Which Z system is the best?

Meanwhile enough people have subscribed the Z systems for us to see which systems are significantly preferred. Strangely, 95% of all users subscribed Z12. Only a few subscribed Z3 and only two so far subscribed Z5.

This is about the opposite of what we expected. We've put most of our own money on Z5, as it comes the closest of all to a regular income. Also the Z5 drawdown is limited, while drawdown of the other systems is theoretically unlimited. If you think about which system to subscribe, have a look at Z5.

Mmmh.
When i look at the results and the pictures given in the manual i see a range of eight month where Z5 made no profit (01.2012 - 09.2012). I don't think i wan't such a strategy life traded. My nerves would be wrecked :-)
Against Z5 Z12 has a much more 'smoothed' equity curve where i see a monthly progress.

Ah, I see. This might be the reason why people stay away of Z5. But there is a huge general difference of that eight months period and a drawdown of a usual system.

The 8 months period was expected in advance, had a clear reason, did not lose money, and you could read in the newspaper when it started and ended. A normal drawdown comes unexpected, has no obvious reason, does lose money, and you never know when it starts and ends.

Yepp. I've read the manual and the explanation of this 'summer period'. It's just the visual thing and the 'money in the pocket' thing i guess :-)

You think i should change my second 1000€ live account from Z12 to Z5 !?

PS: Ups i see. I must also pay for the Z5 version :-) Another 6€ per month...

I was under the impression that Z12 was both Z1 and Z2 combined. Which, for a while, led me to believe that I could replace those two with a single strategy. Perhaps others gets the same idea? The name Z12 is what caused the confusion for me.

JCL - When you say subscribe to Zs, do you mean people who pay the monthly fee or does Zorro report to you which Zs are being traded?

Also, Z12:VO just entered me into two short USOIL positions and placed the stop for both at about $175. Is this normal? That is a huge stop, but if that's what the algo wants to do...

BTW - My Zs are doing well now that I use MT4. Wish I could say the same for my programming skills.

Hi DMB,

is this the stop you are seeing in the order statement or the real hidden stop loss from Zorro? You can see the hidden SL when pushing the result button.

The MT4 window says $175. The Zorro message window says risk 4424. When I click Result, the stop reported in the message window is about $152. Interesting. Thanks for telling me this. Considering the current price is ~$109, still pretty large.

Yepp. The SL are all very large but there is no TP. So the sky is the limit :-)
Therefore you will see trades running very long and making many pips. (Hopefully)

JCL. Just a question. When i trade Z5 with the equity needed (2000$) and starting Zorro. Are the sliders of Margin and Risk are set to fit with a account of 2000$ ?


PS: I also must rethink the slider settings of my 2000€ Z12 account. I think they are to low with margin and risk set to 10...
When the Z12s test gives me this info:
Profit 20150$ MI 487$ DD 1636$ Capital 2558$

That does mean i need 2558$ on that account to start with the given settings!?

----
This is what the manual says: Sum of maximum drawdown and maximum margin. This is the capital required to safely trade the strategy when it is entered at the worst possible moment, i.e. directly at the balance peak preceding the largest drawdown.
----

So i really need those 2558$ to be mostly sure that the DD won't kill my account.
But could it be a possibility to raise the margin slider to a higher value and when i see some significant DD to lower the slider accordingly?

I thought that, too.
I am currently trading Z5, a self-made script similar to Z5, and Z3.
Z3, however, has just started and not taken any trades yet, but I am definitely considering putting more money into Z5.

Do not worry, Zorro does not report us anything. We do not spy on users. I meant the people who pay the monthly $5.


Yes, you should really have the $2558. Either directly on that account, or at least somewhere else if you need to remargin. It is unlikely that a strategy will already start with the worst drawdown, but it can happen.

Thank you! Just canceled one of the Z12s account and changed it into aZ5s strategy. :-)

Puuuh. Z12s did take a short on USD/CHF but the asset is already really down. Very interesting to see how it will move....
I fear that this trade will cost me an huge amount of my real euros :-|

But I trust the EA and will bravely sit on my hands :-)

Was it entered by the same algorithm as the 3 usd/chf shorts before?

Yepp. At the moment we are in a consolidation zone and i'am sure there will be a big break out but i consider it to be going up.

We will see if something happens when NY opens in 20 minutes

Ah okay. I wish you good luck 0.15 lots is a pretty heavy bet compared to the others

Yeah. I little raised the Margin slider according to the new account balance. But I was also surprised to see 0.15 lots ... We will see. At the moment after NY open there is still no movement. Very very exciting .

US users can't use Z5, or did I misunderstand that?

I liked the 95% win rate, but didn't think it was available for me. I see it has 3 different modes now, and one is called "virtual hedging". Does that make it NFA compliant?

If so, I would like to give Z5 a try. My Z12 demo isn't really doing much. It has entered some really good trades, but holds them too long and looses the profits. I don't understand the "AI", seems like Zorro would "learn" to stop doing that?

Oh, I found the answer. I need to set "hedge=4", but then the Win Rate drops to 70% and the Profit Factor drops to 3.

I will give it a try.

Okay,

I stopped the Z12 demo and manually closed all the trades at FXCM. I downloaded the newest Zorro update. I set the ini settings to:

NFA=1
FXOnly=1
Phantom=0
MMax=100
Weekend=2
Verbose=2
Comma=0
Mute=0
Broker Patch=3

I set the Mode slider to 2 and pressed Trade.

Did I do everything correctly? (I think so, except not certain about "Phantom" setting)

Also, the "hedge=4" I referred to is covered by the Mode slider being set to 2, is that correct?

thanks,

I think its enough to set NFA=1. The mode setting is only for reducing market exposure and needing less capital.

Hmm?

jcl, it's demo money, so capital isn't an issue. What settings will be most profitable, or is there any difference since I set NFA=1 ?

( also would you clarify for me how my Zorro non-S version utilizes with the $50,000 demo account. I've always been unsure about how that works. Does Zorro just act as if I have $7,000 in the account?)

thanks,

It hasn't begun trading yet. Sundance, did it take a while for yours to begin?

I can't remember it that exactly but it took 1-3 days for the first trade.

The settings look ok for Z5. Mode 1 earns the most money, mode 2 has the least exposure and mode 3 the least risk. All modes work with or without NFA.

Since two weeks the EUR/CHF makes only minimal moves. Z5 does not enter trades in this situation, as it bears the danger of a fast breakout and a high drawdown. It will resume trading when the EUR/CHF curve is back to normal again.

Thanks for the explanation. I'll set it to mode 1. I'm glad to get the chance to try Z5.

Yeah jcl at the moment Z5 isn't very exciting to look at. *gähn*