Strawberry Rhubarb is easily one of the best systems around. It had one significant drawdown, in April '12, which truly I believe was the result of the developer succumbing to pressure from some overly-assertive subscribers urging him to change his trading style--a mistake that he seems to have learned well from and has not repeated. Otherwise, his trades are remarkably consistent and profitable, with very short market exposure (currently 6.3 hrs) and low intratrade drawdowns, with rare exceptions. The system has been profitable for 12 out of the 14 months it has been around, and currently has a 125.4% compound annual return. Unlike a lot of systems, there's no "averaging in" or martingale here, and the risk/reward you see is the risk/reward you get. Also, the developer trades his own system and only charges if the system is profitable. What more can you ask for?
As a former subscriber and still interested in the system I don't understand exactly the philosophy of Hicks. He writes:
"The model will not increase the initial position, meaning no cost averaging. Effective March 13, 2012, my protective stop will not exceed 50 pips".
But what I see is a loose of:
- 4/5: -83 pips
- 4/5: -71 pips
- 4/4: -67 pips
- 4/3: -67 pips
How is this possible? Not a good base for re-subscription.
Losing $10k in two days on an account of this size speaks to a lack of sound money management. If you do sign up, be aware that you are in a for a big roller coaster ride with your capital.
Created stop loss rules after huge losses, and seeing now that trader deviated its own stop loss rule in the past few days shows me he is just not learning from his mistakes. Now he must learn the hard way - system isn't bad but discipline is very poor.
Every system has its ups and downs, this unfortunately has been on a tear downwards. It seems to be like going to the roulette table and keep doubling down as you loose more and more. If it turns around and gets back on track in the future, I may step back in, for the time being I am staying on the sidelines.
With the European crisis heating up in February the markets have been shot all over the place. To actually think that everything would be smooth sailing and trading would still produce stellar results is ridiculous. The developer does not have a holy grail here but he is trying and I am sure he is learning from the experience with his recent changes to include tighter stops.
It's worth sticking in for a while longer to see if he will recover.
Although, I do agree subscription fee is a little high especially for those of us who scale down. Maybe he should change his plan to performance based.
System loses months of equity in just two days and has been on a downtrend since mid January, about a third of the life of the system. Dev relies on a high rate of small wins vs loses but he seems to have lost the edge as shown by the recent massive and frequent loses. In response to the recent drawdown developer has bumped up the number of lots traded increasing risk. Positions are held over weekends... Sounds like it's going to be extremely difficult for the system to work out long term.
At $236/month and with many other forex systems coming up on C2 with more stable equity curves, better risk/reward profiles and cheaper monthly rates a it's hard to see the value on 'Strawberry'
Someone on the trade of 2/16 opened a position with 1,000 minilots!!
To me, this is just insane. This idiotic move was rewarded with a $100K+ drawdown in that person's account. How is Hans possibly going to make any money with his trades if subscribers put on positions that large? Yes, I know that EUR/USD is very liquid, but if a bunch of us put on positions that big, we're never going to make consistent profits. Professional market traders see these trades on their screens and have much more leverage than we do to force the market in the opposite direction and run the stops.
I give Hans much credit in trying to actively manage his stops to get the best outcome for us, but all of us need to do our part and scale-in with moderation so we can all profit together as a group.
Overall the system has certainly been impressive, however, history has shown that double digit monthly returns are not sustainable in the long run and trying to keep a high win percentage at all cost is troublesome. If you look at all the fx systems older than 1 yr with less than 30% dd and CAGR of at least 37% you will find that all have a low win ratio but a high avg. profit/loss ratio. I wish the vendor would adopt a similar strategy.
Keeping a position over the weekend is not a good idea . Take the (relatively) small loss to protect subscribers from potential larger losses - especially with potential Euro news. This action has blown up many C2 systems. This approach is concerning as to whether the real reason is avoid another blemish on the win/loss track record.
After taking the big loss with 40 mini-lot positions, the next trade size went to 45 mini-lots. Very aggressive move to try and recoup loss.
Sometimes the trades get stop-loss orders, but then they get canceled. Not sure why. Therefore, the trade is not protected at some times. Case in point is the 2/16 trade, which had a stop loss, got canceled and then the price below through communicated 90 pips SL.
I have a few concerns that apply to other successful systems on C2. First, the developer stated that there is a 90 pip stop loss. If you look back through the trades, on 2/16/12 the system suffered a larger loss than 90 pips. Second is the risk/reward ratio. If you look at the amount that the system is willing to sustain as a loss, it can be 10-15 times the average profit. That creates significant pressure to maintain a VERY high win rate. All in all a good system but could do with better risk mgmt.
I have been auto-trading this system and cannot be happier. Does it have it's hiccups... yes. Does it recover quickly and keep making money... absolutely! The win rate speaks for itself. The developer is great at what he does. He also has great communication. My only fear about this system is not the developer or his system.... it's the negative people that may distract the developer from managing the trades, or worse, cause him to discontinue it. I concur with the previous reviewer... if you're not happy with the results, please unsubscribe and let Strawberry continue making the rest of our accounts grow at an exponential rate!
So far this system rocks.......good communication. If you don't like the trades.....cancel your subscription and leave the developer alone to keep making money for us.
This system seems to be quite good. The only thing I don't like about it is the risk (about 90 pips) versus the reward (about 10 pips) of a typical trade. What remains to be seen is how likely it is that there will be a string of large losing trades bunched together to produce a very large drawdown. I'm willing to take a chance that this won't happen, but I'm trading at a much lower leverage than what is shown on C2. A good rule of thumb I've heard is to risk no more than 2% of your capital on any single trade. The last large loser in this system (as of 1/31/12) was 9.4%. I know I can't stomach that kind of loss and I doubt many others can either.
From my years of experience with C2 and other trading communities, I conclude that there is no perfect system out there. Strawberry is a consistent profit maker with well-managed risk. It is as good as it gets.
I have been autotrading Strawberry for 2 1/2 months and has been a consistent money-maker for me. Differently from other systems, cares about his subscribers. He is cold-blooded but enjoys sense of humour. Four star not for the quality (I think he is top and I believe there are only two other systems for FX here at Collective that stands in the same league) but because the system is relatively new. I'll review again in some months and after, hopefully, gained more money!
1/25 - As the previous reviewer notes, the system developer stays true to his stops. However, those stops have been hit with increasing frequency as indicated by the declining monthly returns: Sept: +25.5%, Oct: +19.6%, Nov: +18.8%, Dec: +13.5%. January promises to be lower still. While the above returns are outstanding, the declining trend is cause for concern. While stops are necessary to give the trade a chance for success, the trade should be abandoned when the reason for making the trade vanishes. The developer shows his ability to reverse his position quickly to recover losses, but he has had two losing weeks in January. I hope I am proven wrong and the previous success resumes. I would be glad to revise my rating to 5 stars in that event.
This is good system! Small, low risk, consistent. Manageable DD. A great way to scale gradually. Nothing beats slow, stead profits with minimal account volitility. Disciplined trader who really know how manage is trades.
I really like this system. The developer is consistent and communicates regularly with subscribers. He does not average down. As with any system that targets very high returns, if the position goes against us there can be a quick drawdown. However, to date the system has always made it back to new highs rapidly.
Excellent discipline and great communication. This is still a young system but so far he has been able to consistently pull in 3-4 profitable trades each week. So far, I am a happy subscriber.
A very well managed system with stop losses. I have observed sound and determined recovery when a trade goes into the red. If indicators are unclear, he does not trade which I appreciate and then he more than makes it up when he gets the green light. Clearly this manager is not only good at what he does, he enjoys it too.
