Mission and Policies

Mission of Futures Examiner

Our mission is to promote public awareness and understanding of mechanical Trading Systems for Commodity Futures, Forex etc. contracts by:

• Presenting unbiased descriptive material about mechanical trading systems;
• Presenting trading system results which are realistic, in that they are net of slippage, commissions & fees, and system cost;
• Providing interactive displays, to let users examine results in various ways such as monthly data, statistics, and multi-charts;
• Providing an opportunity for system developers and vendors to present their systems for public viewing; and
• Providing an opportunity for system-assist brokers to gain exposure through presenting actual trading results.

This website allows the user to explore day-, swing-, and position-trading systems; the benefits of diversification by trading multiple commodities, systems, and/or time-frames; the results histories of some popular (and some less well known) trading systems; differences between hypothetical results and actual-trade results; and differences between trading big contracts versus trading e-minis.

Editorial Policies

These policies have been developed in an attempt to achieve the above goals, and to foster good working relationships with users and with data providers. These policies are as follows:

1. We will only publish data when we have authorization from the data supplier, preferably in writing. This is interpreted as follows:
   • Hypothetical data is usually provided by the system developer or vendor, who must authorize us to publish their hypothetical results.
   • Actual-trade data is usually provided by a system-assist broker, who must authorize us to publish their actual-trade results.
2. Results integrity. We will encourage the integrity of results data through:
   • Indicating the integrity of results, in terms of actual or hypothetical; the nature of the fills and whether slippage or commission are included; and the availability of results, number of trades, and individual trades;
   • Indicating what slippage, commission, and system cost we use to calculate net profit or loss;
   • Acknowledging registration and/or membership by data suppliers in regulating bodies such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA); and
   • Encouraging communication between and inputs from users, e.g. by providing a discussion group associated with the website.
3. Single data source. When we publish actual-trade results for a given system-commodity from only one source: to identify the source of the data, unless the data supplier requests to remain anonymous.
4. Multiple data sources. When we obtain actual-trade results for a given system-commodity from more than one source: to publish average (monthly) values as opposed to the separate values from each source, and to not identify the contributing sources. The overall range of the results may be published as well.
5. We will remove results data from our website if so requested by the system developer /vendor or the data supplier; in cases of significant questions, particularly about results integrity; in cases of disagreements with the data provider or system developer /vendor that we are unable to resolve; or in other situations at the discretion of Futures Examiner.
6. Other data sources. We may publish data from other sources such as individual investors or independent testing organizations when feasible.

Compliance Policies

These policies are summarized below to show that we satisfy various rules and guidelines of the National Futures Association, both with respect to ourselves, and on behalf of our data suppliers and advertisers. They are also intended to avoid conflicts of interest between ourselves, data suppliers and advertisers. These policies are as follows:

1. Information on our website is provided for educational and informational purposes only.
2. We do not endorse, recommend, or promote any particular system(s) or broker(s).
3. We publish both actual-trade and hypothetical results, and they are clearly identified accordingly.
4. Results are presented net of slippage, commissions, and system cost.
5. We do not solicit clients for, and do not receive referral fees from, brokers or others (except in connection with advertising such as banner ads).
6. We may have accounts with broker(s) and trade system(s) listed on this website, but we do not have a financial interest in any of these parties.
7. We rank systems based on various performance measures, but we do not give advice regarding specific systems.
8. The NFA Actuals disclaimer "PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS" and/or the Hypotheticals disclaimer "HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE MANY INHERENT LIMITATIONS ..." appear on pages that contain results.

Last updated 2006-Apr-13

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