Those of us following my KG relative strength trading robots have been benefiting from scooby-doo's priceless advice.
Early on, scooby-doo came up with this pearl:
"One thing people should realise with the XXXJPY pairs...
One well known trading method with JPY currencies is that the BOJ intervene on a daily basis with them. So, if they are oversold prior to Tokyo open, then SELL them all. Likewise if they are overbought prior to Tokyo close, then BUY them all."
The above is most likely the reason why people end up with these trades going against them.
You should look for where it is OS/OB in 2 different timeframes, this will help stop whipsaw. Also, you need to be careful on the timeframes you use.
Use M15 and 1H or 1H and 4H. There is no point using M15 and M30 combined as they are basically telling you the same thing!
The rule of thumb is to use at least 3 x your lowest time frame. So M5 and M15 are ok too. BUT, do not use M1 and M5 as you will get too many false breakouts.
Hope this makes sense.
Also, if you are using Stoch or RSI then set the period to 2. It should actually be 1 but i dont think MT4 allows this ?"
From this sprung an xxxJPY basket trading robot -
Scooby-doo BOJ basket trading robot. This uses internal code that measures the relative strength of the Yen against other currencies in the basket, to trigger an entire basket of all the pairs in the PairsToTrade input. The readings the code gives are identical to those shown by the RS_GROUP_JPY_Strength_Index indicator.
SERIOUS WARNING TO NEW POSTERS
You are welcome here but MUST do the basic reading and research to allow you to understand what is going on here. Recently, the legions of the lazy, stupid, or both asked so many infantile questions that scooby-doo got pissed off and left. Happily, he has returned and I am not going to risk losing him again. If new posters ask questions that make it obvious that they have not done the basic reading (and it
will be obvious), I will bar them from posting at all. This is my thread, so I have that ability. On average, I exercise this once a day, so think twice before you ask a silly question; I am ruthless about this.
I have set up a thread where new, confused or unsure traders can ask their basic questions. Please go to
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=207090 and post there if you have any such queries.
Moving on:
There are two
really important documents that you need to read if you are to have any real understanding of what is happening here. They are both in the attachments:
- BOJS.pdf explains the basic system.
- BOJ Intervention Policy.pdf - the title says it all if you have read BOJS.pdf.
After that, and
really do read the docs, here is what to do:
- Download scooby-doo robot indicators;
- Extract the RS_GROUP_JPY_Strength_Index indicator to your Indicators folder (IBFX users will see their own version included). Drag it onto a GJ chart, so you can see it in action. You do not need the indi on the chart for the robot to trade.
- Extract the 'FFCal Scoobs' indicator to your Indicators folder. You do not need to have it on the chart.
- Extract matrixebiz's 'Forex market hours GMT' to your indi folder. Drag it onto a chart to help you work out your buy/sell start hour.
- Download the robot, put it into your Experts folder. Drag it onto the chart. Use a 15M chart.
- Download ReconnectEA and put it on to another chart. This will take care of broker disconnects and force the platform to reconnect to the broker.
- Close your trading platform then restart it.
Inputs list:
- PairsToTrade="USDJPY,GBPJPY,EURJPY, CHFJPY,AUDJPY":as you can see, the pairs are entered in a list, with each pair separated by a comma. Users of accounts with a pair suffix (IBFX GBPJPYm for example) can ignore this as the robot adds it automatically. Any pair in the list you do not want to trade can simply be deleted.
- SellHourStarts: the hour in which you want the robot looking for short trades. This should be Tokyo opening time minus 2 hours IN YOUR OWN LOCAL TIME.
- BuyHourStarts: the hour in which you want the robot looking for long trades. This should be Tokyo closing time minus 2 hours IN YOUR OWN LOCAL TIME.
- MaxSpreadAllowed: the robot will cancel the trade if the spread has widened beyond this figure. This helps to avoid trading during a dramatic news period. The default is coded for a 5 digit wally-plonker-dipstick criminal. Divide this setting by 10 if yours is a normal, 4 digit criminal.
- BaseLot: the minimum lot size used by the robot to calculate differential lot sizes. Read the thread to understand this.
- RobotCalculatesLotSize: allows the robot to calculate your BaseLot size for you. The function uses scooby-doos formula of (Account balance / 20000).
- TpMultiplicationFactor: multiplies BaseLot by this setting to reach a basket take profit. Leave it set to default until you understand. TP is set to 200. This is on the low side for safety as we have no proper way of ascertaining correct support/resistence etc. Sometimes the TP will be too low and sometimes the TP will actually be too high depending on different market conditions. You can ofcourse set this higher but dont be surprised if your baskets never hit TP or take hours, days, weeks todo so.
- BasketStopLossPercentage: the maximum percentage of account balance you can stomach having a basket go into drawdown. This has to be set to a high figure. Trading basket's upl's change with terrifying rapidity, and a stop of 2% or 3% will get hit more often than not. The default of 10% takes both this factor and the overall safety of the strategy into account.
- EmergencyStopLoss & EmergencyTakeProfit: settings in case your robot loses contact with your criminal's server. Hence the use of, 'Emergency'.The default is coded for a 5 digit wally-plonker-dipstick criminal. Divide these inputs by 10 if yours is a normal, 4 digit criminal.
- CriminalIsECN: Those of you familiar with my work know what I think of the bucketshop brokers, and so will recognise the input. Set it to true if your crim is a 2 stage order crim. If you have no idea what I am talking about, ignore this.
