Sooner or later, every trader comes to the idea that it’s time to start using Forex advisors. Typing the relevant query into a search engine, they get an unimaginable number of links to resources offering trading robots. The classification of advisors is also extensive: scalpers, martingales, grid traders, trend-following, and so on. We will divide all existing robots on the web into other categories: free, licensed, and pirated (cracked) robots.
With free options, things are more or less clear: they either have already served their purpose, or their further development has stopped for some reason. So let’s consider the pros and cons of using the other two categories: paid licensed and cracked advisors.
Why Traders Prefer “Pirated” Versions
Nowadays, you can find anything on the internet. Many users use pirated products, and cracked software is downloaded in terabytes. This used to be the case with advisors as well, but over time, traders realized that this does not lead to good results, and developers improved their software, so cracks have largely disappeared. However, even now, you can find old copies of robots that were once cracked and modified for new builds.
Licensed programs are created by a team of developers and are put up for sale on specialized platforms and authors’ websites. Often, to evaluate the robot’s capabilities, authors provide a certain period of free use. Sometimes, after some time, unscrupulous speculators crack and freely distribute the software.
And it is here that most traders, choosing between “license” and “pirate”, stop at the second option. It should be noted that these are not random people who came to Forex with a few dollars in their pocket and a desire to “win” a million by Monday. These are fairly serious Forex traders, aged 25-40, who have the ability to invest about $1,000 in trading.
What stops them from buying a licensed advisor? Several factors can be highlighted:
- First, the product price. It ranges from several dozen to hundreds and thousands of dollars. At the same time, no one guarantees that the robot will continue to work.
- Second, the huge selection of advisors — it’s unclear which one to choose.
- And third, the “cat in the sack” syndrome. This often plays a decisive role. The trader’s thoughts range from “I’ll buy it, and it will just blow my deposit” to “it’s unlikely that anything worthwhile is sold openly, they just sell junk”.
As a result, the trader stops at searching for resources where they can download a free version of the advisor they liked and tries it out.
“License” or “Pirate”: Is There Much Difference?
What is the point of cracking advisors and distributing them for free? What kind of altruism is this?
To understand the process, let’s draw a simple analogy. For example, a long-awaited movie is released. A respectable person goes to the cinema, and if they like it, they might even buy a licensed disc for their collection. However, let’s not make a secret of it, almost immediately after the premiere, a pirated copy of the movie appears online in CamRip quality. This is where the sound is muffled by the crunch of popcorn, and the image looks as if you’re watching it underwater.
Why is this done? The answer is simple — to attract visitors to their own website or blog, for each of whom the owner gets a small amount. As they say: who gets up first, gets the slippers. Posted the pirated copy of the movie in poor quality first — people flock to the site.
The same thing happens with advisors. After looking at a trading robot and its price, the trader adds “download for free” to the robot’s name in the search engine and gets links to the same robot, but already cracked and worth nothing. In the end, the robot is obtained, but as in the analogy above, in CamRip quality. Practically all software products, even paid ones, have some errors. The first version of the product is released, its price is symbolic, so to speak, “for testing”, for a limited period of free use and advertising. During these days or weeks, developers identify shortcomings, after which the second and subsequent versions appear with these problems fixed. As a result, the trader who bought the advisor gets a version with all the flaws fixed. The one who downloaded the pirate version remains with all the errors and no chance to fix anything, since even an experienced programmer faces extreme difficulties when trying to modify the cracked code.
And there is an even simpler option. Couldn’t crack the advisor? No problem. Just change the name, slightly adjust the settings, and the job is done. No complaints anyway — the robot was provided for free.
Forex Advisor Without Guarantees
- Naturally, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Each licensed advisor comes with settings, or simply put, sets. Buying such a robot, the trader is guaranteed to receive updates to the settings, while the owner of a cracked advisor will get an outdated set at the download stage, if they get anything at all.
- The same goes for customer support. Developers of trading advisors are serious people, so their websites always have support where you can turn in case of problems and questions. In contrast, the owner of a “pirate” advisor is deprived of this opportunity.
- The robot might not suit you — anything can happen. Almost all sellers have a certain period during which you can get your money back.
- As for intellectual property protection and copyright, we won’t even mention it. Here, as they say, by default.
To reinforce the material presented, let’s summarize the conclusions in a table.
Downloading a “pirate” version or buying a licensed trading advisor — the choice is undoubtedly yours. We hope the arguments presented above will help you make the right decision.
