KM:  Welcome, Michal! It’s great to have this chance to talk with you. I’m thrilled you’ve chosen to share your full trading journey with us—from the very start to successfully using AlgoCloud. Let’s jump in!

As first let’s check Michal’s real account result:

Real account monthly results

Real money portfolio winrate

In Michal’s portfolio, reversal strategies are a big part now, and a win rate of about 71% aligns with the experiences from backtesting (69%).

There are closed trades only (There are some open profits too). There is no dividend part envolved.

Example of portfolio results from backtesting

KM: What were you doing before you got into trading?

MZ: Buying and selling in a basic form has interested me for as long as I can remember. As a young man in the early 90s in Poland, during the transition from socialism to capitalism, I engaged in various simple business activities. I didn’t have much capital, and I gained knowledge through trial and error, but that real market was very fresh, so I remember it as a fun adventure.

In the meantime, I finished my economics degree and started working in sales departments, first in the financial industry, and then in 2003, I landed in IT and discovered my second passion – technology. I became responsible for sales at a small company producing mobile systems for salespeople. It was just before the mobility boom, so we hit the right time, and we managed to grow the company into a dynamic organization employing over 100 people over the following years.

In the meantime, I became a shareholder in the company and had the opportunity to work with a lot of fantastic people, getting to know hundreds of companies from the inside, including corporations like Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Merck, and many others. Today, I have a special sentiment when trading their stocks.

KM: Does the knowledge you gained about these businesses help you in stock trading?

MZ: That knowledge certainly doesn’t hurt. But in stock trading, I use a purely mechanical approach that I learned later, so knowing exactly what the company does whose stocks I’m buying today is not necessary for me. It’s different with value investing strategies, which I also use in my investment account.

KM: When did you become interested in trading?

MZ: In 2017, I realized that I was working hard in business for my money, but I wasn’t doing anything to make the money work for me.

That’s when I decided to find ways to effectively grow my money. I analyzed the available options and discovered the stock market and trading. I was completely fascinated by this topic. That’s how my greatest life passion was born.

KM: How was it in the beginning?

The beginnings were fascinating but also difficult. The markets are a real labyrinth of opportunities on one side and manipulation and misinformation on the other, which hit me hard.

I decided not to trust anyone or anything that I hadn’t thoroughly checked myself. This is somewhat against my nature because I generally trust people a lot, but what pays off in everyday life doesn’t necessarily pay off in the markets.

That’s why I’ve been using a lie detector for years, namely Algowizard in SQX.

KM: A lie detector? Wow! I’ve never heard that term for SQX before.

Whenever I hear or read about a method, in most cases, there is no information about any sensible backtest, let alone robustness. Since I’m proficient in using AlgoWizard, I can quickly prototype and verify the usefulness of various concepts for most such strategies. I often discover that a method praised by someone is at best average and often dooms the user to failure.

KM: When did you start using SQX?

I bought licenses for 2 computers in 2018. I didn’t have any strategies, so I was looking for a tool that would allow me to move forward. Your software fascinated me with its complexity and simultaneously terrified me with the sheer number of available options.

Together with my wife, who became my partner in the trading adventure, we decided to use the Builder to search for strategies for us. We launched 2 servers that searched for strategies 24/7. Magda, who took the Builder course and what we thought was “comprehensive robustness testing.” Objectively, the education was very poor back then.

In search of the holy grail, we generated literally billions of strategies, qualifying about 100 of them for various instruments and intervals, mainly Forex and CFD. However, we had no idea on what principles the strategies that passed our tests operated.

Ask me how many of them I use today?

KM: How many of them do you use?

Zero. At the end of the day, because we didn’t understand the strategies we had, even after going through all those complex tests, we couldn’t trust them in real trading when a drawdown occurred. We didn’t know if the problem was in the data, the tool, or the strategies. This was compounded by complications on the side of CFD brokers and their platforms.

We then held off on live algorithmic trading, and that was a very good decision.

I decided to start from scratch and learn trading before automating it.

KM: How did you go about it?

I dedicated the following years to education and live trading.

In 2020, I decided to focus 100% on trading. So, I suspended my business activities and reclaimed my time for my new passion. It was a risky decision, and I don’t recommend it if you don’t have a comfortable backup.

I traded for a year in a trading room as a day trader on stocks, mainly operating at the start of the US market. An interesting experience. I had seven monitors. Today I left “only” three.

