What lacked this kind of subject?
I have been following (not cooperating ) into a signal provider through MQL5 for at least 4-5 months now after viewing some fairly phenomenal growth figures, coupled with very manageable lure down and who had managed to get a decent following for their services. What provoked my interest farther was that it was a Martingale Strategy that had gone on for about 3 decades and had over 5000 trades. Good effort actually. As you can see in the screen shot, the equity curve is amazing, and it isn't a testing curve from a egy tester, it's real trading. But I suppose with all good things, it had to come to an end.... Well not yet, but very possibly.
From memory, the first deposit was $1000, and it grew to a profit at its peak of near $125,000 lt;----- Thats right, $125K which is quite a decent yield. That balance is down approx $55K in losses that are realised and almost $20K in unrealized draw down. What took 3 and years to construct has taken a combo of about 3 months and 20-30 something transactions of dropping trade, no SL, double up, farther losing transactions, nevertheless no SL, double upward and on and on it went. This is a Martingale at its best.
For the provider, its not all bad. Even though they realise the declines now its still an extremely handy profit to rebuild out of, but contemplating a entire position size of about 18.7 standard lots ($187 each pip), and a current SL worth 111 points away in the market, that $20k can balloon by a different 20K. The chart shows its just so scenic and the martingale, like a cliff face has been attained and you have tumbled over it.
It has been a phenomenal run. 5000 trades for $ 1K to $125K however, the writting's development is on the wall. All those small wins - $20, $150 etc to face a few creatures which have the trader frozen, thinking in what has always worked rather than allowing for thinking. The upside to it all, is that I think in the setup a considerable amount has been made by them through signal fees plus what they have pulled over time. The lesson is more for subscribers, who follow along and may simply jump in and be in the wrong place at the wrong moment.
Worth much discussion!