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Simplest Basic EA

  • #1
  • First Post: Mar 1, 2008 3:41pm Mar 1, 2008 3:41pm
Does anyone know if an EA has been made that would simply do:

Enter (either long or short - this would be an option)
Close All at X profit
Enter again

This would be for testing purposes, I can't seem to find this "simple" approach as most EAs are for far more sophisticated purposes.

Thanks!
  • #2
  • Mar 1, 2008 5:52pm Mar 1, 2008 5:52pm
I don't mean to pry, but what is the point of such a thing? MT4 will let you open long and short trades and if you want to take profit, well you could use a...take profit.
The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.
  • #3
  • Mar 1, 2008 11:07pm Mar 1, 2008 11:07pm
Welcome to the Club.

This is where it starts, or atleast HOW it starts.
It's different for everybody, but sooner or later,
we all arrive at the same place with the same question:

How can I script an "piece of code" that simply buys here
or sells here or does X when Y happens and takes profit
when WXYZ happens. ? How hard can it be ??

Sit down, can I pour you a drink ? You could be here a while.

In theory, it's not hard at all. In fact, I probably have close to
an hundred Experts that do something like that and they all
have one thing in common:

Regression to the mean. Positive expectancy is a fluid concept.

A system or method or whatever you label the approach will
have profitable and losing cycles. The cycles vary in length.
Some last for days or weeks winning more than losing or b/e.

Others go on for months or even years in backtesting and can
present the tester with incredible results to salivate over and
even throw real $$ at.

The most profitable aspect of these are often the vendors who
sell these "systems" for shameful amounts. They may never make
a dime trading forex, but they can sell 3,000 copies of
"The Fibo/Exponential/Gastointestinal Crossover" expert advisor
and reap 6 figures exploiting those who don't know any better than
to buy them.

Okay, do I have a point in this? Hold on, I'm searching.......Okay, got it.

Don't cry over spilt milk....No wait, that's not it. Just a sec..
Two heads are better than one. Brilliant !!! NO that's not it either.

I guess the point is, if there has to be one, is the market is dynamic.

DYNAMIC

1. Of or relating to energy or to objects in motion.
2. Characterized by continuous change, activity, or progress
3. Opposite of static. (see Static)

STATIC
1. Having no motion; being at rest; quiescent.
2. Fixed; stationary.

So, Sherlock, you say, So what if the Market is dynamic?
That's a good thing. That's how we make money from it
moving up and down. I'm glad it's dynamic. Eat that.

Well, that would be a correct conclusion and that it is
a positive thing to profit from market movement. However,
it is this same dynamic market in which losses are experienced
and this movement and action occurs day in and day out
and is only amplified by additional participants.

So, if you write an Expert and it is profitable today and it's profitable
tomorrow as well and you keep trading it and it produces actual
positive results i.e.; Profits then have you succeeded ?

I'M AFRAID TO TO SAY, BUT NO.

You're no closer than you were when you first downloaded Metatrader.

Regression to the mean. How long before the market reminds you that
lunch is not free, neither is dinner and the cost of breakfast is only
slightly more reasonable than lunch. Could take months or years if your lucky.
That would mean you've found and (for now) exploited a statistical edge
in the dynamic marketplace and the trick is to take the money,
take ALOT of money, and not give it back. The Expert will take and give back
as long as it's running. When regression to the mean starts to play,
the edge will have evaporated and so too the profits.

You'll have to turn it off and go spend some of the money.
Then you'll have succeeded.

Some will say I'm full of shit. I am the first to admit that I am.
Now that that's out of the way, to continue:

Even if you have a system or method that has a positive expectancy
and I think I have a couple that involve statistical probability and
can sometime be spooky, like to the pip, the way they play out,
I know that eventually that's a numbers game and the averages
show X over Y time periods (there's those damn letters again).

You can (and should) write an Expert Advisor to trade them because
any human intervention, discretion, interference or subjectivity will
absolutely screw up any statistical edge that may exist.
Mechanize it so it won't get lost. That's great for now. What happens later ?

