The International EA Competition

IEAC II COMPETITION RULES


If you are an EA developer and would like to participate in the 2nd IEAC competition, please read each of the IEAC rules carefully and be aware of the relevant dates for each phase of the competition.


2nd International EA Competition Competition Dates
Competition Phase Starting Finishing
EA Submission March 4th, 2010 Extended
EA Evaluation To Be Advised To Be Advised
Live Trading To Be Advised To Be Advised



A. Prize Money

A(1) - Prizes will be allocated to the first 13 finalists of the competition in the following amounts:

1st Place - $100,000

2nd Place - $30,000

3rd Place - $10,000

4th-13th Places - $1,000 each

A(2) - Prizes are denominated in United States Dollars.

A(3) - Each prize will be awarded in cash.

A(4) - Finalists will be notified by email and telephone. If a finalist cannot be contacted within 7 calendar days of the official closing date of the competition, the International EA Competition (IEAC) organizers may, at their sole discretion, award the prize to the next qualifying finalist.

A(5) - Prize money will be sent to each finalist by regular bank wire transfer within 14 calendar days of the closing date of the competition.

A(6) - It is the sole responsibility of each competition finalist to provide the IEAC organizers with valid bank wire details within 4 calendar days of prize notification.

A(7) - If a finalist is unable to receive their prize money via bank wire transfer within 14 days of the prize announcement then the Forex Robot World Cup organizers reserve the right to re-allocate that prize to the next qualifying finalist.

A(8) - Each finalist must send a written confirmation by email to the IEAC organizers confirming receipt of their prize funds within 10 calendar days of receipt.

A(9) - All entrants shall have an equal opportunity to win.

A(10) - All entrants must register to participate in the IEAC competition.

A(11) - Any taxes related to prize money are the sole responsibility of the recipient.

A(12) - Any charges levied by the recipient's bank for receiving the prize money are the sole responsibility of the recipient.


B. General


B(1) - Trading shall be confined to the spot Forex currency pairs offered by the organizer's nominated broker.

B(2) - All trading must be via an autonomous EA (Expert Advisor) running on the MT4 (MetaTrader 4) platform.

B(3) - Entrants may enter any subsequent competition, regardless of their final rank in any previous competition, though previous finalists are not permitted to re-enter a previous winning Expert Advisor.

B(4) - The IEAC organizers reserve the right to extend or change the starting and/or end date of any competition at any time. They also reserve the right to cancel the competition at any time if deemed fit.

B(5) - Entrants will not be asked to pay anything at any stage for participation in the competition.

B(6) - Entrants must be 18+ years of age and considered an adult in their respective country.

B(7) - No-one living in a country or territory that would require The Forex Robot World Cup organization or anyone associated with it to be registered by any regulatory authority is permitted to enter the competition.

B(8) - The International EA Competition organization is not registered to give financial advice in any country or territory

B(9) - All participants of the competition must speak communication level English or arrange for a translator to speak on their behalf where required. If it proves too difficult for the organizers to communicate with an entrant then that person may be disqualified.

B(10) - All entrants to the IEAC competition agree to have their competition trading records, charts, photographs, explanations and any other element related to the IEAC competition published and/or distributed by The Forex Robot World Cup organization, its agents and successors, both during and after the term of the competition.

B(11) - All entrants understand that they will receive no other compensation beyond the prize money they might win.

B(12) - All entrants understand that they will not be entitled to a share in any proceeds gained on the Live accounts funded by the IEAC organization during the live trading phase of the competition. Similarly they will not partake in any losses that the IEAC organization may incur on the Live trading accounts.

B(13) - The ownership and Intellectual property rights of an EA will remain with the entrant. At no time will the IEAC organization assume ownership of any EA submitted.

B(14) - Should the entrant of a submitted EA be announced as a finalist of any prize category, said entrant (as the acknowledged owner), hereby agrees to unconditionally grant to the IEAC organization sole, exclusive rights to market the EA as it sees fit and for its own exclusive benefit for a period of 6 (six) months from the end of the competition - this is deemed to be 14 days from the end of the live trading phase.

B(15) - If, at any stage during the exclusivity period, it is discovered that a finalist has attempted to sell or cede the rights to their winning EA then the prize awarded to that finalist will be forfeit and must be repaid.

B(16) - At the end of the 6 month exclusivity period, the IEAC organization shall acquire the non-exclusive rights to market the EA for its own benefit in perpetuity. With the commencement of the non-exclusive period, the owner shall thereafter be free to do with the EA as they wish (sell it, market it, license it), save that the owner may not sell or dispose of any rights to the EA if such sale or disposal would infringe, in any way, upon the rights previously granted to the IEAC organization - for example, the entrant of a winning EA could provide marketing rights to a third party on condition that such provision would not restrict the IEAC organization from continuing to commercialize the EA.

