Automated Forex system trading has received a lot of attention lately as a great way to make money working from home. These Forex packages, or robots, can make trades automatically which can free up your time and make you a good amount of money. I test and evaluate this type of software because I trade Forex for a living. If I find one that makes profitable trades consistently, I keep it. Otherwise, I send it back to the vendor and get a refund. It is important to find Forex software that can make winning trades even through the toughest of economic conditions.

Here are the top 3 things you should look for when evaluating this type of software if you want to make good money in automated Forex system trading:

1) How Does It Perform On Historical Back-tests?

Automated Forex trading software integrates with trading platforms like MetaTrader 4. Historical testing can be performed to simulate the trades and decisions the Forex software would have made against historical foreign currency exchange data. This can be a reliable indicator as to how the software might make trades in a live account.

A vital statistic to look for in historical back-test results is the win-loss ratio. This will tell you how many times a profitable trade is made in proportion to how many times a losing trade is made. For example, if the automated Forex robot made ten trades, with 7 winners and 3 losers, your win to loss ratio would be 7 to 3. Thus, the software made 70% winning trades against historical data.

2) How Does The Software Perform On Forward Tests?

Even more important than back-test results are forward test results. Does the software perform well and make winning trades in current market conditions? To be blunt, back-test results are generally meaningless if the Forex software does not perform well under live trading conditions.

Made available by most Forex trading brokers are demo accounts, where you make live trades but don’t risk real money. Due to the risk involved in Forex trading, it is recommended that someone new to Forex trading use a demo account for the first couple of months to get a feel for the software’s win-loss ratio. When trading on a live account, ideally the Forex software will match or outperform the back-test results.

3) Automated Risk Scaling

When evaluating automated Forex system trading software, possibly the most important factor to look for is automated risk scaling. Profitable Forex trading software should have built-in risk filters and indicators to help prevent the software from trading in risky conditions. During unstable market periods, this will help minimize the number of automated trades made by the Forex software and reduce losing trades.