RBA System

RBA Strategy
The name of the strategy evolved over time. I shortened it to a more conventional name for easy reference.

August 19 Update
The strategy has been modified slightly. The underlying principle of ADR bands remain the same. For full details about the new updates, read here, here and here.
Do not post until you have digested the threads connected. We now focus on H1 and H4.


Introduction
To all traders, this thread is dedicated to a developing project the community (Robots4Me et al) have been working on. This thread is not for newbies. We will not entertain newbie questions. Make sure you have strong money management skills before you try this out. The market is unpredictable and it can swing against you by a thousand pips. This thread will only help you to identify buy and sell zones. It is not a magic method to become wealthy.

Robots4Me has been generous. He worked tirelessly to develop the indicators and EA. The rest of the community have been testing and giving quality feedbacks.

Purpose of thread
The purpose of this thread is to use the tools, and provide inputs for developing the tools to finished product. Market situations may change and the method may fail. So be careful. I am not here claiming to know everything or to have spent 1 million hours of screen time. Share your inputs and let's grow together in knowledge. All ideas are welcome.

When posting your screenshots, please remove all other indicators. We want clean charts. Only the indicator designed specifically for this thread is allowed.

How it started
The project started here.

The 2 main threads linked to this project are:
MM (Money Maker) Detective Indicator (Start from 3865)
Custom Indicators for TMA-ADR Reversal Trading and BBMA (Get the latest indicators and EA here)

I strongly advise that everyone goes through the threads to read about the history of the project and how far we have come with development.

Credits: Robots4Me, Robot Trader, Parisboy, JVDA, Skyway, Nih98... e.t.c.

Summary of key posts on RBA Strategy
- 3865, 3867: Intro to the RBA Strategy
- 3892, 3898: Why ADR bands over centered MA
- 3914: Detail trading rules
- 3957, 3958, 3973: Intro to trade manager
- 4016: Notes on dashboard
- 4040: Notes on repainting
- 4050: Notes on scaling trades & MM
- 4054, 4085, 4099: Validation of strategy
- 4057, 4062: Notes on exit due to midline shift
- 4127: Entries, Repainting & ADR bands
- 4145, 4155: Notes on how signals work
- 4153: Dynamic Entries & Lot sizing
- 4171, 4173, 4174: Alternative exit options

Trading RBA Strategy
This strategy is built around the behaviour of price around midline of a centred TMA. Anyone that can code should be able to do this easily. Grab a centred TMA and follow the following steps:

1. Draw the center line of the centered MA (NIH Centered TMA, Interpolate = false, W1, half length = 1)
2. Mark the ADR distance from the midline
3. Check if the daily candle pokes and closes above the ADR from the midline (Check this at end of day)
4. If step 3 is true, trade towards the midline
5. Repeat step 1-4 once everyday at end of day (open of new daily candle)
6. TP: Midline
7. SL: x% of ADR distance from trade open price (I prefer 200%)

Indicators and EA
Download the Latest Indicators and EA

here

Indicator Disclaimer: This indicator responds to price movements. Therefore, the bands may slightly shift during the week. However, entry conditions often remain in place on D1. As long as you stick to scaling your trades from D1 signals, you will be fine. Avoid LTF until you understand how it works.

Rules

1. Entries: Don't put all your eggs in one basket:
   1. You can scale in your trades as the signals show (Avoid LTF)
   2. Split your lots into pieces. For instance if all you want to put in to a trade cycle is 0.1, then split to 0.1/6 = 0.016 (pls is this even possible? Pls let me know of a good broker who can offer small lots)
   3. As each signal appear, take the trades at (Expected total lots/6)
   4. Set stop loss as 100% ADR. Each trade with it's own stop loss. The chances of price dropping another 100% ADR before retrace to midline is really small. Less than 5%. Would probably happen on black days (market crashes). Our stop loss will save the day
   5. Take profit at the midline

   
   

