Website : AutoFocus FX Website
Publisher : John Wheatland
Cost : £347
Review Date : January - February 2011

WHAT IT SAYS ON THE WEBSITE

John Wheatland was a "bored data-entry clerk who quit his father's Dubai business to develop a new way to profit from the FX markets". "You don't need a shred of trading experience to start pocketing over £500 extra a month - every month - with just £2 trading". Trade £5 a PIP and this becomes "on average, £1,680 a month" or "with £10 trading you could soon be walking away each month with a massive £3,360".

A table demonstrates the above returns May through October 2010 (including a detailed September break-down), with no losing months during the same period.

We did a bit of analysis on these figures based and this indicated a consistent return of +20% a month based on a 25 PIP Stop/50 PIP Target and 2% risk per trade. Impressive returns to say the least!

The set-up process, a "one time only thing", will take less than an hour and once set up "you'll be automatically alerted" each time there's a trading opportunity. To assist the set up process, as well as the manual, John provides his email address, has a forum, a trading (chat) room and supporting videos.

After set up it's a case of waiting for an alert and reacting to that alert (placing your trade). The chart "shows you which way the markets are going to move next", "there's no unnecessary detail", "no 'up one minute, down the next'" and "there's no need for you to spend all your time watching the markets". "It really couldn't be simpler" and "the profit potential really couldn't be any clearer".

There is a 45 Day Money Back Guarantee with this system, backed by Agora.

THE MATERIAL

A nice glossy manual delivered by post. Plus a Meta Trader 4 (MT4) template and indicators, access to a dedicated forum, a trading (chat) room, John's personal email address and instructional videos.

The manual is 113 pages and its well put together. The first half of the manual is largely devoted to introducing Forex, Candlesticks, Technical indicators, MT4 and the AutoFocus FX set up and installation. The PIP Range bar is also covered in some detail, this is a different kind of candlestick and one that is rarely used in trading. This is nothing new but it is the first Trading system we have ever reviewed based on this concept. In basic terms the candles form different to "normal" candles in that they are range of movement and not time orientated.

GBPUSD is the Currency pair of choice and the latter half of the manual focuses on the strategy. It is clearly explained via a walk-through of the indicators/alerts and a number of examples. There are some reasonable "stay out" rules; near BRN which seems to be the new term for Big Round Numbers and 30 minutes either side of major news.

Some Risk and Money management - Fixed Stops and Targets (a little flexibility on the Stop) are recommended and 2% risk per trade is suggested. There is also a useful section on configuring the AutoFocus FX alerts.

The MT4 files are downloaded from the AutoFocus FX website and although not difficult to install and set up, it will take a complete novice quite some time. That said, with the forum/chat room/email support, the majority will be up and running within an hour, took us about 10 minutes to set up for GBPUSD.

The support infrastructure is excellent.

THE SYSTEM

After reading through the manual and setting up our GBPUSD chart we first had a read through the forum, as advised by John.

The EURJPY, then FTSE and finally EURUSD have been added since the manual has been printed. There has also been a revised indicator and a subsequent all-in-one indicator released (these changes have been aesthetic). A Moving average has also been added into the mix to aid the Entry criteria.

We chose to trade the recommended GBPUSD and one of the new additions (EURJPY). We risked 2% of our account balance per trade and used the fixed Stops and Targets recommended. Entry was off the new all-in-one indicator from when it was available, else it was off the most recent of the previous indicators. We did not include the new Moving average in our Entry criteria.

Note: We did not trade either Strategy 2 or the Scalper strategy, which are also available to those who have bought the core AutoFocus FX system. Nor did we trade the Early riser version, provided to those who stay with AutoFocus FX at the end of the 45 day trial period.

CAN IT WORK

We traded AutoFocus FX for 6 weeks from the beginning of January to the middle of February, from 08:00 - 12:00 CET. This is the time we found we could commit, obviously those trading longer and other instruments will have different results to ours. We used Smart Live Markets - Spreadbetting, Forex and CFD Trading with Smart Live Markets - (an MT4 (required for the indicators) Spread betting account).

We did find that although the indicators issue an audible alert, it is not so easy to be doing something else. The set up can occur quite quickly and when in a trade Stop is moved to B/E at +25 PIPs plus major news events require trade intervention.

Onto the results:

January

GBPUSD - 19 trades, 11 losing, 5 break-even, 3 win - Net loss -10%
EURJPY - 11 trades, 4 losing, 3 break-even, 4 win - Net profit +8%

February

GBPUSD - 7 trades, 3 losing, 3 break-even, 1 win - Net loss -2%
EURJPY - 3 trades, 2 losing, 1 break-even - Net loss -4%

That's a Net loss of -8% over a 6 week period. As mentioned we did not apply the newly introduced Moving average rule. Nor did we pay attention to the no GBPUSD trades before 08:00 GMT, simply to have a base line.

