$1 Million Or A Bomb? 4 Rules Before You Change Your Robot Settings

You changed a forex robot setting on a stranger's tip. Now your account could blow up and you would not know why.

I see it every week. A number gets typed in, a dropdown gets flipped, and the trader waits to see what happens. That is a guess with real money riding on it.

So in our client webinar on 5 November I gave the room a picture to hold on to. Watch it first. It is just over a minute.

The box under the tree

Picture a Christmas gift. A heavy wooden box, wrapped, with your name on the tag. You lift the paper and find the box is split down the middle into two sides.

In one side sits a million dollars in neat, banded stacks. In the other side sits a round black bomb with a short fuse. Each side has its own lid, and the lids are locked.

On top there is a small keypad and a screen. Your only job is to type the right combination and open the lid of the right side. Type the wrong one and you open the wrong lid. Then it blows up.

Now here is the part people miss. The box does not come empty-handed. It comes with a manual that tells you exactly which numbers to put in.

So my question to the room was simple: are you going to read the manual, or are you just going to do whatever you shmaak?

Your trading account is that box

Your trading account is the box. The robot settings are the combination. The training videos are the manual. Every input in the robot is one more number on that keypad.

When a trader skips the manual and changes settings by feel, they are pressing buttons on a box they cannot see inside. Sometimes nothing happens. Sometimes the lid they open is the wrong one.

4 rules before you touch a setting

1. Stop at the word you do not understand

If a setting name or a word in the lesson makes no sense to you, stop there. Ask before you move on. The word you skip is usually the one that matters.

2. Know if you are changing the strategy or the size

A dropdown usually changes how the robot trades. A number usually changes how much or how often. Both open a different lid, so know which one your finger is on.

3. Change one thing at a time

Change two settings at once and you will never know which one did the damage, or which one helped. One change, then watch, then write down what you saw.

4. Watch the lesson for that setting first

Every Rule 2 setting is explained in the training videos. Watch the one for the setting you want to change before you type anything. That is the manual in the box.

Reading the manual: the upside and the catch

Pros: you know what every number on the keypad does. When something goes wrong, you can find why, fix it and carry on.

Cons: it is slower. Watching a lesson takes longer than typing a number a stranger gave you, and nobody claps when you read a manual.

I made the Rule 2 training videos for exactly this reason. The manual is already in your box. Use it before you touch the keypad.

Questions traders ask

Can I change my forex robot settings myself?

Yes, they are your settings. Watch the lesson for that setting first and change one thing at a time, so you can see what it did.

Why did my robot stop trading after I changed a setting?

One setting can switch off a whole part of the strategy. Put back the last thing you changed and check that setting's lesson to see what it controls.

What is the difference between a dropdown and a number in the robot inputs?

A dropdown usually picks how the robot trades. A number usually sets how much or how often it trades, so both change what happens in your account.

Read next

• The Rule 2 robot and its training videos: the robot I use, with the manual in the box.
• 5 Rules That Stop Traders Repeating My $39,000 Finger Slip
• What clients say: reviews from the Alive FX community.

Forex trading carries risk.