However, I went further and completed an advanced institutional trading course on the futures market and several others courses. After hundreds of hours in front of the screen, I also learned something about myself. Although I love trading as such, I don’t enjoy sitting in front of the monitor for many hours to manage my positions.

Trading was supposed to be my path to financial freedom and more free time. However, it mentally weighed on me because I felt responsible for every decision. Now, I realize that using algorithms is much more convenient. The algorithm makes decisions on individual transactions, and I only need to hire or fire it.

Then I came across the education of algorithmic traders who have confirmed successes, such as four-time world champion Andrea Unger, Kevin Davey, and the excellent educator Ali Casey. I immersed myself in their methods and went into automation for futures contracts, confirming that the key to success is “simplicity over complexity.”

In 2021, I returned to the tool I already knew well – SQX, and here Eureka! AlgoWizard was perfect for quickly verifying almost all the trading concepts I had and could express at that time.

After months of work and testing, I created about 20 promising strategies for Futures and… here, however, new unexpected challenges appeared….

Surprisingly, this time not from the strategies but from the stability of trading platforms.

KM: On which platforms did you work on Futures?

I was using two platforms and brokers for live algo trading at the time:

• Tradestation with futures and equities accounts
• MT5 + AMP Global for futures

KM: What were the problems?

Even though I had decent strategies and a strong VPS, with a dozen or so strategies running simultaneously, Tradestation would crash every other day. Problems with losing track of positions and the entire platform freezing occurred so often that there was no question of unattended work. Given the size of Futures contracts and practically 24h operation, failing to fill strategy conditions can obviously result in significant losses, which were nowhere near the backtest results.

I had to use additional tools to alert me if TS was still working – from today’s perspective, it was completely insane. Tradestation has, in my opinion, the best free intraday data on the market, but at that time, the platform itself worked terribly. Is it still the case? I don’t know and don’t want to check.

MT5 with AMP worked much more stably, but here the problem was the broker, who has a different time in the data than the futures exchange time (CME) I was testing on. Hence, for example, all candles above 1h (e.g., H4 or D1) have a completely different shape, so OHLC is different from the original exchange data. I don’t need to say that this affects everything related to indicators and, for example, candlestick formations. So it was impossible to compare the backtest with real trading, which is a key process for verifying strategies.

This was the reality I somehow struggled with until 2022, making some money in the market but with great effort and dealing with things that shouldn’t be a trader’s concern at all. Trading itself is difficult enough.

I was on the way of switching to a new complicated setup on Multicharts, about which I had heard better opinions when… in December 2022, you invited me to beta test of Algocloud.

It was exactly when ChatGPT appeared, a groundbreaking technology that I use very often. However, if you ask me what is more powerful for me today, Chat GPT or Algocloud – without hesitation, I would choose your platform.

KM: Thanks for those kind words. December 2022, you were one of the first external testers of Algocloud.

Yes, the platform wasn’t working properly in many areas yet, but I immediately saw the fantastic concept behind it and its enormous potential. I knew it would be a game changer for people like me. I decided to help you improve it and adapt it to suit the live trading perfectly.

I spent half a year testing every nook and cranny of Algocloud, reporting over 100 bugs, which, to my amazement, were almost immediately resolved by your developers. Big thanks to the team, especially Tomas, who is great for this job. Along the way, you gathered my feedback regarding the Stockpicker in SQX, and there were also very quick progress and improvements.

KM: You became the first person in the world to start trading live using Algocloud.

Yes, I think even Mark (your CEO) didn’t know yet that Algocloud was ready for live trading, but I knew because I worked very carefully on the Alpaca paper account, and Tomas was fixing smaller and smaller imperfections every day. In June 2023, I started trading live cautiously, and Algocloud quickly showed its power, and I started making money. By the end of October 2023, I was ready to trade live with the first portfolio of strategies on Algocloud.

KM: Why did you switch to Stocks from CFDs and Futures contracts?

I’d rather skip CFDs in silence. There are several reasons why, in my opinion, they are not instruments for professionals (although issued by professionals, i.e., brokers, for their purposes). I’ll just mention the complicated setup, data issues, and transaction costs, especially when it comes to spread and overnight positions, which can ruin even a decent trading strategy. The strong point of CFDs is position scaling. We can trade with very little capital, and this is what connects them with the stock market, which I’ll talk about more in a moment. Of course, if someone decides to engage in what I consider the most challenging market, Forex, they are largely stuck with this type of asset. However, look at the statistics published by brokers on how many % of people lose using CFDs. Should the average investor bother with this class of instruments when there is something much easier at hand? You can probably make money on CFDs, but in my opinion, there are simpler methods.

