How to check an EA track record (and spot a fake)
Most EA sales pages show a great curve. A curve is easy to make: a backtest, a demo account, a short lucky month or a screenshot. Before you rent, buy or copy an EA, check where the numbers come from.
7-point checklist
- Live or backtest? A backtest is a simulation on past prices. It is useful for research, but it is not a record. Ask for a live account.
- Real, cent or demo? Demo money ignores real fills and slippage. Cent accounts use real money in small units. Real accounts are the strongest proof.
- Who controls the data? Results sent straight from the trading platform (a read-only link, or an EA that sends every trade) are harder to fake than numbers typed in by the seller or screenshots.
- How long? A few weeks proves very little. Look for many months, including at least one bad period.
- Drawdown, not just gain. Find the worst fall, and check equity or floating drawdown, not only closed trades. See Gold EA drawdown: how to read it.
- Deposits and withdrawals. Money added to the account is not profit. A fair record uses a time-weighted return, so deposits and withdrawals do not change the %.
- Is everything shown? Open trades, all closed trades, the start date, and accounts that were stopped. If a seller only shows the best account, ask about the others.
Red flags
- “No losing months” with many open trades.
- Only a backtest, or only screenshots.
- The record started right after a big winning run.
- A very high monthly % with no drawdown shown.
How we do it
Every account on our leaderboard reports through our AT Reporter EA, straight from MetaTrader. Demo, cent and real accounts are labelled. Returns are time-weighted, and drawdown sits next to every return. Our own results are shown even when they are bad. You can publish your own account the same way for free with AT Reporter.