Maxim, could you please tell us a little about yourself.

I was born in a town named Sovetskaya Gavan (English translation of it is Soviet Harbor). My Expert Advisor is named after my native town - Soviet Habor. After that I studied in Khabarovsk State Technical University and in 2002 got a diploma of its Institute of Information Technologies with the qualification of a production engineer. After that I started working in a state institution and am still working there. In general we develop software for the needs of our company.

How long are you acquainted with trading and MQL4 programming language?

I heard about forex since long ago, but never took it seriously. Time goes by and opinion changes. I read a book about banking to understand general notions of mechanisms and operations performed by banks. This was the time when I took an interest in forex, besides there was a little about stock markets and forex in the book. I started to look for a ready solution in order not to reinvent a wheel. Such a solution was MetaTrader 4 and MQL4. So, I started to study them about two years ago.

You are a programmer, so it must be easy for you to program any trading strategy. And how you find a trading strategy to be programmed?

Well, in my opinion MQL4 has a lot of similar with other popular programming language that I know, so I have no problems with development. It's not a secret that everything of genius is simple - this is what I am guided by. Everything must be as simple and clear as possible. From the very beginning of my acquaintance with forex and MetaTrader 4 platform I started to read the forum trying to understand others' strategies, learned by my own mistakes. And I found many proofs of this approach: the simpler a system is the better.

There was a time when I studied the behavior of bees, ants and even birds. I made this to get new horizons and if a possibility occurs to use the obtained knowledge in practice. A solution must be unconventional, but very simple. I am absolutely convinced of that.

After studying the animal world have you ever used the knowledge obtained?

In a direct sense - no. As of today it has no practical application. You know what brainstorming is, don't you? This is when a group of people is gathered and given a task. And the whole group is trying to find the best solution based on any suggested idea, even if it seems absurd at the first sight. Studying of notions not connected with trading is a kind of brainstorming for me. This is how I try to change my preconceived opinion and get out of traditional thinking.

And now let's discuss your development - Soviet Habor. Your EA's account chart looks unusual. After a sharp rise your Expert Advisor started to trade overcarefully - minimal lots. What is it connected with?

"Greed bears poverty" (c). If you read carefully news of two previous Championships, you will see that as a rule supergreedy EAs not knowing how to fix profit fell so quickly as the rise. And the situation is the same in the current Championship. My money management system implies a point of stopping and changing a value for the calculation of a maximal allowed lot size taking into account profit/loss.

Under what conditions does your system stop and change the calculation value?

This is done when certain preset sums are reached. The first level was $30,000, after that - each $10,000. Here I made a small mistake in the EA code that I detected only after the Championship start. As a result there are no further stops. In conditions of the current Championship my EA with an original system could hardly be so close to leaders. And we know that trend cannot last forever. So, whatever God does is for the best. We can only wait and see.

How are stops calculated during position opening? What does the StopLoss size depend on?

StopLoss and TakeProfit are set symmetrically 100 points far from a price. If calculation means are not enough, the number of basic points is decreased and lot size and stops are recalculated. I think, this mechanism lacks trailing stops and the system of profit fixing by market. But this is the topic of a separate discussion.

Absence of trailing stops - is it a special decision for your Expert Advisor?

I have never traded on live accounts, only demo. And participation in the Championship helped me understand certain things from the inside. Before the Championship I didn't know that StopLoss can be less than an order size and thus can fix profit. So, I found out this, but only after the start.

Your Expert Advisor executed more than 80 trades, all of them were sell trades. Can your EA buy?

He can buy - this is included into its code. We could see this if my Expert Advisor would fall till 60% of its initial deposit. It was important for me to run a working system in real conditions and see its possibilities both with the maximal and minimal lots. That is why my Expert Advisor is designed not for the maximal profit, but for the maximal presence in the Championship.

It seems trading hours do not matter for your Expert Advisor, it does not have "favorite" trading sessions. Am I right?

Well, not exactly so. There are hours and days (not weekend) when my EA does not trade at all. In such time intervals the EA works only in position closing mode if, for example, there StopLoss or TakeProfit wasn't hit.

Is the non-trading time strictly preset or the Expert Advisor calculates it itself? When exactly it does not trade?

This time is set strictly in the EA code. It is 2 hours before the end of a trading week. I believe, opening a trade in this period is a high risk of getting losses in the beginning of the next week. However, if a trade is not closed till the trading week end, it is transferred to the next week.

The average time of position holding of your Expert Advisor is a little less than six hours. Well, from the analysis of previous Championships we know that

Your EA does not stick to this regularity. Why?

I simply knew nothing of this. But answering your question I'd like to tell you that irrespective of regularities detected in previous Championships, my EA is governed by an absolutely different system. It fixes a preset profit and thus increases its next lot. This gives my EA an additional chance to stay long in the Championship and have all chances to win!

Maxim, we have not discussed indicators. Does your Expert Advisor contain any? What are they?

No, there are no indicators in my EA at all. I intentionally decided not to search for a "grail" using indicators before the Championship start and "tuned" my EA for the current trend. I am thinking about systems without indicators. Though I study basic ones, try to remember them and learn to interpret their results.

You have told that you never traded on live accounts. Why? And are you planning to start?

I do not trade because my knowledge is not enough for trading on a live account. Statistic shows that out of 100 people coming to forex only 10 will stay, and only 2 of them will earn. The presence of a spread in quotes already tells to be maximally cautious with everything connected with live money. Well, of course I want to try trading on a real account. Besides, I am disciplined and not venturesome.

Expert Advisors of which Participants do you consider interesting?

During the first week I like many others was attracted by successful EAs. But then reading the forum and watching their investor accounts I got evidences that they are based on the hit-or-miss principle. And I think the Championship lacks some useful options like possibility to read Equity of the top three or ten Participants which could enliven the competition. Personally I like EAs that trade in both directions, as well as multicurrency ones. I hope I am not the only one thinking that such an EA is that of eniksoft. And though it has a row of evident imperfections, its floatability wins over. Pity, Organizers have not included Audience Choice Award that could be decided by way of voting of all Participants. In this case we could get a more objective estimation.

To conclude this, I would like to wish good luck to all Participants of the Automated Trading Championship 2008! Trusting in win and Soviet Habor, maximich.

Maxim, thank you for the interview! Good luck!