B(17) - Any improvements to a winning EA at any time after entry into the competition shall be included within the scope of the marketing rights granted to the IEAC organization.

B(18) - The IEAC organization may use any information and/or methods disclosed by competition entrants in any way, shape or form for its own gain.

B(19) - Competition entrants will not register domains or create web pages with exact or similar sounding names to those used by the Forex Robot World Cup organization as pertains to their own or any other submitted system(s).

B(20) - Competition entrants may not use any of the International EA Competition marketing and/or intellectual property material (which is protected by international copyright laws) without the express written permission of the IEAC organizers. Permission shall be granted to competition finalists on request once the relevant exclusivity period has ended.

B(21) - The decision of the International EA Competition organizers is final in all matters and no correspondence in this regard shall be entertained.

B(22) - IEAC may at any point in time disqualify any entrant who it believes is attempting to break the rules of the competition, or in some way is attempting to manipulate those rules to their advantage or in general.

B(23) - Entrants may be disqualified if they have misrepresented themselves.

B(24) - All entrants agree that any claims or disputes related to the competition or any project of the IEAC organization linked to the competition shall be resolved without any form of class action.

B(25) - All disputes that cannot be resolved will be governed by the laws of Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.

B(26) - If a dispute arises regarding the rules of the competition then entrants agree to first attempt to resolve any issue(s) with the help of a mutually agreed-upon arbitrator in the following location: Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.

B(27) - Any claim shall be limited to the amount of the cash prize in question.

B(28) - The International EA Competition organizers reserve the right to change, amend, waive or interpret the competition rules at their sole discretion at any time.

B(29) - Neither the IEAC organization, nor any person affiliated with the competition shall be liable for any damages directly or indirectly incurred by anyone as a result of them either participating in the competition or using the website.

B(30) - No person who is employed by or is an agent of or an associate of the IEAC organization may enter the competition.

B(31) - The IEAC competition is presented as a promotional competition and is based solely on the skill of the participants. The objective of the competition is to award prizes / scholarships to the participants who demonstrate the highest degree of trading skill, as adjudicated by the Forex Robot World Cup organizers.


C. EA Submission

C(1) - The dates for the relevant IEAC competition EA submission phase are shown at the top of this page.

C(2) - Entrants must submit the raw MQL code of each EA within the submission period. If DLLs are required by an EA then entrants must also submit the source code and compiler project files for the associated DLL files.

C(3) - No clones, mimics or anything likely to breach a third party's copyright and/or trademark may be entered into the competition.

** NO COMMERCIAL EAs ARE ACCEPTABLE **

In the event that such an EA is entered into the competition and the IEAC organizers fail to identify said breach, the submitting entrant of that specific EA will assume all legal exposure and will free the IEAC organization from any and all liability.

C(4) - If an EA is poorly coded (this may include but is not limited to technical errors, improper error handling which prevents its normal operation, cycles, zero divides or dramatic memory leaks), then the IEAC organizers will attempt to resolve the coding errors and raise it to competition standards. However, if the code is so poorly written that, in their opinion (or due to constraints of time), they cannot resolve an issue then they reserve the right to disqualify that entry.

C(5) - Amendments to submitted EA(s) will not be accepted later than 7 calendar days prior to the end of the submission period.

C(6) - Each entrant in the IEAC competition may submit a maximum of 5 EAs.

C(7) - If a competition entrant submits more than one EA, each will be considered separately.

C(8) - IEAC guarantees that only authorized persons involved in the competition shall have access to the submitted EAs during the competition period.

C(9) - A submitted EA can be disqualified but not withdrawn.


D. Submission And Qualification Criteria

D(1) - The International EA Competition (IEAC) organizers will conduct back-tests of each submitted EA on historical data using the MT4 (MetaTrader) platform.

D(2) - The back-tests will have a starting balance of US $1,000 and 200:1 leverage.

D(3) - Money management is permitted in the back-test.

D(4) - If money management is *not* enabled and no recommended fixed lot size has been specified in the submission notes by the entrant then the back-test will be made using 0.01 lots as the initial position size.

D(5) - Three individual 1 year back-tests must be provided which cover a total period of 3 consecutive years - the actual date ranges are:

- May 1st 2007 - May 1st 2008
- May 1st 2008 - May 1st 2009
- May 1st 2009 - May 1st 2010

Note: The same EA / trade parameters must be used in each of the three back-tests

Please be aware that we will perform our own independent back-tests over the same and additional, random date ranges between January 2005 and the current date to prevent attempts at "curve-fitting".

D(6) - The back-tests will use a "straight run" approach (each entire 12 month period), rather than "month-by-month".

D(7) - Any EA demonstrating a Relative Drawdown (floating loss or actual draw-down) in excess of 50% during *any* back-test period will be automatically disqualified.