2. Mobile stop loss and take profit
   1. We will have both hard stop loss and visual stop loss. Same for take profit
   2. Hard stop is the one set at the beginning of trade which ideally shouldnt move.
   3. Visual stop is the one the EA will execute based on price vs opposite bands and midline
   4. At the start of new week, new lines gets drawn.
   5. Here is the trick. The midline could immediately become a visual stop loss.
   6. If the midline is now below or above the price, ideally, we hope price will continue moving in our favour. However, if price reverses back to the midline, we get out of the trades. That's not a really good sign.
   7. The midline is our knife edge. If price touches the midline, either in profit or loss, exit
   8. Alternative approach is to use the opposite band as exit. In a buy trade, the upper band is exit. In a sell trade, the lower band is exit. Anytime price touches the bands, relative to the position we are trading (buy or sell), we exit
   9. Our stops and TP are therefore mobile and dynamic, responding to price movement and market structure.
   10. However, the stop loss placed at the beginning of the trade shouldn't move (I prefer to leave it there. I already estimated my risk before taking the trade anyway)

   
   

3. Money
   1. I wouldn't trade beyond 0.01 if I don't have at least $10,000 on at least 1:100 margin
   2. Best, switch to a cent account. You will get enough room to play around

   
   

4. Trade spacing
   1. Make trade spacing selectable. This is the distance between trades. We don't want to cluster all our trades on around the same price.
   2. This will provide some relief when we are in the grief of a falling knife.
   3. Trade spacing is defined by pips and should be a % of the ADR
   4. So if ADR is 100 and I am using a trade spacing of 25%, it means that I will take the next trade signal only if the signal appears at least 25 pips below the last trade.
   5. So trade spacing is based on pair ADR characteristics.

   
   

I don't have a crystal ball

1. So I don't know if this strategy will be profitable.
2. But general rule of thumb and experience shows we might make more than we will loose if done correctly

What the strategy isnt

1. It is not a holy grail
2. It is not a crystal ball
3. It is not a get rich quick system

What Next

1. Try the strategy
2. Post charts
3. Civil discussion

Thread Rules

1. No fights, No arguments, No profanity
2. Keep your language civil and respect the next person
3. Read all the links above before commenting
4. Do your home work. No one will answer questions that have been answered
5. We wont entertain repainting questions (read the links on repainting)
6. Do not post indicators or commercial content in this thread.

You can lose your money and you will probably lose it. So trade wisely. No indicator is better than your brain and 2 eyes.

Hi bishopdotun
Would you put your template? i'm confused! i don't know which indi should i install!

Thanks

Read the first post again and follow the instructions.

This is not a Forex 101 thread. If you can't install the tools, then you shouldn't be here.

This strategy is not for newbies

Powerful summary, even for some like me who were trying to keep up with source thread. Many thanks for the service.

@bishopdotun -- this looks great -- thank you! I'm subscribed...

Thank you for sharing bishopdotun:
I have a question:
The posted R4M-BD-ADR.ex4 only works on D1,
how can we see H4 signals to scale in.
Thanks again !

Read post 1 again.....

Check the other threads for all indicators that support LTF....

I don’t think he meant you should wait for signal at the 4H, but use the 4H to scale into the trade as long as the daily shows the signal. But let’s wait and see what he answer

I have now updated post 1 with warnings about LTF.

Thank you.

Thanks for this system.

congrats bishopdotun...I'm subcribed

Thanks BD you are a tremendous help!! Congrats!! Bob.

Tks
Im subscribed
Keep the fire coming...

People tend to not read and even if its on the first page with pictures

Hi bishopdotun,
Regardig the LTF (5 min chart).
What is the maximum started trades by the EA (any of Your 14 tested pair)? before it hits TP/Crosses mid/emerqency stop
The reason I ask is we need to start thinking about money management and lot size.
Keep up with your testing

Latest Updates

Hi traders, a lot has happened since the opening of this thread.

- We have now resumed support for LTF. After persistent trials and with the help of @Skyway, @RobotTrader, @R4M and everybody testing, we have been turning out good results. Regardless of the timeframes and pair, RBA system is robust enough to handle it. R4M has been generously improving the EA.

