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trailing stop EA help

  • #1
  • First Post: Nov 3, 2007 1:08am Nov 3, 2007 1:08am
hi there, I am having some issues with this EA and was wondering if anyone can help me. sometimes this EA works flawlessly and other times it fails to update the position that I have open. do you need to have the window that the EA is attached to as the current window? Sometimes I have to turn off expert advisors and then turn it right back on and it will start working again. however, this does not help me when I am asleep.

thanks guys.
  • #2
  • Nov 3, 2007 1:24pm Nov 3, 2007 1:24pm
Quoting vyder
hi there, I am having some issues with this EA and was wondering if anyone can help me. sometimes this EA works flawlessly and other times it fails to update the position that I have open. do you need to have the window that the EA is attached to as the current window? Sometimes I have to turn off expert advisors and then turn it right back on and it will start working again. however, this does not help me when I am asleep.

thanks guys.
Hi vyder,

You don't need to keep the EA chart as current window. I am absolutely sure about that.

May be there is some bug in the EA that is triggered when some conditions are met. Then to get over that, a resetting may be needed (you can try: right click on the chart and select "Expert Advisor"-->"Properties" and simply click OK without any change). If it works alright means, there is some problem that needs resetting. I am not sure the turning off/on resets. Thats why I am suggesting to check this.

If you like, I can read through the code and see if any error possibility is there.

chandra
  • #3
  • Nov 3, 2007 10:33pm Nov 3, 2007 10:33pm
hey chandra and thank you for your response. I have turned EA's off and then on and that seemed to work in getting the trail to resume. do you have to have the trail put on the currency AFTER your trade or can you leave it on BEFORE a trade is triggered?

I would love it if you can look at the code. I have attached it. I didn't code the EA by the way, I am not sure of the author.
Attached File(s)
File Type: mq4 TrailingStop.mq4   9 KB | 937 downloads
  • #4
  • Edited 7:24pm Nov 4, 2007 1:01pm | Edited 7:24pm
Quoting vyder
hey chandra and thank you for your response. I have turned EA's off and then on and that seemed to work in getting the trail to resume. do you have to have the trail put on the currency AFTER your trade or can you leave it on BEFORE a trade is triggered?

I would love it if you can look at the code. I have attached it. I didn't code the EA by the way, I am not sure of the author.
Sorry vyder,

I looked at the code and I cannot find anything wrong, as much as I checked. The code is messy. I think it was converted from MT3 code and the MT4 improvements are not used and also the coder did not understand some of the things which has made it lengthy and little difficult to follow; for example to clear the old Comments, instead of using just a single line of Comment(" "); the code uses more than 12 lines!. Many "if" statements are also made complicated unnecessarily. Still more inefficient writings are there. But despite these problems, I am unable to find anything that can cause such problem. May be it is difficult for me to find mistakes with this writing. I checked only the sections that will be used with the default setting.

You can check if any error is printed in the Experts/Journal sections at the account balance area. You can also check all the tabs under the Expert Properties. May be there are better codes. Right now I am busy with another project and so I won't be able to rewrite this.

Any EA with TrailStop can be run before there is any position. It will just keep checking and if no position is there, it won't do anything. But it is OK to leave it that way.

Regards,
chandra
  • #5
  • Nov 4, 2007 10:30pm Nov 4, 2007 10:30pm
hey chandra, thanks for the help. not sure why this EA stalls sometimes. oh well. I have a number of other indicators on my charts. do you think this is an issue?

thanks again
  • #6
  • Nov 5, 2007 7:46am Nov 5, 2007 7:46am
Hi vyder,

I don't think any indicator will interfere at all. So, still it is a mystery!
  • #7
  • Nov 6, 2007 7:54am Nov 6, 2007 7:54am
Hi Vyder, could you please explain what trailing step means?
I'm trying to accomplish this with the trailing stop EA, do not know if this is possible or not:

When price is +20 pips, move stoploss to +15 and then activate trailing stop of say 15.

Do you think this is possible with this EA, and what would my settings be?
Liberate me ex inferis
  • #8
  • Nov 6, 2007 8:16am Nov 6, 2007 8:16am
hey there ronyn, from my understanding, stepping is when you say that when the market moves x pips in your favour, you would like the trailing stop moved. so for example, if the market moves 10 pips, the trailing stop will move 10 pips after that has occurred. I am not 100% on this but this is what my reading has taught me. possibly some more knowledgeable ppl can comment here as well on it.
  • #9
  • Nov 6, 2007 8:22am Nov 6, 2007 8:22am
hey chandra, was doing some trading last night and left the computer on and the same thing happened. the EA just freezes/wont move the stop. I have to turn off EA's and then turn them back on. I have attached my settings, possibly I am using this thing wrong.
Attached Images
  • #10
  • Nov 6, 2007 12:22pm Nov 6, 2007 12:22pm
Quoting vyder
hey chandra, was doing some trading last night and left the computer on and the same thing happened. the EA just freezes/wont move the stop. I have to turn off EA's and then turn them back on. I have attached my settings, possibly I am using this thing wrong.
Hi vyder,

These settings in Common Tab are same as the ones I am having for a trading EA (I always leave some EA under test in my demo). No EA ever stopped despite running for weeks. So, that settings are OK. Here are few more things you can check.

