I moved all of my trading funds into Dominari this month.
I’ve been talking about this system ever since I start live demo testing back in November. Needless to say, I’ve been extremely satisfied with the live results.
My initial live account started trading on January 4 with a starting balance of €1,000 at Pepperstone. Once I saw that the live trades matched my expectations, I quickly kicked that account balance up to a total of €10,000.
And because I want to test the effect of broker selection, I threw another $5,000 in an FXCM account. The Pepperstone account contains the bulk of the money and runs the MT4 version of the strategy. The FXCM version uses Seer, which has been more of a pain to get running smoothly, though I can say that it’s still my favorite platform for testing ideas.
The cost non-problem

The equity curve of the Dominari without trading costs from 2013-2015.
My biggest concern about launching the strategy live was trading costs. Some back of the envelope math suggested that everything would be ok. Live demo testing indicated that it would be ok. But you never really know until you start trading live.
Through the month of January, I’ve consistently monitored the commissions relative to the profit. I fluctuates up and down with the trading account, but I estimate that the spread commission costs are approximately 20-25% of the profit. That’s a relatively high percentage, although it’s nowhere near as bad as it could be given the extreme trading frequency.
Dominari is a high-frequency strategy that averages about 49 trades per day on 28 currency pairs. Everything happens so fast in the account that I’m hard pressed to remember any individual trades. Dominari executed more than 900 trades in the month of January alone. It’s dizzying watching the equity fluctuate up and down. The important thing is that the trend moves from the lower left to the upper right.
QB Pro?
It’s not dead. I still believe it’s a great strategy and totally worthy of your trading. In fact, both Dominari and QB Pro depend critically on one of my favorite indicators, the SB Score.
The reason I got into algorithmic trading is that it emotionally separates me from the responsibility for the outcome. If I have a losing month, it’s just the strategy. There’s not much to do about that.
When there’s an element of discretion, it’s difficult to separate the random component. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you generally expect to make money. When there’s discretion in an algorithmic strategy, it’s very difficult to know whether losses are my fault or simple bad luck.
QB Pro depends on the manual portfolio selection. Not surprisingly, I heavily favor Dominari because the portfolio selection is static. I can say with my hand over my heart that Dominari is a black box, fully algorithmic strategy.
I’m still updating the portfolio over at Seer Hub and will continue making the selections for clients. For clients that are in the managed account at Pepperstone, I switched the strategy in the middle of the month. I feel responsible as the manager to give clients the best possible performance. And since that’s where I’m placing ~$16,000 of my own money, I feel a fiduciary duty to do the same for my customers. Dominari is where I believe the best opportunity lies.
How you can get Dominari
I plan to offer Dominari as trading signals to anyone with a MetaTrader account within the next month or so. A lot of hard work has gone into developing the strategy. And while I’m confident to the tune of $16,000 of my own money, I want to be even more certain before I release Dominari to a wider audience.
What do you think of the results so far? Leave your thoughts in the comments area below.
Hi Shaun,
any particular reason why you are not developing these strategies also on the Ninja Trader platform ?
I would be very interested to take a look at Dominari if you also have a Ninja Trader version of the algo…
Best,
Deniz
Agreed I also use Ninja any word these strategies are being developed for Nt7 ot Nt8?
Hi Darran,
Thanks for asking about Ninja. I consider Dominari done with platform development. I only intend to offer it as signals and as a managed account, obviating the need to expand platforms.
–Shaun
Incredible algo trading results Shawn, I would be interested to evaluate Dominari on FXCM MT4. How could I apply for the trading signals?
rgds,
Them
Hi Them,
I’m going to provide subscription details hopefully within the next few weeks. Now that I’m largely done with the algo development, I’m doing all the backend work to make sure my traders get the best possible execution and support. It takes awhile to organize all that, but you should know that I’m moving as quickly as possible.
–Shaun
Hi Shaun,
Exciting stuff – $16k is a decent investment. What happened to the lots in the strategy – did they increase due to increased funds or is this a martingale aspect of the strategy?
Good luck with the strategy!!!
Frank
Hey Frank,
I hate Martingale with a passion. Never would I ever add to a losing position. The $16,000 is the cash investment from myself.
–Shaun
Congrats. Impressive Shaun.
What kind of drawdowns are considered normal for Dominari?
Please elaborate a little more on trading cost considerations? I understand slippage, bid-offer discrepancies, execution considerations, etc. what I want to better comprehend is how you go from theoretically plausible to real time and what are the warning signs.
Hi Harald,
Thanks! I want to highlight that the trade copier that I’ll offer will allow users to customize their personal risk profile. You can adjust this up or down as you like. On the current traded leverage, the max historical drawdown over an 8 year period was 43%. I trade like a prop trader, meaning I’m willing to risk a substantial chunk of the funds in the account. If that’s not to your liking, you can reduce the returns and drawdown to suit your risk tolerance.
–Shaun
I would have waited for 6 months. This was a trend period. But, hey, Take advantage, I agree 😉
That’s why I’m excited. Dominari is a mean reversion strategy, and it’s killing it even when most funds and traders are blowing up.
Shaun
I purchased the SB score indicator because the theory behind it was professional and the best…the indicator, i am not going to tell you my strike rate (win rate) it will blow you a way.
