OUR STORY

The Story Behind
The Robotic Trader

Minimalist abstract algorithmic UI mockup
Who Writes This

Written by Jay Slingsby

I built The Robotic Trader because the algorithmic trading space is full of noise, hype, and pay-to-play recommendations. Fabricated screenshots, paid-for endorsements, vendors showcasing one account while a failed one sits on the same public profile — finding out whether a piece of trading software actually works is far harder than it should be, and the people most likely to be misled are usually the ones who can least afford to be.

I'm not a professional trader and I hold no trading qualification. What I have is a publicly tracked record of running automated systems with my own money going back to 2019, and a working life spent in web development and digital marketing — which is why this site is built and maintained properly rather than thrown together.

So it does the thing I wanted and couldn't find. Part of that is testing: buying or independently tracking the software, running it against a published methodology, and reporting what actually happened — including when the answer is that nothing currently meets the standard, and including when I get something wrong and have to correct it in public. There are corrections on this site with my reasoning attached, because a review that has never been wrong is usually one that has never been checked.

The larger part is explaining. A verdict is only useful if you understand what produced it, so most of what's published here isn't a review at all — it's the working. What drawdown actually measures, and why there are two figures. Why a win rate can be the least informative number on a page. What a backtest can and cannot tell you. The aim is that you end up able to judge the next Expert Advisor yourself, whether or not I have ever reviewed it.

What this site is not is advice. I don't know your circumstances, your capital or your tolerance for loss, and nothing published here is a recommendation to trade. It's research you can verify yourself, which is why every figure carries its source and the date it was recorded.

Verify any of this. My trading history is public on Myfxbook (member since October 2019) and MQL5 (member since November 2019). The live accounts this site runs are tracked independently and shown in full on the Copy Trading page, drawdowns and open losses included.
Reviews, Guides and Tools

What We Publish

The through-line is the same across all of it: working out whether this software actually does what it claims is harder than it should be, and most of what's written about it comes from someone with a stake in the answer. Testing individual products is one way to fix that. Explaining how the things work, so you can judge the next one yourself, is the other — and by volume it's the larger half of this site.

Independent reviews

Expert Advisors, brokers, VPS providers and copy trading platforms, each assessed against a published standard and reported pass or fail. Verdicts carry their evidence, their date, and a record of what changed since.

Browse the reviews →

Guides and explainers

Free articles on how automated trading actually works — what drawdown measures and why two figures exist, what a backtest can and cannot tell you, how brokers differ, why a win rate can be the least useful number on a page.

Read the guides →

Calculators and tools

A position size and risk calculator, a drawdown and recovery calculator, a prop firm challenge risk calculator, and a scorer for assessing a copy trading signal provider before you follow one. Free to use, no account needed.

Open the tools →

Our own live accounts

The accounts this site runs with real money, tracked independently rather than self-reported, and published in full — drawdowns and open losses included, not just the months that went well.

See the live accounts →
None of it is gated behind a verdict. The guides are written to be useful whether or not you ever read a review here, and they say the same things about products this site recommends as about products it doesn't.

Why We Vet Everything

Most sites in this space are built around affiliate income first and honesty second. We built ours the other way round.

Before we recommend any broker, VPS provider, or Expert Advisor, we test it against a fixed set of criteria — not marketing claims, not commission rates, and not how well a company's outreach team pitches us. If something doesn't meet the bar, it doesn't appear on this site, no matter how much commission it would generate.

We'd rather show you an honest 'not yet recommended' than a dishonest recommendation.

How We Make Money

We're upfront about this because you deserve to know: some of the links on this site are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission if you sign up with a broker, VPS provider, or platform we recommend. This costs you nothing extra.

What this doesn't do is change our recommendations. Our vetting criteria are fixed before we know whether a company offers an affiliate programme at all, and we've excluded providers regardless of commission potential when they didn't meet our standards.

What You Can Expect From Us

Verified Data Over Marketing Claims

We check track records, drawdown figures, and reviews independently rather than repeating what a company says about itself.

Honesty About Limitations

If a platform has a flaw — even one we personally use — we'll tell you, the same way we've disclosed shared infrastructure and platform reliability issues elsewhere on this site.

No Pressure

We're not chasing affiliate clicks at the expense of getting you into something that's wrong for you. The guides and calculators are free to read and use — no account, and nothing to buy.

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Risk Warning & Affiliate Disclosure: Trading foreign exchange and CFDs on margin carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Past performance, including verified live performance, is not a guarantee of future results. The Robotic Trader may receive compensation from partner brokers, VPS providers and software developers through affiliate links, at no extra cost to you. This supports our research and does not constitute personal financial advice. Commercial relationships never affect our verdicts, and we disclose where we hold accounts ourselves. Always trade with money you can afford to lose.

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