[aicccia]

This is my indicator.

Her name is Carmen and her goal is to have small to zero losses in ranging markets and then make a killing on trends.

Carmen has the simplicity of a moving average system where trades open and close on MA crosses.

When the white line is above the yellow and blue lines, BUY.
Then when the white lines falls below the yellow and blue lines, close the buy and SELL.
Then when the white lines rises back above the yellow and blue lines, close the sell and BUY again.

But unlike MA crossover systems, Carmen has 0 lag. This is not because she's got some fancy math, but because she's actually running off visual trailing stops. It is a little hard to explain but take a look at the pictures and you'll understand.

Of course any trader who has been around more than a few months will say that if she has 0 lag, then she'll get whiplashed mercilessly in ranging markets. I am very aware of this and to protect against this problem, she employs two different tactics. Firstly, the width between the two "MAs" that make up the familiar MA channel is defined by the user, not the market. If you want it to be 1 standard deviation then put "1" in the space setting. If you want it to be 4 as you would in ranging markets when the price is more agitated, put "4" in the "space" setting. Very simple right?


Carmen v2.80:


Of course smart money management will always be a part of any successful system, but wouldn't it be crazy if the HG turned out to be nothing more than a bunch of trailing stops? Who said it had to be complicated?

********************************
Updates:
v1.01 - 2NOV2009
- Indicator now draws correctly for any currency, just select 4-digit broker or 5-digit broker in indicator settings panel.
- Indicator settings now in whole values.
v1.02 - 2NOV2009
- Indicator automatically determines 4-digit or 5-digit broker setting.
v1.03 - 2NOV2009
- I can take errors in the calculation but errors in the drawing drive me crazy. Fixes drawing for cases when there is not a lot of historical data.
v2.00 - 3NOV2009
- Now the trader can set up 3 groups of settings for three different market moods. The EA will automatically switch from group to the other, depending on how profitable the current trade is. Check out the intro post here.
v2.01 - 5NOV2009
- changed some internal variables to make the indicator a little better
- made some extern variables internal to simplify to the interface. if you want them back just change the source code.
v2.80 - 11NOV2009
- lots and lots of changes
- channel is now mirrored to trade ranging markets
- settings change now based on distance from base trend, vs profit of trade

Here are the detailed descriptions for the settings:
BasePeriod : Period of moving average that is used to reflect the two channels. RECOMMEND 1296
minDeviation : minimum width between the two channels. Each standard deviation equals ATR(1000). RECOMMEND 3-8
space : Width of channels, is percentage of minDeviation. RECOMMEND 0.25-0.4
contracting : Determines how closely the channels follow the price when price is retracing back to the base trend. RECOMMEND 15-30
expand_rate1 : Determines how closely the channel will follow the price when price is less than level_two from base trend. RECOMMEND 100-150
level_two : Determines how far away the price must be from the base trend before following expand_rate2. RECOMMEND 25-45
expand_rate2 : Determines how closely the channel will follow the price when price is less than level_three and more than level_two from base trend. RECOMMEND 75-100
level_three : Determines how far away the price must be from the base trend before following expand_rate3. RECOMMEND 45-65
expand_rate3 : Determines how closely the channel will follow the price when price is less than level_four and more than level_three from base trend. RECOMMEND 50-75
level_four : Determines how far away the price must be from the base trend before following expand_rate4. RECOMMEND 65-85
expand_rate4 : Determines how closely the channel will follow the price when price is more than level_four from base trend. RECOMMEND 25-50

[sam69]

sorry,i have absolutely no idea how to trade this carmen,exit and entry's on cross?,could you please explain it more in detail,newbie and no clue!
thanks!

[aicccia]

Originally Posted by sam69

sorry,i have absolutely no idea how to trade this carmen,exit and entry's on cross?,could you please explain it more in detail,newbie and no clue!
thanks!