Later, since it's still numbers, the averages will play themselves out.
Within the context of this dynamic market of ours, the regression to the mean
will comfortably make monkeys out of us and our expert advisors.

I'm not saying at all that there are not profitable systems out there.
I just don't use Betamax anymore and I've stopped playing with my Rubics Cube.
The market changes regularly. It's gonna change somemore next week.

When you're writing you EA, one might wish to keep this in the back of
their thoughts. Or not. Whatever.
  • #4
  • Mar 2, 2008 1:29pm Mar 2, 2008 1:29pm
Quoting Craig
I don't mean to pry, but what is the point of such a thing? MT4 will let you open long and short trades and if you want to take profit, well you could use a...take profit.
Hi Craig,

Thanks for replying. Maybe I wasn't clear - what I'd like the EA to do is simply this (or maybe it isn't simple, and that's toshi's point (or not?))

- upon exit of trades at CloseAll TP -> re-enter each trade in same direction

No ifs, no whatever, just simply reenter. This is for testing purposes of various TPs, nothing more .

(I'll need to re-read toshi's post, maybe he/she simply replied in the wrong thread??)
  • #5
  • Mar 11, 2008 3:27am Mar 11, 2008 3:27am
Quoting toshi
Welcome to the Club.

This is where it starts, or atleast HOW it starts.
It's different for everybody, but sooner or later,
we all arrive at the same place with the same question:

How can I script an "piece of code" that simply buys here
or sells here or does X when Y happens and takes profit
when WXYZ happens. ? How hard can it be ??

Sit down, can I pour you a drink ? You could be here a while.

In theory, it's not hard at all. In fact, I probably have close to
an hundred Experts that do something like that and they all
have one thing in common:

Regression to the mean. Positive expectancy is a fluid concept.

A system or method or whatever you label the approach will
have profitable and losing cycles. The cycles vary in length.
Some last for days or weeks winning more than losing or b/e.

Others go on for months or even years in backtesting and can
present the tester with incredible results to salivate over and
even throw real $$ at.

The most profitable aspect of these are often the vendors who
sell these "systems" for shameful amounts. They may never make
a dime trading forex, but they can sell 3,000 copies of
"The Fibo/Exponential/Gastointestinal Crossover" expert advisor
and reap 6 figures exploiting those who don't know any better than
to buy them.

Okay, do I have a point in this? Hold on, I'm searching.......Okay, got it.

Don't cry over spilt milk....No wait, that's not it. Just a sec..
Two heads are better than one. Brilliant !!! NO that's not it either.

I guess the point is, if there has to be one, is the market is dynamic.

DYNAMIC

1. Of or relating to energy or to objects in motion.
2. Characterized by continuous change, activity, or progress
3. Opposite of static. (see Static)

STATIC
1. Having no motion; being at rest; quiescent.
2. Fixed; stationary.

So, Sherlock, you say, So what if the Market is dynamic?
That's a good thing. That's how we make money from it
moving up and down. I'm glad it's dynamic. Eat that.

Well, that would be a correct conclusion and that it is
a positive thing to profit from market movement. However,
it is this same dynamic market in which losses are experienced
and this movement and action occurs day in and day out
and is only amplified by additional participants.

So, if you write an Expert and it is profitable today and it's profitable
tomorrow as well and you keep trading it and it produces actual
positive results i.e.; Profits then have you succeeded ?

I'M AFRAID TO TO SAY, BUT NO.

You're no closer than you were when you first downloaded Metatrader.

Regression to the mean. How long before the market reminds you that
lunch is not free, neither is dinner and the cost of breakfast is only
slightly more reasonable than lunch. Could take months or years if your lucky.
That would mean you've found and (for now) exploited a statistical edge
in the dynamic marketplace and the trick is to take the money,
take ALOT of money, and not give it back. The Expert will take and give back
as long as it's running. When regression to the mean starts to play,
the edge will have evaporated and so too the profits.