Did you check for any error messages under Experts or Journal Tab (in the area where you see the account balance)? You may have to scroll down until the previous local time the EA was working.

How do you turn off the EA? Is it by removing and attaching it again?

Does it happen every night or whether there seem to be any specific time period or some other pattern? If any of these are true, I may have to check the code again.

When the EA stops working, do you still see the smiley face for the EA or "x" mark (in the top-right corner)? If you see any of these, it would be easy!

Can you check the settings in "Tools" -->"Options" --> "Expert Advisors" Tab?

Hope some of these checkings will show some light to this problem!
chandra
  • #11
  • Nov 6, 2007 1:25pm Nov 6, 2007 1:25pm
hey chandra, this error seems to happen all the time when i trade. could it be due to the broker? I use ibfx and I am on demo.

I disable the EA's by just turning them off. I then turn them back on using that button on the menu bar. I do not remove them from the chart and then replace them. When the EA is not working, there is still the smiley face saying that it is working. I do not receive any errors in the journal so far as I have looked.

I have attached a screen shot of my EA settings. It does not have on the allow live trading on the options, but I enable it when I place it on the chart.

The charts only seem to update when I have open the chart that the EA is attached to. Sometimes even then it does not work .

don't know what is happening. Maybe I should try removing some of my other indicators. I have a vegas risk indicator on the charts.

thanks

PS. Does this EA handle multple trades of the same currency? I have 3 trades on the same currency and it only updates one.

thanks.
Attached Image
  • #12
  • Nov 6, 2007 1:27pm Nov 6, 2007 1:27pm
Quoting Ronyn76
Hi Vyder, could you please explain what trailing step means?
I'm trying to accomplish this with the trailing stop EA, do not know if this is possible or not:

When price is +20 pips, move stoploss to +15 and then activate trailing stop of say 15.

Do you think this is possible with this EA, and what would my settings be?
Hey ronin I dont think this EA can achieve this. It seems to be a fixed setting. however, I think I saw an EA either here or at forex-tsd.com which has a stepping EA.

take care.
  • #13
  • Nov 6, 2007 9:56pm Nov 6, 2007 9:56pm
Quoting vyder
hey chandra, this error seems to happen all the time when i trade. could it be due to the broker? I use ibfx and I am on demo.
..........

PS. Does this EA handle multple trades of the same currency? I have 3 trades on the same currency and it only updates one.

thanks.
Hi vyder,
It cannot be due to broker. I use the same broker (for demo and live) and never had any trailing stop problem or any EA problem in general.

This EA can handle multiple trades of the current chart as default. BUT (a big one), the code has small mistakes. May be the coder did not understand the two "return" statements placed after adjusting trailstops for one position. So, the EA stops its work after checking one position. If I delete those two statements, it will check all the positions of this pair. That is easy.

But, still I am unable to find the problem. Can you tell me exactly how (or what purpose) you are using this EA? May be I can cut the crap out of it and make it just one quarter of its current size to do just what you need. That will be easier than going through all the codes. It is not neat in my way (may be others will tell my code is messy!).

Do you just want the EA to move the TS for every pip gain? What else? If I can understand, I will try to make a simpler one.

Regards,
chandra
  • #14
  • Nov 7, 2007 10:24am Nov 7, 2007 10:24am
Hi vyder,

I have fixed the program so that it will check all the open orders of the attached chart pair. Please check if this does that part of the job and see if this also stalls (I did not work on that difficult problem, but just check).

chandra
Attached File(s)
File Type: mq4 TrailingStop1.mq4   9 KB | 679 downloads
  • #15
  • Nov 7, 2007 9:51pm Nov 7, 2007 9:51pm
hey chandra, thanks for your help. I don't understand how this thing works for you and for me it doesnt work. I think I will have to strip the chart of my other indicators and see if that works. All I want is for the EA to move the SL every time the market moves in my direction by the same amount of pips. A hard trailing stop i believe it is called. Does your EA currently do multiple positions without using the modified one that you have posted?

