Risks

Most trades are small losses; the profit comes from fewer, bigger wins. That is why losing streaks are normal for this program. An account smaller than the largest drawdown would have been emptied in this backtest, and future drawdowns can be bigger. On NQ, which is 10 times bigger than MNQ, every number above is 10 times bigger.

How much money you need, with margins and monthly costs: see the budget page.

• Leverage. Futures and CFDs use leverage: a small move in the index is a big move in your account. With futures you can lose more than you deposited.
• CFDs. Most retail accounts that trade CFDs lose money. Your broker publishes its own percentage.
• Gaps and fast markets. A stop loss is an order, not a promise of price. In a gap it can be filled well past the stop.
• Markets change. The edge in the backtest is real but not huge (profit factor about 1.3 after fees). It can get smaller when the market changes. The live test shows it month by month.
• Big days. About 13% of the backtest profit came from one day, 9 April 2025. Days like that are rare.

• Fees. The backtest uses $2.00 per trade on MNQ. If your broker charges more, your result is lower.
• CFD prices. A CFD follows the Nasdaq-100 index, not the futures contract, and its spread is wider at night. Results can differ a little from futures.
• Execution. Slippage, rejected orders and a slow connection change results.
• Contract change. MNQ and NQ futures expire every three months. Move the program to the new contract when it starts. The FAQ shows how.

• MetaTrader 5 must keep running. If your computer sleeps, restarts or goes offline, the program cannot open or close trades. Stops and targets already sent stay at your broker. A VPS avoids most of this.
• Clock. The trading hours depend on the right time. Your computer or VPS must show the correct time and time zone. The program warns you when they look wrong.
• Settings. A wrong symbol or size changes the risk. Check the panel on the chart after you attach the program.
• Other programs. On a netting account, another trade on the same symbol stops new trades. Other programs also use the same margin.
• Less tested. Hedging accounts are tested in the Strategy Tester but not yet in the live test. Nasdaq-100 CFDs are tested at one broker so far.

The rules were built with data from the same years as the backtest. A backtest also cannot include everything that happens in real trading: partial fills, outages, or stopping the program after a few losses. That is why the live test runs. Full legal text: risk disclosure.