I think conceptually the entry and exit triggers in the BRI are relatively simple. I find it difficult to be comfortable with it because it builds positions while the short term trend is against the entry direction (not my normal practice). So what I have experienced is that this EA's portfolio of open positions in demo mode is essentially in a constant drawdown (and it can be over 10% of equity balance), however even while so, it will be closing positions that are in profit. Basically it means I find it hard to track how its going.
One thing I do have to do with the BRI is review the markets I've got it operating on - I don't think I have the right balance - too many H1 markets which adds too much volatility to the portfolio imo.
I am a much bigger fan of the daily breakout model which is almost the opposite - its portfolio of markets tends to be most of the time in a positive balance on open positions.
The demo work is absolutely essental imo - I can't believe anyone would write an EA not run it in demo mode - its a must to see how it operates on current data (as opposed to backtesting). One suggestion that the guys at Tradeview also suggested recently is after demo and before trading in a live account, run it in a live account and instead of triggering trades, print them to the expert log, because there may still be some differences to pick up compared to demo mode. That hadn't occurred to me but if they think its worthwhile doing then I will do that (they must have a good reason for suggesting it).
Btw commenting a variable to the chart (there is a limit of 1 variable that can be commented to the chart at any one time) and printing the values of important variables to the expert log is extremely helpful when you get to the problem-solving stage (if you are writing your own EA's).
