Dark Venus EA Review: A Detailed Look at This Popular Scalping Robot
The Dark Venus EA is one of the most popular free trading robots available on the MQL5 marketplace, with over 100,000 downloads. In this comprehensive review, we’ll take an in-depth look at how this scalping expert advisor works, key features and settings, backtest results, real account trading performance, pros and cons, and more.
Dark Venus is an automated trading robot designed specifically for scalping strategies on the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms.
It uses a combination of Bollinger Bands and price action analysis to identify high-probability entry and exit points. The core logic works as follows:
- Enter buy trades when price touches the lower Bollinger Band
- Enter sell trades when price touches the upper Bollinger Band
- Close trades when price reaches the opposite band or hits the stop loss
In addition to its Bollinger Bands strategy, Dark Venus also incorporates elements of martingale and grid trading to manage open positions.
The developer claims that extensive backtesting shows Dark Venus can achieve a high winning percentage through opening and closing hundreds of small profitable trades.
However, it’s worth noting that many real traders warn this EA carries substantial risk if not used carefully. We’ll analyze trading performance reports later in this review.
First, let’s take a closer look at the key settings and parameters within Dark Venus that traders need to configure.
Key Settings and Parameters
Dark Venus comes with a range of external input parameters that control critical elements of risk management, position sizing, indicators, and more.
Getting these settings right is crucial to give the EA the best chance of success. Below are explanations of the most important options:
Money Management
- Lots – Fixed lot size if money management is disabled
- Money Management – Enables/disables automated calculation of lot sizes based on account balance
- Risk Percent – Sets the % of equity to risk per trade if money management enabled
Bollinger Bands
- Enable BBs – Turns on/off the Bollinger Bands indicator and strategy
- BB Period – Number of periods used to calculate Bollinger Bands
- BB Deviation – Sets band deviation in standard deviations
Position Management
- Stop Loss – Sets maximum loss per trade in points
- Take Profit – Defines profit target for trades in points
In addition, Dark Venus has settings for defining a magic number, maximum spread, slippage control, and more.
Traders should spend time finding optimal configurations for their account size, risk tolerance, and target markets. Running extensive backtests is highly recommended before going live.
Now let’s analyze some of the backtest reports and forward trading results posted for this popular EA.
Dark Venus Backtest Results
The developer provides one backtest report on the MQL5 market listing, showing results from January 2015 to September 2020 across multiple currency pairs.
Key backtest metrics include:
- Total net profit – $990
- Total trades – 35,636
- Profit Factor – 1.28
- Max Drawdown – 58.96%
These backtest results illustrate both the potential strengths and weaknesses of Dark Venus:
Pros
- High number of trades and steady profit accumulation over long term
- Reasonable profit factor considering the scalping strategy
Cons
- Extremely high drawdown that could wipe out many trading accounts
- Potential for overfitting on historical data only
While the backtest report paints an optimistic picture, real-world trading results show Dark Venus carries exceptionally high risk that traders must actively manage.
Real Account Trading Performance
The best way to evaluate any EA is by analyzing trading results from real accounts, which represent true market conditions.
MQL5 Market Reviews
The Dark Venus listing has attracted 65 reviews from customers running it on live accounts. The average rating is 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Positive reviews praise the high winning percentage and smooth automated trading.
However, an equal number of negative reviews say Dark Venus can suddenly hit large drawdowns that deplete accounts due to poor risk management. Many 1-star reviews warn traders to stay away entirely.
External Account Statements
In addition to MQL5 reviews, some Dark Venus users have published account statements documenting trading performance:
- MyFXBook – Mixed results but some accounts showing 50%+ drawdowns
- FXBlue – Mostly losses with one report at -80% drawdown after a few weeks
The issue doesn’t seem to be a lack of winning trades but rather the inability to survive inevitable losing streaks.
The next section covers this in more detail analyzing the pros and cons.
Pros and Cons of Dark Venus EA
Based on user experiences and trading statistics, the core pros and cons of using Dark Venus in real market conditions include:
Pros
- Free EA with frequent updates from active developer
- Straightforward setup and external parameter configurations
- Can achieve high winning percentage in trending markets
- Hundreds of small trades mean steady profit accumulation
Cons
- High risk for blowing accounts due to poor money management
- Not effective in ranging or volatile markets
- Requires extensive optimization for different assets and conditions
- Potential for overfitting on historical data only
While Dark Venus can deliver excellent results over short periods, the absence of effective risk controls ultimately undermines long term profitability.
Prudent money management is a must, which leads into further tips for trading this EA.
Using Dark Venus: Tips for Success
For traders who decide to try Dark Venus, either in demo or live trading, here are some best practices identified by users:
- Start with smallest position sizes possible to evaluate performance
- Run multiple instances on different currency pairs to diversify
- Use tight stop loss, no more than 20 pips, to limit losses
- Disable martingale and avoid risking more after losses
- Frequently monitor trades and intervene if seeing anomalies
- Withdraw profits often – don’t rely on reinvestment
It’s also essential to choose a broker with fast execution, low spreads, and quality infrastructure to run EAs reliably.
While results vary drastically between accounts, traders willing to actively manage risks can potentially benefit from Dark Venus.
Dark Venus Review: Final Thoughts
Dark Venus provides an easily accessible introduction to automated trading strategies for scalping the forex markets.
The combination of Bollinger Bands and martingale elements can deliver a high winning percentage but also comes with severe drawdown risks.
Extensive optimization, conservative position sizing, and risk management are imperative for long-term sustainability. While Dark Venus won’t make traders rich overnight, it can contribute consistent profits as one component of a diversified approach.
Overall, our review finds that Dark Venus is a solid free EA worth evaluating but don’t expect a “set and forget” passive income solution. Applying robust trading principles remains vital for success.
To start testing Dark Venus, visit the MQL5 Market listing for more details and free download.
