I was recently asked via PM: As a longer-term Zorro user than most have I made money with Zorro? The questioner said s/he has lost money over the last year or so...

In fact, I recently had my 3-year Zanniversary . I think this question is better answered here in the Forum as perhaps others would also be interested; and perhaps other longer-term users will chime in with their experiences as well.

The short answer to the question is no - I now have less money than I started with.

But of course it's more complex than that. Early on Zorro had made money and I was of course very happy. But then came my biggest loss when the SNB did its thing and Z5 died.

Even that is not as simple as it at first appears. My understanding is that other Zorro users fared differently... My recollection is that jcl said he made money off the SNB event...

From reading lots of Forum posts, trading results vary from user to user due to when a strategy is started, which broker, MT4 vs. API, using more or less aggressive settings, errors in setup, etc. - the list of possible differences seems to be pretty long. And is a big reason why results comparisons on the forum have usually ended up going nowhere...

Trading results also normally do not match Test results. To paraphrase what I think I've learned from jcl so far, the pretty, smoothly increasing equity curve that one works with Zorro to produce is really still only 1 of the many possible outcomes. Even assuming real trading matches the Test statistics, you could still have bad luck and start with immediately full maximum drawdown, which is much worse than 3% UI. And of course reality may not match Test - again paraphrasing what I think I've learned, worst case your strategy could have expired before you even start trading it.

In any case, since SNB I have been looking/hoping for a return to glory, but it has not (yet?) happened. It's particularly worrying that my running of the Z12 flagship strategy was essentially flat over post-SNB 2015, and has been a pretty big loser so far in 2016 - results that more or less match the questioner's. Of course, as noted above, these results are still within the range of the Z12 Test results; but the longer it goes on the more I wonder if it can/will ever recover, much less make money; and the mind fills this (hopefully temporary) down time with questions: Did something fundamental change after the SNB? Are the version upgrade cycles preventing equity trading from working properly? What else might be going on?! Am I really that unlucky? I don't know...

I am not a Forex expert. I was and still am a learning neophyte, and still in the Proof of Concept stage. I consider Zorro to be an excellent tool for what it does, and uniquely well documented, including concepts. But whether algorithmic trading can consistently make money in today's market, and whether a strategy developed in Zorro can consistently make money in line with its Test/predicted results are separate questions that I'm still waiting to see verified.

So, this is a long way of answering that my jury is still out. I haven't lost everything I invested, and was prepared for some loss as part of the learning cost. But to the questioner and others, I would definitely say proceed with extreme caution. There is no magic, simple get rich quick bullet here. There is lots of hard work and learning. And almost certainly losses. Even if you can develop a truly, regularly profitable strategy, Zorro is even then not set-and-forget. Good luck, happy trading, & hope you're smarter than me!