When the white line is above the yellow and blue lines, buy.
Then when the white lines falls below the yellow and blue lines, close the buy and sell.
Then when the white lines rises back above the yellow and blue lines, close the sell and buy.

And Repeat.

You'll always have a order open with this system.

And don't forget money management.

[leafarct]

Originally Posted by aicccia

When the white line is above the yellow and blue lines, buy.
Then when the white lines falls below the yellow and blue lines, close the buy and sell.
Then when the white lines rises back above the yellow and blue lines, close the sell and buy.

And Repeat.

You'll always have a order open with this system.

And don't forget money management.

good morning,

added his EA in USDJPY, TF H1 and M5, but the result is equal to the chart that accompanies it.

Is there a different configuration that should be done?

Grateful

[aicccia]

Originally Posted by leafarct

good morning,

added his EA in USDJPY, TF H1 and M5, but the result is equal to the chart that accompanies it.

Is there a different configuration that should be done?

Grateful

It's because your USDJPY has 3 digits past the decimal point, and the default values are for 4 digits past the decimal point. My bad.

Give me a sec and I'll post a quick fix to detect that.

[aicccia]

Okay, I fixed it. It will draw correctly on any currency now. The only difference is all the indicator settings are now in whole number.

Refer to my first post for the updated file.

[aicccia]

Originally Posted by walb99

is this also OK?

if(Digits==5) till_breakeven_rate=0.00001;
if(Digits==4) till_breakeven_rate=0.0001;
if(Digits==3) till_breakeven_rate=0.001;
if(Digits==2) till_breakeven_rate=0.01;

yeah...thats fine. You'll have to change the other 3 variables too.

breakeven_buffer
space
expand_rate

[leafarct]

Originally Posted by aicccia

Okay, here's the fix. It will draw correctly on any currency now. The only difference is all the indicator settings are now in whole number, but that should make things easier anyway, and you'll need to select if you're using a 5-digit broker or 4-digit broker in the indicator setting panel. If you're not sure, use the default.

thank you very much. will observe the strategy for a few hours and give you my opinion hulide.

my only question is how to "repaints". they occur in this EA? There is a statistic on this issue?

[aicccia]

Originally Posted by walb99

like this?

if(Digits==5)
{
breakeven_buffer=0.00006;
space=0.1;
expand_rate=0.00075;
till_breakeven_rate=0.00001;
}
...

yes, except for ideally those variables are extern variables so you can easily change them. But it wouldn't be hard to figure out a fix for that either. I prefer my way. Its simpler.

[Rabid]

Of course smart money management will always be a part of any successful system, but wouldn't it be crazy if the HG turned out to be nothing more than a bunch of trailing stops? Who said it had to be complicated?

You really shouldn't spill those beans, lol.

I got into a small debate on this forum afew weeks ago. He wanted to invert a loser to make it a winner. Well there's only 1 consistent loser I know of, and that's a system that never takes a profit (regardless of stop loss). The inverse of that is a system that constantly takes a profit. Think about it.

Of course there's a few more details to consider, but overall...

[todd960960]

Nice Thread.......except the fact i had to scroll left to right instead of up and down....(over sized chart) grrrrrrrrrrr.

thx,
todd

[aicccia]

Originally Posted by todd960960

Nice Thread.......except the fact i had to scroll left to right instead of up and down....(over sized chart) grrrrrrrrrrr.

thx,
todd

I'll make them smaller next time.

[todd960960]

Thx,...I'm just messing with ya anyway.

By the way...kool indicator. Looking at the 1min chart for e/u, it's sure been long for quite a while.

thx,
todd

[aicccia]

If this thread gets enough attention I might release an EA for the indicator, so that the values could be optimized. The EA would include a few other tricks.

[danatisgi]

embarrassed to show my ignorance, but in the indicator settings, if i have a 4-digit broker, do i only need to change the 5-digit broker from true to false or are there other steps above my pay grade that need to be done. thanks in advance...