Futures contracts, on the other hand, are real instruments (on which most CFDs are based). They have huge advantages – low costs, including real market spreads, offer full diversification, free leverage, and an objective entity setting prices, which is the exchange. However, the downsides are the large amounts of money required to safely handle several low-correlated strategies simultaneously. This can be daunting and probably rightly so for beginner users. The downsides also include the hassle of rolling contracts, the complicated setup of instruments, sessions, etc. You can sometimes go gray before you start trading.

At the end of the day, you also have to realize that in the futures market, you are competing almost exclusively with professionals. Professional traders buying and selling oil, gold, corn, or sugar. If you want to scalp on futures, know that they use additional tools based on order flow, such as Level2 data, like volume profile, footprint, cumulative delta, or even DOM. If you don’t know what that is and how to use it – my advice is not to go to fast intervals on futures. On the other hand, there are many great traders like the mentioned Andrea Unger or Ali Casey who successfully trade futures using simple strategies and candlestick charts. According to my experience, such fun starts from H1 intervals, and preferably higher… and from there, it’s close to D1 and Equities.

KM: What do you value most in stocks and ETFs?

Let’s start with the fact that the stock market has largely different participants than the futures market. In the US stock market, according to estimates, there are over 150 million active participants (!). Over 60% of Americans own stocks, including about 25% who trade directly on the market. In addition, there are millions of investors from around the world. Of course, huge investment funds and hedge funds have very large shares here, but the goals of this market and its character are completely different from those mentioned above.

The main advantage of trading stocks is that creating profitable and, more importantly, robust strategies for stocks is much simpler than for futures. The daily interval provides high repeatability of setups. The tests on thousands of instruments, which Stockpicker can perform in 30 seconds, provide unmatched robustness of created strategies. We have the ability to test 30-40 years back instead of the standard 10 years on Futures. We have extremely low transaction costs (we live in beautiful times). For overnight positions, companies pay you dividends – a cherry on top.

Additionally, we have almost full position scalability, i.e., percentage position sizing, which is the key to exponential income growth in the long run. Just like with CFDs, it can be applied from small accounts. We have high volatility of individual stocks, which provides daily opportunities for profits. Finally, we have insurance for money invested in a brokerage account up to $500k+ in institutions like SPIC. Of course, we work on a real exchange, which guarantees objectivity and equality to all market participants.

KM: What are the downsides of stocks?

The main downsides include price gaps that make it difficult to use typical SL orders. Diversification is limited during bear markets. We have costs of using leverage, i.e., margin, and costs for short positions. Finally, we have the Pattern Day Trader rule limiting some strategies for users with accounts below 25k USD.

When trading stocks, you need to learn to deal with these limitations. For example, we reduce activity during bear markets; use ETFs for diversified trading in other markets; apply Exit Rules instead of typical SL, etc.

Stocks on the daily interval, in my opinion, have many advantages over other instruments, which also work in favor of people without much experience.

KM: Okay, so let’s move on to what you see as unique in Algocloud?

The starting point for me is great strategies that have been working stably for 30-40 years and are robust, confirmed many times by e.g., 100k transactions on stocks of various indices. Algocloud and SQX introduced a very easy-to-use Stockpicker mechanism, which is an advanced technique used for many years by recognized stock algotraders like Nick Radge, Larry Williams, or Cesar Alvarez. This is completely unattainable on platforms like Tradestation or Multicharts, not to mention MT4/5. These platforms are based on the concept – one window = one running strategy. One Algocloud Stockpicker strategy is equivalent to hundreds or even thousands of such windows.

The platform itself has finally provided me with full stability and technical predictability. Today, I can go on vacation for several weeks and know that even without monitoring, everything will work flawlessly. Of course, out of curiosity, I regularly monitor its actions and results, but after getting to know it and checking every detail for months, I stopped worrying about technical problems.

Another advantage, in my opinion, is that the platform almost forces you to detach from low intervals. There is a great temptation to go lower – after all, it’s more transactions and potentially more profits. This is wrong thinking, in my opinion. Trading on the D1 interval is much calmer, more predictable, and simply enjoyable. We have a large number of signals by scanning hundreds, and if someone lacks thousands of stocks in indices. That’s more than enough, in my opinion, to accelerate success.