- We have launched a Multipair EA. Check the link in the first post to download the latest version. Get ready for a blast. Be sure to learn how the EA trades and how to set it up before you unleash it on your account. By the way, we will not be engaging newbie questions here. Please do the home work and refer to the other thread for all the developments.

- I will be sharing tested setups I am using on my life account. I have also setup a demo account and will post results here daily.

.....to be continued

R4M-BD-ADR-AllPairsEA (Link)

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

R4M-BD-ADR-AllPairsEA.ex4 is a trading EA that relies on signals generated by R4M-BD-ADR indicator. To use the EA simply attach it to a chart of the pair you wish to trade. D1 is the preferred time frame, but you are welcome to use others, as well.

R4M-BD-ADR-AllPairsEA.ex4 trades multiple pairs at the same time -- in contrast to the other trading EA (R4M-BD-ADR-EA.ex4) that trades only the pair associated with the chart it is attached to.

There are two ways to specify which pairs to trade -- all pairs listed in your Market Watch window, or manually entering them in the EA's input settings. From a practical point of view, I recommend not to exceed 28 pairs. The computations are fairly CPU-intensive and too many pairs will cause MT4 to freeze. Also, it is probably a good idea to run this in a separate MT4 session that does not include other charts. It is very easy to launch more than one MT4 session so this shouldn't be an issue.

There are a few settings to be aware of -- really not too complicated. However, please be aware these settings have a huge effect on the EAs performance. For optimal performance each pair and time frame will require different settings. When using the single-pair trading EA (R4M-BD-ADR-EA.ex4) you could apply calibrated settings that were specifically tailored for a particular pair / time frame. But for this "All Pair" EA we have to compromise and apply one set of parameters that will be used for all pairs. Perhaps in the future we can create a "Calibration Table" the EA can use to look-up the best parameters for each pair / time frame.

Below I will briefly describe the most important settings:

BD Time Frame:
The BD strategy is based on the centered TMA indicator which includes 3 bands -- middle, upper and lower. The BD Time Frame is the time frame used to compute these bands and will always be higher than your chart's time frame. For example, the default setup is to use a BD Time Frame of W1 on a D1 chart. Since a week includes 5 trading days, then that means every W1 "bar" will include 5 D1 bars. But since we are drawing bands, then that means every TMA horizontal step will cover 5 D1 bars.

Percent ADR:
The upper and lower TMA bands are drawn as offsets from the midline. This offset is computed as a percent of the ADR of the current pair. The default is 100%. So, for example, if a pair's ADR is 48 pips then the upper and lower bands should track with the midline -- 48 pips above and 48 pips below.

Number Days to Average ADR:
The ADR (Average Daily Range) is an average of the delta (i.e. difference) between each days High and Low over a period of days. The default is 20 days.

Exit Conditions:
Three types of Exit conditions (signals) are supported: Crossing the midline, crossing the opposite band, closing above / below the midline. The default is "crossing the midline".

Apply Momentum Filter:
I've adapted the momentum filter from the SpikeHunter indicator to also work with this EA. It is a combination of two momentum indicators -- @Nih98's FX RSI indicator plus Stochastic momentum index (SMI). The default for this parameter is 'false'.

Lot Size:
Self explanatory. The default is 0.01.

StopLoss Fraction ADR:
The StopLoss is calculated as a fraction of the current pair's ADR (in pips).

TakeProfit Fraction ADR:
Similarly, the TakeProfit is calculated as a fraction of the current pair's ADR (in pips).

LTF Settings

See shot below for the settings I use on LTF:



Edit: This is the correct settings

I think we need some kind of money management, for example increasing lotsize like 1-1-1-2-2-2-3-3-3...or step multiplier

MM

For my preference, see trade size estimate below:

Lot: 0.01
Account size: 10k at 1:100 leverage
No of pairs: 28

I strongly advise against trading this on a lesser account size. Alternatively, you can scale down the number of pairs.

Managing your account is your responsibility. Be wise.