Hello, Al. Could you, please, tell us about your business?
We develop solutions for MetaTrader 4 users. We have a ready-made package called PipBoxer that consists of 10 Expert Advisors. It is a fully automated trading system that analyzes the market, enters trades, and manages open trades. We also develop custom EAs, indicators, and scripts for our customers. The last but not the least is that we teach people how to develop custom solutions for MetaTrader 4. The courses are online and one-on-one.

You develop and sell your Expert Advisors, indicators, and scripts. Do you use them in trading yourself? Do you use them on a real account?
Yes, for sure. I trade my own Expert Advisors. I actually started live trading PipBoxer in October 2006. There was a short delay in live trading as I was developing PipBoxer V2, but then I resumed live trading in March 2007.

And what results have you got?
I have made money so far. PipBoxer V1 generated 10% growth on a conservative risk allocation in about two and a half months. The new version of PipBoxer has even made more. I'm still trading it live and don't have a plan to stop trading. I publish my live statement so everybody can see my results. Although live, this statement is used for reporting purposes only.

Ok, Al. You developed the Expert and you are using it now and sell it at the same time. How often do you receive orders for PipBoxer?
Well, the exact number of orders is a secret, but I can assure you that I sell PipBoxer on a daily basis. There might be a weekend that I do not sell the EA, but on weekdays I sell everyday. Thanks to all my customers!

Aren’t you afraid of killing the goose that lays golden eggs for you, Al?
The answer is NO. If you get real you know that Forex is a type of investment. The more you invest the more you can make. It is not a become-a-millionaire-instantly game. While I'm growing my portfolio with PipBoxer, I also sell it and make extra cash. Selling PipBoxer has given me the opportunity to stop touching my live account and let it grow. It also gives me the chance to interact with people and enjoy their company.

The results of your Expert Advisor PipBoxer v. 2.0.5 are impressive. How long have you been working at it? And what improvements have you scheduled for PipBoxer’s development?
I spent over 3 months to come up with the idea of PipBoxer. Then I shared it with ForexFactory members and took their suggestions into account. It took another 2 to 3 months to develop PipBoxer V2. I'm quite open to suggestions and comments. I receive comments from my customers and others on a daily basis. If I see a comment worth to try I'll try it. So I can say while PipBoxer is a fully operational commercial package it is being revised on a daily basis.

Have we understood you aright: Correlation between stop orders levels in this Expert Advisor is nearly 1:1? Why do you stand to this principle?
There is a simple reason for that – the back-test results. You also need to keep in mind that when a trade starts, the money-management tools take effect. They constantly move Stop Loss and Take Profit to get out of a trade the best way possible. So you usually exit a trade with SL/TP that are different from the original ones. If I find out that a pair trades with a different combination I'll definitely make revisions.

Please tell us about your VAR (Value-At-Risk) system.
In my system, VAR stands for the percentage of your account balance that you risk per trade. For example, if you set VAR to be 5% and your account balance is $10000 you will lose up to $500 per trade. I use a fixed fractional position sizing approach for my system because Stop Loss varies from trade to trade.

You chose strategy “No Margin Call”. Why?
If you increase your risk and especially the number of open trades you might encounter the problem of receiving margin calls from your broker. My Expert gets the margin call criteria from broker's platform and based on that if it finds out there is a risk of receiving margin calls it won't initiate a new trade. This approach is specifically very good for those who trade several systems or even manually along with PipBoxer.

VAR, the “No Margin Call” Rule… It looks like you are putting safety mechanisms first in your EA, aren’t you, Al?
I believe this Expert Advisors is quite open to the direction you want to take. For example, you can disable VAR and enter your own lot number with the _user_lot_size variable. The "No Margin Call" is also disabled by default and it is the user who enables it. So I would say whether you are a trader who doesn't mind to lose much or a conservative money manager, you can depend on PipBoxer. Thanks to the flexibility of MQL 4 I managed to build the Expert Advisor so flexible.

Codersguru considers money management to be the most important component of an Expert Advisor. Could you, please, advance your opinion about it? Do you agree with him?
I would say while Money Management is a very important element, a complete Expert Advisor is the one that consists of a successful strategy, risk management, and money management. While without money management the odds of winning are very low, you also need to have a correct understanding of risk and strategy. The bottom line is that they all go hand in hand.

At the present moment, what are you working at? Do you have any developments or just ideas about new EAs?
Yes, I do. I'm currently working on an Expert Advisor for the MetaQuotes Software Corp. competition. I'm also working on a trend-following system.

Please tell a bit more about these two Experts, Al. If it is not a commercial secret, of course.
The Expert Advisor that I will use for the Championship is a black box. I won't reveal its approach prior to the end of the competition. It trades GBP/JPY and benefits from the extreme volatility of this pair. I have already published my trend-following system for GBPUSD. I'm working towards its completion to give it the ability to trade more than one pair. This Expert Advisor is called PBTrend.

The Expert for Automated Trading Championship 2007 will "benefit from the extreme volatility of this pair". Do you think you need a risky Expert Advisor for the competition?
Yes, I do. I want to see huge growth to be able to win the game. The movements help the Expert to grow fast. On the other hand, the maximum 5 lots limitations force me to use a system that can win as much as possible in a single trade.

In our Championship, Expert Advisors will trade without any human intervention for almost 3 months. What is the longest period, during which your Expert Advisor worked without human interference? Do you think a three-month period would be enough for testing an Expert Advisor in real conditions?
I believe that my Experts can work without human intervention for even a longer time. The Expert Advisors that are designed for the competition - I believe - are designed to win the competition, not to be commercial ones. So it is slightly different. I'm not quite sure whether a winner of the competition is ready to use Expert Advisor.

But if we speak about a "regular" Expert Advisor, are three months enough to answer the question whether it is reliable or not, in your opinion, Al?
If they are supported with relatively reliable back-test results, yes. I believe a combination of back-test and forward-test can show whether a system is successful or not. In my opinion, you also need monitoring your Expert Advisors constantly to make sure they respond to market movements correctly.

Thank you for the interview. Good luck!