Trading foreign exchange and CFDs on margin carries a high level of risk and is not suitable for everyone. You can lose all of your deposit and, with some brokers and account types, more than your deposit. Only trade with money you can afford to lose. Past performance, simulated or live, does not guarantee future results.
1. High risk of loss
Most retail traders who trade leveraged CFDs lose money. Regulated brokers in many countries are required to publish the percentage of their retail accounts that lose money, and that figure is usually well above half. An expert advisor automates a set of rules; it does not remove market risk, and it can lose money faster than a person because it trades without hesitation.
2. Leverage and margin
Leverage lets a small deposit control a large position. A 1% move against a position leveraged 100:1 can wipe out the margin behind it. If your equity falls below the broker's margin requirement, positions may be closed automatically at the worst moment (a stop-out), locking in the loss.
3. Gold-specific risk (XAUUSD)
- Gold can move many dollars in seconds around US data such as NFP, CPI and FOMC decisions, and around geopolitical news.
- Spreads on XAUUSD can widen several times above normal at the daily rollover, at weekly open and during news.
- Price can gap over the weekend, so stop-loss orders may fill far from their level.
- Contract size, tick value and swap differ between brokers, so the same lot size can carry very different risk.
4. Limits of backtests and forward tests
- A backtest shows how rules would have behaved on past data. Markets change, and a period that looked safe may not repeat.
- Even with real-tick data, the tester cannot fully reproduce live slippage, requotes, partial fills, latency or liquidity gaps.
- Optimising inputs on the same data you test on (curve-fitting) produces results that look better than the strategy really is.
- A short forward test, or one on a demo account, may not reflect live execution on your broker.
- Any equity curve shown on this site as an illustration is labelled as such and is not a track record.
5. Grid, martingale and averaging systems
Flex Grid Advance is a grid-based system. Grid and similar expert advisors add positions as price moves against them, and some increase lot size after losses. These systems often show smooth, rising equity curves for long periods because they close many small winning baskets. The risk is concentrated in rare, strong one-way moves, when open exposure grows quickly and a single basket can produce a loss far larger than all previous profits combined, up to the whole account. Equity stops and maximum-basket limits reduce this risk but do not remove it.
6. Cent accounts
Flex Grid Advance is licensed for cent STP accounts only. A cent account shows your balance in cents, so the system can trade at sizes a modest balance can carry. On a standard USD account the same settings trade about one hundred times larger than the system is built for, which can wipe out an account very quickly. PGFX accepts no liability for losses on an unsupported account type.
7. Technology risk
Robots depend on your MT5 terminal, VPS, internet connection, broker server and platform updates. A crash, disconnection, wrong time-zone setting, changed symbol name or new MT5 build can stop an EA managing open trades or cause unexpected orders. Software can contain bugs even after testing.
8. Broker and execution risk
How your order is handled depends on your broker. On a B-book model the broker may take the other side of your trade; on an A-book model it is passed to liquidity providers through a prime broker or prime-of-prime. Spread, commission, fill speed, slippage and swap all vary by broker and account type, and they directly change an EA's results. A robot that is profitable with one broker can lose with another. Your broker's financial health and regulation also affect the safety of your deposit.
Broker links: PGFX earns introducing broker commission from the brokers linked on this site. This does not increase your cost, and you are free to use any broker that meets the stated conditions.
9. Regulatory and legal risk
Rules on leveraged forex, CFDs and cross-border payments differ by country and change over time. In some countries, including India, residents face restrictions on trading certain currency pairs and on sending money abroad for margin trading. You are responsible for knowing and following the rules that apply to you. PGFX does not provide legal or tax advice.
10. Education is not advice
Our articles and Telegram posts explain how robots, brokers, liquidity providers and prime brokers work. They are educational and general. They are not personal advice and are not an offer or solicitation to trade any instrument or use any broker.
11. Before you go live
- Study the live FX Blue record and look at maximum drawdown first.
- Use a cent STP account, never a standard account.
- Start live with the smallest lot size and a balance you can lose.
- Set an account-level equity stop you can accept.
- Check the EA's behaviour around major news before trusting it unattended.
Questions about this disclosure: t.me/flexgridadvance