Night Owl (EA / AUTOTRADE) Review and Verification
- Asia Session Scalping EA.
- Profitable in long-term forward test.
- Profit and loss greatly depends on the usage environment (broker).
Basic information of Night Owl (EA)
Night Owl is an EA that trades during midnight hours of MT4 server time (GMT + 2/3).
It is named Night Owl because it trades at midnight.
In other words, it can be categorized as scalping EA in Asian sessions.
There are two ways to use it.
(1) Purchase of EA at MQL5 store (price: 350USD)
(2) Copy trade by AUTO TRADE (Usage fee is marked up on spread)
The results published on Myfxbook are reasonably good.
I tried to verify if it is worth using.
Evaluation of profitability and drawdown
Broker：IC Markets（Real account）
(As of October 14, 2020)
| Start Operation | 2018/1/18 |
| Duration | 32 months |
| Total rate of return | +296.5% |
| Monthly rate of return (compound interest) | +4.2% |
| Maximum drawdown | 7.2% |
| Win rate | 70.0% |
| Total number of transactions | 1602 |
Despite the stagnation period, it continues to trade profitably for now.
It’s great that the maximum drawdown is less than 10%.
In addition, the average monthly rate of return is about 4%, which is not a bad result.
Judging from this result alone, it will be a system that you may consider using.
Analysis of trading methods
Entry (position open)
As explained at the beginning, Night Owl will enter during midnight (22:00 to 0:00) of MT4 server time (GMT + 2/3).
This time zone has the characteristic that it tends to be a small range market.
Taking advantage of this characteristic, it will be entered in a contrarian manner in the short term.
The operating time frame of the EA is 15 minutes.
In the MT4 trading history chart below, you can see that it entered in a contrarian manner and closed a position with a few pips.
■ EURCAD 1H White = BUY Red = SELL
In addition, the 15-minute transaction history chart is shown in the image below. You can see that the entry is contrarian.
■ EURCAD 15M White = BUY Red = SELL
Since it is a contrarian logic, it accumulates profits in the range market.
On the chart screen below, you can see how profits are accumulating in the range market.
■ EURCAD 30M White = BUY Red = SELL
Exit (position closed)
Night Owl is a scalping EA that targets very small pips widths.
Most of the take profit and stop loss are executed within 10 pips.
The average pips of take profit is about 6 pips,
The average pips of stop loss is about 7 pips.
The above is just an average value, so larger loss cuts and take profits may occur.
However, since the average values of take profit and stop loss are almost the same level, it seems that it is relatively rare for a single loss to blow away the profits that have been accumulated so far.
The holding time of the position is also short, and most are closed within an hour.
Trade frequency and currency pair
Night Owl covers eight currency pairs.
Trade for relatively minor currency pairs such as EURCAD, EURAUD, AUDCAD.
On the other hand, there are no transactions in major currency pairs (EURUSD, AUDUSD, USDJPY, etc.).
The following is the actual number of transactions by currency pair.
■ Number of transactions by currency pair (as of October 17, 2020)
| Currency | Trades | Pips |
| EURCAD | 290 | 648.8pips |
| EURAUD | 285 | 746.9pips |
| AUDCAD | 247 | 544.2pips |
| USDCAD | 241 | 470.9pips |
| EURNZD | 189 | 547.2pips |
| USDCHF | 152 | 274.5pips |
| GBPAUD | 107 | 184.4pips |
| GBPCAD | 91 | 245.7pips |
It can be said that the frequency of trading is high.
Concerns of Night Owl (EA)
Looking only at the published results on Myfxbook, it seems worth considering using it.
However, you should be aware that Night Owl targets very small pips widths, so the results will depend on the operating environment of your broker, VPS, etc.
Especially in MT4 server time (GMT + 2/3), from 22:00 to 0:00 is a time zone when spreads of each broker are wide and slippage is likely to occur.
The target pips width of Night Owl is less than 10 pips, and even small slippage and spread differences can make a big difference when stacked due to the large number of transactions.
Possibly, some brokers may incur total losses.
Also, please note that the usage fee will be added to the spread of the broker in the copy trade by AUTOTRADE.
Larger spreads can also make this system unprofitable.
Summary of Night Owl (EA)
It’s good to be able to withstand long-term forward testing and make a profit.
It is also good that the stop loss value is not too large compared to the take profit.
Since the stop loss width is also relatively small, the frequency of large losses is low.
However, it targets very small pips and moves at times when spread widening and slippage are likely to occur, so you may not get the same results as a developer.
If you’re prepared for this risk, you might try it, but I don’t recommend it.