Any strategy that used the SB score i want it !
I can’t wait to finish up the backend details so that everyone can participate.
Good. Count me in.
Ill give it a try lol! I need extra pips!
What I like about trading copying is that you don’t have to give up on manual trading. There’s no reason to not to both if it’s your goal to learn how to trade.
Hi Shaun,
I checked the Dominari results — 15.88% in one month approx 600% annualized — very respectable. I will forward to trying it out on MT4. What EA settings will be available?
Hey Al,
The main setting will be the risk profile. You can increase or decrease the leverage used in order match the trading risk to your personal appetite.
–Shaun
Looks great Shaun what sort of cost will there be
I haven’t set the pricing yet, but I’m concious of setting the price at a point where it leaves room for the average guy at home to profit with a modest account size.
How does work the strategy ? ?
That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it 😉 The only information that I’m willing to share is that every trade entry depends on the SB Score.
I’ve not checked it out but I trust it will be a great strategy coming from you.
Thanks for the vote of confidence!
I beg your pardon, I know it’s only been a day or two, but FXCM is down this month and Pepperstone is up? With something similar happening last month too? That’s quite telling!
It’s only been a few days. That and there are some legitimate, albeit minor, differences in the code that will cause some discrepancies between trades. They should perform roughly the same over the long haul excluding commissions. Pepperstone should come out ahead by virtue of the fact that its commissions are cheaper.
Are people that are in QB Pro going to be automatically switched to Dominari?
They were already switched about 2 weeks ago. If you look at your account statement, you’ll notice a dramatic shift in the trading frequency.
I have followed your strategies with great interest, my problem is probably similar to many others, I can’t be in front of my computer enough to execute the trades that appear. Is it your intention to offer trades signals via something like mirror trader?
Yes, exactly. It will be a copy or mirror traders setup. There’s no way a human could execute 49 trades per day around the clock.
I am interested and would like to know the following:
1. How much? (one time or monthly cost)
2. What is a reasonable account size in USD?
3. When?
Hi Shaun
I was on the QB Pro program and do not see any activity in the account as of Jan 26. From Jan 27 onward there is no activity. Is that normal?
Similar story here. My Pepperstone account has $260 in it and has no trades since 14 Jan.
Do I need to add funds or what?
Looks Good, once you are ready with please let us know.
Thanks
Absolutely!
Hi Shaun,
Liking the sound of Dominari – I guess we’ll have to wait for you to release it. I run MT4 – is it complex to install? I assume you’ll have a hand holding guide!
Congrats on the system – sounds terrific
Best wishes
It runs just like any other EA. It’s a piece of cake.
Hey Shaun,
Your system sounds very promising, and nourishes a sense of trust in it. You have put your own equity on the line, which also instills confidence. I would certainly give it a try once you are up and online. Keep up the good work.
Best rgds,
Chris
I’m interested in your Dominari product. When will it be available? I already have a demo account with Pepperstone.
I expect to have it ready within a few weeks.
Hi Shaun,
(1)Would I be able to run this Dominatrix on my ActivTrades MT4 account ?
(2) Is it basically a set&forget strategy, or do I need to invoke it somehow for each trading period ?
(3) Do I stipulate the currency pairs I want it to trade ?
Thanks
Paul
Hi Paul,
I think Dominatrix has a wee bit of a different connotation! I named it Dominari, which is Latin for dominate.
It will be identical to the signals I’m trading, including the currency pairs.
–Shaun
Looks promising! Please count me in.
Thanks
Will do. Make sure you’re on my mailing list to be notified when I open the doors.
Shaun, great looking EA – for so many trades in a day which do you think is more profitable, a broker with narrow spread but a commission charge, or a broker with larger spread but no commission charge on each trade – I have accounts with several brokers of both kinds e.g. FXChoice, ETX Capital etc
Hey Jeremy,
Both of my live accounts use brokers that charge commissions. I want to know my exact cost of trading – commissions are far more transparent.
–Shaun
Sbnr nya saya tertarik banget dg trik bpk,tapi Saya lg ga pnya modal ni pak shawn..gmana ni ya?
I couldn’t use Google translate to figure translate comment.
You can alaways count me in.
Thanks, Subbarao!
Как долго вы работали над этим продуктом? Интересная программа! Молодец!
Thank you! I’ve been working on it since about October of last year. The SB Score is something that I started analyzing back in December 2013.
I get constantly email from you, trying to seell me your “SB” Product – noww you are onto a new System. you just want to get rid off the old System?
Dominari uses the same key indicator as QB Pro. They both use the SB Score.
And thats why it’s proven now ,that it become useless.
What?
You’ve changed the MyFXBook published results for this to “private” which means we can’t see the performance. Why? Didn’t seem to last too long since you began this thread.
Good question. I moved the account over to a new one where I’ll be trading lower leverage. I don’t want my results contaminated with the higher leverage tests.
http://www.myfxbook.com/members/QuantBar/dominari-pepperstone/1591822
Thanks for the URL for the re-leveraged system. What was your performance (PL, MaxDD, Profit Factor) for the prior system before switching?
It returned 4.06% with an absurd drawdown and profit factor of around 1.1. Those numbers are all skewed from the difference levels of leverage used – hence, the change.