Here is how i use the EA.
I have it placed on my charts now before I even get into an order:
1. The EA's are turned on before the trades take place
2. I then my trades using buy/sell stops.
3. I sit and watch the EA manage some trades and not others when it the market triggers my stops.
4. I reset the EA's by using the turn EA's on/off button.
5. The EA seems to reset.
6. One note here and I am not sure as to the importance of this but it just struck me. After I place my trades I will usually close the lid of my laptop. This does not affect scans etc. so I assume that this does not affect the EA or does it? If I do not close the laptop lid, the laptop goes to sleep. does this affect the EA also?

that's typically how it goes

I will test it out and see how it goes.

thanks.
  • #16
  • Nov 7, 2007 10:59pm Nov 7, 2007 10:59pm
Quoting vyder
hey chandra, thanks for your help.
......
Does your EA currently do multiple positions without using the modified one that you have posted?
.......
6. One note here and I am not sure as to the importance of this but it just struck me. After I place my trades I will usually close the lid of my laptop. This does not affect scans etc. so I assume that this does not affect the EA or does it? If I do not close the laptop lid, the laptop goes to sleep. does this affect the EA also?

thanks.
Hi vyder,

I do have some EA running all the time. It has its own TrailStop to manage its own trades, but not any manually placed trades. Also, my EAs generally manage only single positions because only one is allowed to be open at a time. But I think the position management such as TrailStop and closing on reverse signals check all positions for Magic numbers and so they can manage more positions, if I allow more to be opened.

May be there is a problem. Generally the Laptops are made with power saving features enabled when the lid is closed. One of that feature is system standby (at system standby internet is disconnected). Even when not closed, the hard disk can go to sleep after sometime. But to monitor the market and save the data, hard disk must not sleep. I had to change the power options.
My "Power Schemes" options are:
(When computer is Plugged in
Turn off Monitor (After 10 min; can be changed freely; I change to 3 min or less in night)
Turn off hard disks: Never
System standby: Never
(the last two are must, I found out)

So, check your settings. If any difference you find, can potentially correct the problem. But this does not explain why you have to turn the EA off and then on. But worth to check out these. ("Running on Batteries" can have any, because if power goes or power switch for the computer is off, that is a different problem, but I have it as 10, 20, 30 min for these three).

chandra
  • #17
  • Nov 8, 2007 1:31am Nov 8, 2007 1:31am
thanks again chandra, maybe if the laptop goes to sleep it messes up the EA somehow and then I would have to restart it so to speak to that it will update. Your EA places the trades for you? thats nice. I will test out this theory though. There is another EA called manage take profit, maybe I can also look into this as this has a trailing stop feature. Currently I am not trading from my laptop so I will have to wait and see what happens. will let you know how it goes.

thanks again.
  • #18
  • Nov 8, 2007 7:25am Nov 8, 2007 7:25am
Quoting vyder
thanks again chandra, maybe if the laptop goes to sleep it messes up the EA somehow and then I would have to restart it so to speak to that it will update. Your EA places the trades for you? thats nice. I will test out this theory though. There is another EA called manage take profit, maybe I can also look into this as this has a trailing stop feature. Currently I am not trading from my laptop so I will have to wait and see what happens. will let you know how it goes.

thanks again.
Hi vyder,

Also, do not close the lid to keep the ventillation (most laptops have th air-intake at the top). I just keep at least an inch open at night. When laptop goes to sleep, it does not mess the EA, just runs on energy saving mode and stops most of the work. If you have acces to another computer then you can easily check this EA there.

chandra
  • #19
  • Nov 11, 2007 8:58am Nov 11, 2007 8:58am
hey chandra, apparently I have the same power settings as you. I am really stumped. I don't know why this thing is not performing? What if you had a short loss in internet connectivity...would this cause problems? Dunno what to think of next .
Attached Image
  • #20
  • Nov 11, 2007 1:42pm Nov 11, 2007 1:42pm
Quoting vyder
hey chandra, apparently I have the same power settings as you. I am really stumped. I don't know why this thing is not performing? What if you had a short loss in internet connectivity...would this cause problems? Dunno what to think of next .
Hi vyder,

I hope you are not closing the lid of laptop anymore. Is it happening even with this power settings and not closing the lid? Loss in internet connection is not a problem (many times it happened to me). As soon as the connection comes back, everything should continue their work!

Then most likely still there is problem in the code. When I have time, I will try to make a compact form, just enough for your purpose (from the same code). That should be easy to follow in case problem continues. I will try to do it this week.

Other things you can check in the meantime are:
1. If you have MT4 in another computer, you can try to run this code there (just a few days).
2. You can make another installation of MT4 and run only this code there. Somebody reported to me that one of my indicators (not EA) had problem and only re-installation of MT4 solved.


Regards,
chandra
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