Transparency and controllability of actions. This was a key aspect for me at the stage of getting to know Algocloud and gaining confidence that something works well or not. The Algocloud log is, in my opinion, world-class mastery at the level of detailed information. Everything is written there in plain English and simple math. Step by step, Algocloud gives you insight into how the system works, how your strategy works, whether the data is correct, whether order execution is proceeding correctly. It requires getting to know it and reading the details at first, but once you understand it, you will trust the entire process a lot. Additionally, there is a complete export of transaction history and open positions. We’ve done great analytics in Power BI based on this. We are happy to share it with other users.

We must also mention the simplicity and convenience of the entire platform, where we have everything needed in one tool. Good quality data – both for backtesting and great data for live trading. Reliable and lightning-fast backtest. The ability to implement strategies with a few clicks. Connection with the broker and further with TradingView charts. Of course, if you want to professionally engage in strategy creation, in my opinion, sooner or later, you will invest in SQX, which expands these possibilities. But to start the adventure or use ready-made strategies, Algocloud has everything you need.

KM: Which broker do you use?

I have tried many brokers in my career. In algo trading, I switched to Alpaca, and it’s the best broker I’ve had so far. I recently wrote an article for you on this topic. I can recommend it. You must connect Alpaca with TradingView, and of course, we have a very stable connection with Algocloud here.

KM: What results have you achieved using Algocloud in the past year?

The strategy portfolio I use, in backtesting, has generated an average annual return of about 30% over the past 30 years, with very periodical leverage usage and importantly, without any losing year. However, I assume that future results won’t be as rosy. According to my tests, the robustness of the strategies used is high, but I like to assume worse future results. My first year of live trading using Algocloud seems to bring a return of about 25-30%. I’ll tally it up at the end of the year because I’ve added capital several times and adjusted money management settings. So far, I’ve had 11 profitable months and one losing month.

Of course, we currently have a bull market in stocks, so making money is not extraordinary. More important to me than the % return is the relative drawdown in comparison to the index and generally the behavior of the strategies during correction periods. It turns out better than I expected and similarly to the backtest. Interestingly, even though I use long-only strategies in this portfolio, during bear markets, they also generated an average of about 20% returns annually. The reversal strategies, which currently dominate my portfolio, provide predictable returns in various market conditions, and contrary to appearances, a strong bull market is not necessarily their best market. In any case, the filters applied in the strategies automatically adjust their exposure or even disable their operation in an unfavorable environment.

KM: Tell us about your Algohubb project.

From the beginning of my trading adventure, I decided that if I managed to get through this wall of fire and find an effective way to trade, I would share the knowledge I gained with others. The idea of sharing strategies came from my experiences that for a new person in this business, having the first sensible strategies that multiply money and at the same time understanding how and why they work is crucial.

Of course, SQX allows for generating strategies, but my example shows that this doesn’t have to be such an obvious path. The Builder is an innovative tool, but I believe that at the beginning, simple, logical, battle-tested concepts that I fully understand and are correctly programmed will be better than randomly selected conditions, which we will naturally have limited trust in.

That’s why we decided to build a place to share some of our strategies, practical knowledge, and tips. We experiment a lot with different trading concepts, so there’s plenty to share. Today, we use reversal, seasonal, momentum, trend, gap strategies in real trading, and soon a breakout group will be added. In my backlog, there are about 100 valuable strategies intended for Algocloud, and we are gradually starting to share them through Algohubb.com. I do not rule out that in the future, the platform will allow other creators to publish and earn from their trading concepts. The requirement, however, is full transparency, verification of correct operation, and objective strategy evaluation.

KM: What are your future plans?

First and foremost, trading. It’s my primary passion and business. I develop and fulfill myself as a trader. Developing and testing various concepts gives me great pleasure, and there are plenty of ideas. With my lie detector and the power of quickly verifying them, the efficiency is quite good. Algocloud gives me the power of immediate implementation and convenient strategy monitoring, with convenience unattainable on other platforms.

We are also testing a number of innovative concepts to extend Algocloud’s capabilities with fundamental, seasonal, or sentiment/AI filters. We will be happy to share them when they are ready.

You can visit algohubb.com, see and use our published strategies, and sign up for the subscription list and take advantage of the tools, strategies, and bonuses we have prepared.

This is just the beginning of an exciting project I think.