D(8) - Any EA achieving less than $500 net profit during each back-test period will be automatically disqualified.

D(9) - The back-tests will be made using the MT4 (MetaTrader) platform provided by the International EA Competition organization's nominated broker.

D(10) - No EA may contain code which has the sole objective of avoiding specific (losing) trades. An example of this rule is "do not trade on Wednesdays at 18:23 GMT" when it can be shown that one Wednesday during the back-test period would have resulted in a large losing trade and dramatically affected the final result.

D(11) - No EA can place fewer than an average of 2 trades per week, every week, for the entire back-test period.

D(12) - Scalping EAs are allowed provided that no more than 25% of trades during the back-test period are within the spread range. EAs breaking this rule will be disqualified.

D(13) - The maximum number of concurrent open positions is 10.

D(14) - The International EA Competition organizers are unable to accept EAs which cannot be back-tested. Multi currency EAs will be independently back-tested (wherever possible) using proprietary software. Entrants of multi currency EAs should provide a back-test of each pair individually in the first instance.


E. Notification Of Qualifying EA Owners

E(1) - The entrant of each qualifying EA will be notified during the 10 calendar days prior to the start of the live trading phase of the competition. The term "qualifying" in this instance means having fulfilled each and every condition and rule of the IEAC.

E(2) - The decision of the IEAC organizers as to whether (or not) an EA has qualified to enter the live phase of the competition is final.


F. Live Trading Phase

F(1) - The top 25% (based on back-test performance) of the qualifying EAs for the second IEAC competition will be placed on live (real money) accounts owned and funded (US $1,000) by the IEAC organization. For example, if there are 100 qualifying EAs based on the IEAC rules and conditions, the top 25 of those (based on back-test performance) will proceed to the live trading phase.

F(2) - The dates of the live trading phase are shown at the top of this page.

F(3) - All competing EAs will be traded on accounts with 200:1 leverage from dedicated servers managed by the IEAC organization.

F(4) - The entrant of each EA being traded on a live account will receive the view-only, "investor" password to that account.

F(5) - The IEAC organizers reserve the right to provide view-only, "investor" access to any live account to any 3rd party.

F(6) - The IEAC organizers will have complete, unrestricted access to each live account being traded during the live trading phase.

F(7) - Once the live trading phase has begun, no changes to any parameters, strategy criteria, strategy rules, strategy specifications, currency traded, etc. will be made or permitted for any EA involved in the live trading phase of the competition. The configuration for each competing EA will remain constant throughout the entire period.

F(8) - Any EA experiencing margin call during the competition shall be disqualified.

F(9) - Any positions open at the end of the live trading phase of the competition will be automatically closed (whether in profit or loss).

F(10) - Once the live trading phase has begun, the IEAC organizers have sole authority to cease trading a qualifying EA.


G. Prize Qualification

G(1) - Prizes will be awarded based on the final results of the EAs competing in the live trading phase.

G(2) - Only results from the live trading phase will be taken into account when ranking EAs.

G(3) - The winning EAs will be those with the highest net equity growth and an overall increase in the account equity at the end of the live trading phase of the competition after closing all open positions, regardless of interim floating losses / draw-down.

G(4) - Only one prize per entrant. Entrants submitting multiple EAs will receive the prize achieved by their best performing EA.

G(5) - In the event of a tie (draw) the relevant prize will be split equally amongst the tied competitors.


The views and opinions provided by The International EA Competition are not endorsed nor controlled by our preferred Forex brokers. Further, Forex brokers are not responsible for their availability, content, or delivery of services and will not accept liability for any loss or damage, including without limitation to, any loss of profit, which may arise directly or indirectly from use of or reliance on such information.

Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any particular trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical performance results is that they are generally prepared with the benefit of hindsight. In addition, hypothetical trading does not involve financial risk, and no hypothetical trading record can completely account for the impact of financial risk in actual trading. For example, the ability to withstand losses or to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading losses are material points which can also adversely affect trading results. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results and all of which can adversely affect actual trading results.

At all times you must note that you shall not and cannot assume, nor do we provide, any assurance that any prior successes, or past results, as to income earnings, can be used as an indication of your future success or results. By relying on or using any of our products, services or written materials or information, you acknowledge unequivocally, that we make no claim, nor do we make any guarantee or warrantee or representation of any kind, in terms of the correctness, accuracy, reliability, currency or otherwise thereof. The entire risk as to the results and outcome and performance of the products and services and use of any information or product or material provided by ourselves, are assumed by you.

The International EA Competition (IEAC) is neither licensed nor regulated in any country and we cannot give investment advice on any matter. If you are unsure about anything on this website, please seek independent financial advice. Your use of the website is your acceptance of our full terms and conditions located on our website and you acknowledge that you will not use the website or purchase any product from the IEAC that would require the IEAC to be registered or regulated in your country.