Charismatic FX Trader Sheep Herdsman Enters EA Trading: 5000-character Interview "I Believe EA trading can become a new game different from discretionary trading"

Shepherd's Profile

Charismatic FX trader and blogger (administrator of "Shepherd's FX Blog"). Began FX in 2001 after receiving an insurance payout. At the time, he was active mainly on a bulletin board to exchange information about overseas FX companies whose fees and spreads were advantageous, but in 2003 he moved his activity to a blog to record the information he gathered. As readers requested and as information for his own trading accumulated, it developed into the current format. His trading style mainly involves scalping trades that last from seconds to hours.

Official site：Shepherd's FX Blog
Twitter：https://twitter.com/hitsuzikai

※This article is a reprint/re-edit of FX攻略.com June 2019 issue. Please note that the market information written in the text may differ from current market conditions.

● Interviewer: Michihiko Ebizawa (Editorial Dept.)

EA performance improved with narrower spreads!

Ebizawa: When people think of Shepherd, many probably picture scalping. However, from around 2017, he also started using repeat-order strategies like Gurtoroe (Gurtore) and automated trading (EA). Among those, today I’d like to focus on EA operation. First, could you tell us what prompted you to focus on EA?

ShepherdThe initial interest in EA came from learning about Gurutore. At first I did Gurutore with manual orders, but as I got used to it, I found it cumbersome. So I thought, why not automate the orders, and began researching automatic trading and EAs.

I knew MT4, but hadn’t implemented it. When the opportunity arose to start MT4, a friend gave me an EA. After trying it, it turned out to be more profitable than I expected. Well, there were times I manually closed positions, so not everything was due to that EA. That prompted me to start buying EAs from sites like GoGoJungle (note 1) and Terrace (note 2) afterward.

（※1） Investment e-commerce media.https://www.gogojungle.co.jp/
（※2） System trading sales site.https://openterrace.jp/

Ebizawa: I’m surprised you hadn’t touched MT4 before. As a discretionary trader, what impression do you have of automated trading?

ShepherdI’ve tried the IStraQ24 service from Ikigai Securities (※3). From that experience, I got the impression that there are strategies that can win in the short term, but there probably isn’t something that wins in the long term.

（※3） An automated trading service that offers many strategies

Ebizawa: So you were somewhat skeptical, hmm.

ShepherdYes. However, around 2017 and 2018, more people began winning with EA. When I investigated why, it seemed the spreads offered by MT4-using brokers had become dramatically narrower. No matter how excellent an EA is, wide spreads limit performance. But spreads that once were 3–4 pips have fallen below 1 pip now, so EA performance has improved and more people are making profits. Some people say EA doesn’t make money, but perhaps they are basing that on past data or experience. At least I have reconsidered my view.

Ebizawa: So the narrowing of spreads by MT4 brokers led to more profitable EAs. How did you proceed to scale EA operation after that?