We have not checked whether these inclusions would have affected our results but it does lead into the issue with this system. Since we received the manual, additional instruments have been added, the indicator has changed at least twice, new Entry criteria (Moving average) have been added and a "don't trade before time" has been introduced for one of the instruments.

This is a system which more "evolving" than it is stable.

John has been in touch to confirm that he bringing out a new manual and indicator in the coming weeks. Not only do these need provide a solid base-line now but we would also like to see some kind of return to the 20%+ per month from H2 2010 or at least positive territory.

We hope to receive a copy of the new material when it is available, we will provide an update in due course.

SUPPORT

Amongst the best we have ever come across. Great help in the forums/chat room/email. Also useful video's and webinars from time to time plus a weekly update, no complaints at all.

CONCLUSION

PRO's
• Fantastic support.
• Easy to read indicators.
• Still requires significant screen time.
CON's
• Need to get the base system clearly defined and stick to it.
• Results need to improve.

Do remember, your comments are important, if you decide to purchase this system, please support us by using our link and by reporting back your findings, both are valuable to us and the service.

Thanks for the review guys.

I would add a couple of things.

The base system hasn't changed since it's inception, the new manual/indicator is simply a rewording and an indicator capable of displaying entries with text and visual guidance, nothing technical has changed. As I trade this myself and I've had some feedback from members, I thought it would be better to evolve it than to leave it standing still.

In terms of results, as I've mentioned elsewhere; ask 10 people their results and you'll get 10 different answers. Why? It depends when you sit down, when you take profits etc. I know my own results differ massively from the above namely for the reason I can trade it for more than 4 hrs.

Anyway, thanks for the review.

Is it possible to trade this without the supplied indicator (just using standard indicators), or is it based on proprietary stuff that we can't actually verify or see for ourselves independently?
I am familiar with range bar charts, and I don't think MetaTrader has them built-in, so that is possibly one requirement for the supplied indicator, but apart from that I always prefer to fully understand what and why I'm trading.

It would indeed be possible to trade off the standard indicators without the custom indicator but it would make the job much more difficult.

I largely agree with ReviewTeam and AutoFX - support is great, needs a lot of screen time, and due to the volume of signals it's possible to get varied results. Nevertheless, I see the continuing refinements as a positive sign of commitment at the very least by the creator. Hopefully the results will improve in the coming months, either with market conditions or further enhancements.

Originally Posted by MJtrader

Is it possible to trade this without the supplied indicator (just using standard indicators), or is it based on proprietary stuff that we can't actually verify or see for ourselves independently?
I am familiar with range bar charts, and I don't think MetaTrader has them built-in, so that is possibly one requirement for the supplied indicator, but apart from that I always prefer to fully understand what and why I'm trading.

Hi MJ,

Yes, the original version is still available and there is plenty on the forum with the reasoning behind the actual setup of the range bars. Quite a few members use both combined as the original indicator does give you more time to respond.

Just to add my 2 pence. I subscribed recently and have to say, despite being a little pricier than the typical "£247" systems you do get far more for your money than just a manual and 'stick to the system' mantra come-what may that others may offer. Its more like a life membership to a trading club with a ready-made and well thought out trading system to work on together with lots of resources and intelligent discussion.

Will it make a good return for the time invested? I think you definitely need to dedicate the time to it, get up to speed on MT4 - which is a very good thing and you should learn a lot from it to be able to profit. For these reasons I'm going to stick with it and give it a thumbs up and recommend anyone interested in learning more about trading for yourself and automating your signals search to save screentime in the long-run.

Systems vendors quality of communication can vary a lot but John is definitely one of the best communicators in that respect. Overall I'm happy and sticking with it but also being realistic and expecting to invest a fair amount of time to make it work for me and really any system needs a year to truly know if it can work for you.

Further, if you get the email alerts setup and a remote desktop connection to your main MT4 setup it is perfectly possible to trade it from work without watching the screen at all but I'd advise spending a few weekends or so getting all your indicators setup and understanding the system so you're not tempted to spend work time on that part of it. Once you're setup there's no reason that with email alerts and many trade opportunities a day that you would spend too much time on it. Plus the more choosy you are about trades the more profitable you should be anyway.

Happy trading.

Surferking - good to see some feedback on the system. I'd be interested to know a bit more about being 'choosy' though - how can you select good trades? Are you finding that you are in profit so far? Also, which instruments have you chosen to trade, and do you trade all day? Sorry if it's a volley of questions but I think this system encourages tweakers and good tweaks can make the difference.

I see this system is for sale again. Is this newer version improved and is anybody still trading this?

We believe the principles of the system have not changed - However, the MT4 indicators have been improved and there is now an EA (Auto-trading) option available - As far as we are aware.