After my two gold bots went defunct (one of them blew its account and the Nurp gold bot was shut down to allow its account mate, The Fed, to have more room to trade), I wondered what would have happened. If I would have stayed in there, I would have seen gold go up over 400 points. It is easy to see that on a chart, but what would my bots have seen? That is the scary part of having an active gold bot right now.

When gold was less volatile, my gold bots had challenges. The gold bots enter trades expecting a rebound the opposite direction. If the trade doesn’t rebound, the bot relies on placing additional trades (either scalping or larger lot sizes) to work its way out of the mess. The bot relies on having more money in its account than XUAUSD has commitment to the “wrong” direction. Of course, the wrong direction for one trading account is the “right” direction for another one.

I like the idea of making quick money on a few trades. In practice, this year has found me on the wrong side of many of my bot’s decisions. If a bot trades Forex (gold or any other pair) and uses a martingaling (using larger and larger lot sizes to dig out of a hole) approach, I don’t believe I could ever be comfortable trusting my money to it again. If I were an experienced enough trader, I could help my bot out of those tough spots. I am not. It is “bot or bust” for me.

I hope gold is at the end of all of your rainbows. Many have had great success with it. I know of individuals who became full-time traders after hitting a “big” gold trade. Give me steady and consistent month over month. I don’t need home runs. A few singles with a couple doubles will be just fine.