- LowerTfOverBought: etc. Leave these set to defaults until you understand what is going on.
- MinsBeforeNews & MinsAfterNews: the time to cease trading before (60 mins) and after (30 mins) a news release.
- NewsImpact: allows you to set the impact of news you want to stop trading:
- 3 = stops trading during high impact news period
- 2 = stops trading during high and medium impact news period
- 1 = stops trading during all news periods
- NextPublicHoliday: date of the next Tokyo public holiday, during which we should not trade.
- AllowHedging: sends hedge trades if the basket is in drawdown equivalent to 50% of your basket stop loss.
- TrailingStopPips: the distance to trail the stop when hedge trades kick in.
A note about trading hours: the defaults are my computer's local times. To find out what time Tokyo opens in your part of the world, use the clock in the indicator zip, provided by matrixebiz. If still confused, go to
http://fxtrade.oanda.com/resources/fxmarkethours/. Sahars has posted an indicator that displays these on screen in post no 3. Also go to page 49, post no 729; smjones has put up a script that will help you work out the difference between your comuter's local time and GMT. hohgch sent me this link in a pm -
http://www.symmetricom.com/resources...oads/symmtime/ - that allows you to download a free computer clock synchroniser that will keep your clock accurate. I haven't used it because I already have one.
Please note this point: despite the simplicity of working out trading hours, legions of the lazy and stupid have continued to post stupid questions about this.
Questions about trading hours earn the poster an automatic bar from further postings.
Immediate action labels
You will see three of these on the chart. 'Immediate Buy Basket' forces an immediate buy xxxJPY. 'Immediate Sell Basket' forces an immediate sell xxxJPY. 'Immediate Close Basket' will close an open basket. To use a label, double click so it has a rectangle drawn around it, then drag it to a different part of the chart. The robot will do the rest. Experiment with these on demo so you know what you are doing; once started, the activated code cannot be aborted. You will see inputs associated with the label display in the inputs.
A note about hedging:
- this is not available to account holders with USA so-called NFA-compliant criminals. Get a different broker.
- the robot sends hedge trades when the basket drawdown hits 50% of your basket stop loss.
- This is a partial hedge and consists of two trades - USDJPY and EURJPY taken out in the opposite direction to the basket.
- Hedge trades close when:
- They hit their trailing stop or
- BOJ intervenes to reverse the direction in which the Yen is moving and the whole basket of original + hedge trades can hit breakeven or
- The whole basket is overwhelmed by events and hits stop loss.
BIG, BIG POINT. TURN OFF THE ROBOT DURING JAPANESE BANK HOLIDAYS. It will quickly become obvious why, as you read the thread.
A few notes to newbies both here and to Forex trading:
- This is not a, "You must read all of the thread to understand what is going on." thread.
- Imbibe the contents of this first post. Read it, mark it and inwardly digest it; it may change your life.
- After that, speed skim through it. Stop and read in detail any post by scooby-doo. The guy has my vote as the worldly personification of God. I would pay big bucks to learn what he has forgotten about trading. And if 'he' turns out to be a 'she', then many apologies to all she-kind. Linger also over anything posted by smjones - God no 2. Ignore my posts; I am just the mechanic bolting everything together and have nothing to add to the trading strategy. The rest of this thread is just a sort of chat room, where we describe to one another what is going on and how our trades are faring, and poke some fun at those dim enough to ignore my earlier warning about asking daft questions.
- Having done this, you should be in full touch with what has gone on. If you are too dim or lazy to keep in touch and ask a daft question, here is what will happen:
- The tolerant minority will answer it. Once. Possibly. If they are in a good mood.
- The intolerant majority will savage you.
- I shall bar you from posting here.
Have fun. Learn. Make profits. Have a few laughs. The rest of us are.
Some big, BIG appreciations:
- scooby-doo: the biggest ever. Without you, none of this would have happened.
- Kang Gun: without your indis, the robot that trades here would be nothing like so effective as it is.
- smjones: for your fantastic enhancements to KG's indis and for the code that allows encapsulation of the indis within the robot.
- zznbrm: for spotting the most glaring of my coding mistakes that was sending trades in the wrong direction. Without this, the robot might have died an ignominious death.
- matrixebiz: for your magnificent Forex trading hours clock and some invaluable coding contributions; the label thingy is fantastic.
- challenger88: for coding the ReconnectEA and adapting the FFCal indi.
Colossal round of applause to all of the above.
V2.8: Added hedging.
Basket robot latest version is: V2.9
___________________________________ _____________________________
Basket robot trading robot 24H
Latest version is: V1.7
Ok, given that news is likely to interfere with proper trading, I have decided to put up the 24H version - find it attached.
I am a member of a private forum dedicated to developing auto-trading robots. Over there, we have been enjoying ourselves this last week making silly amounts of money on demo.
The 24H version is the same sort of blunt instrument that the KG Range robot is. The ridiculous gains we have been making suggest that this is down to blind chance moving in our favour.
Having said that, the KG robot has tripled my live account over several months, so perhaps there is not so much to be lost by trying. We shall see.
The latest toy - scooby-doo BOJ basket trading robot 24H V1.mq4 - only works on demo accounts; I will not allow it to be used live until it has survived a few basket stop-losses. Ok, so coders know exactly how to circumvent this, but they also know not to.
So, bung the robot on demo - you can use the same demo as your are trading the 'proper' robot as both use a slightly different magic number - sit back and watch.
Maybe it will be fun; maybe it will wipe out; we shall see.
