-management. So, most likely I will take part in the Automated Trading Championship 2007.

We will be glad to see you among the Participants. Have you already decided, which Expert Advisor to Present in the Championship?
Not yet, but I already have several candidates. The main difficulty in choosing the best one is connected with testing on trades with very high risks. I am going to focus exactly on this problem till the beginning of the Championship.

Please tell us about the money-management system, you use.
At the present moment (in EAs that will not be used for the Championship) money-management is based on a set of rules. First, I do not use for one position (or several positions in one direction) more than 5% of the general capital. Second, I use lots of the fixed size till the capital reaches a certain level. I.e. at losses I do not reduce the lot while it is within 5% of the whole sum, and increase at profits only if the percentage ratio lot/capital becomes less than 1-2%.

Will you use another money-management system for the Championship?
Yes, for the Championship, when the purpose is to win, such system does not suit at all. For acquiring a potentially large profit within a relatively short period, we need a very aggressive money-management system, in which the relation lot/capital can hardly be lower than 10%. Unfortunately, such system is quite likely to be the reason of bankruptcy, but using a common money-management, an EA cannot achieve impressive results within a short period.

What does, in your opinion, the success of an EA depend on?
The success of an EA is quite easy – a competent money-management strategy and stable forecasting of successful entry and exit points. If the first one is usually the result of a trader’s experience and calculations, the second is the result of long EA testing as on the old market data, so on demo accounts in real-time mode. The attempts to create an automated Expert Advisor without these two qualities are doomed to failure. Even if an EA gives accurate forecasts in 70% cases, the absence of a well-thought money-management will do its part with the course of time.

Andrei, thank you for the interview. Good luck!