You'll have to turn it off and go spend some of the money.
Then you'll have succeeded.

Some will say I'm full of shit. I am the first to admit that I am.
Now that that's out of the way, to continue:

Even if you have a system or method that has a positive expectancy
and I think I have a couple that involve statistical probability and
can sometime be spooky, like to the pip, the way they play out,
I know that eventually that's a numbers game and the averages
show X over Y time periods (there's those damn letters again).

You can (and should) write an Expert Advisor to trade them because
any human intervention, discretion, interference or subjectivity will
absolutely screw up any statistical edge that may exist.
Mechanize it so it won't get lost. That's great for now. What happens later ?

Later, since it's still numbers, the averages will play themselves out.
Within the context of this dynamic market of ours, the regression to the mean
will comfortably make monkeys out of us and our expert advisors.

I'm not saying at all that there are not profitable systems out there.
I just don't use Betamax anymore and I've stopped playing with my Rubics Cube.
The market changes regularly. It's gonna change somemore next week.

When you're writing you EA, one might wish to keep this in the back of
their thoughts. Or not. Whatever.
Great thinking! Don't you think, though, that the mean actually depends on the actual trading system? By certain adjustments you can try to extend the cycle quite far out.
  • #6
  • Mar 11, 2008 11:16pm Mar 11, 2008 11:16pm
Here. Took me 5 min.
I didn't test it though. Hope it works good
Attached File(s)
File Type: ex4 Simple.ex4   3 KB | 700 downloads
Request custom Expert Advisor or Indicator: dostapyuk "at" gmail . com
  • #7
  • Edited 7:20pm Mar 13, 2008 11:13am | Edited 7:20pm
Hey, Oksana - do you also have the .mq4 file?


I'm trying to make my own EA.

Here's what I want to do:

Preparation:
Uses 2 indicators:
-the first indicator has one line
-the second one has two lines
-MM [Money Management] module

Operation: send orders only upon bar completion, not tick.

Once the first iCustom indicator crosses its zero level, send a Sell order, closing a corresponding Buy order [if any]. If the line crosses zero second time, disregard that crossing, i.e. lock the first crossing position.
As soon as the second iCustom indicator's first line crosses its second line, send a Buy order, closing a corresponding Sell order [if any]. Should lines cross two times in a row, disregard that crossing, i.e. lock the second crossing position, just like the Sell order.

Logic behind the crossings:

Ideally, there should only be one order to look at: either Buy or Sell. If the first indicator's line crosses its zero level twice and the crossing is followed, then the second Sell order is executed. Same goes for the Buy: if the second, third, etc crossing of lines is followed, then there will be two or more orders to look at. In reality, there may be two or more orders executed, as long as a Money Management Module is in place and working. If the leverage is 1:200, equity is 0<x<1000, execute only one order worth 0.01 lot. Once the equity reaches 1001<x<3000, go to 2 orders worth 0.02 each, 3001<x<5000 - 3 orders of 0.03 each. The MM may also base its decision on the equity percentage.
I've been testing the strategy manually for a while and I've never used stop loss or trailing stop.

I hope my logic is inderstandable. I may think of some other feature [I actually constantly do, but forget to write it down], but the above are the essentials. Is it possible to write such an EA or has it already been written?
  • #8
  • Mar 15, 2008 12:08pm Mar 15, 2008 12:08pm
Hi Oksana,

Thanks for the EA it's (almost) exactly what I'm looking for. Would it be possible to change the individual TP and SL to a CloseAll which exits if either Total p/l = x or -y? (in pips or $)

I've attached a CloseAll just in case (but I don't think you'll need it).

Mucho gracias,
Attached File(s)
File Type: mq4 CloseByPL.mq4   5 KB | 582 downloads
  • #9
  • Last Post: Mar 15, 2008 6:15pm Mar 15, 2008 6:15pm
If you need an EA coded, please PM me.
Request custom Expert Advisor or Indicator: dostapyuk "at" gmail . com
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