EA not taking some trades on live account | Forex Factory

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EA not taking some trades on live account

  • #1
  • First Post: Apr 21, 2008 8:17am Apr 21, 2008 8:17am
I have written an EA and have been using it on a demo account, it is taking trades correctly on the demo and has been for several weeks. I am trying to use this EA in my live mini account with IBFX. It took 2 trades correctly, but has since missed taking 2 trades that it should have taken. These trades were taken correctly on the demo account. There should have been no issues with slippage, etc., as it was not at a highly volatile time and the EA allows slippage up to 5 pips, and I can think of no other reason these trades should not have executed. I am using extremely small lot sizes just to see how it performs live. So far, not so good, but this is the first attempt to trade live with it, other than that I had attached it briefly previously just to make sure it would execute trades and it did so. I am very much a novice at all of this, so any help is greatly appreciated.
  • #2
  • Apr 21, 2008 11:23am Apr 21, 2008 11:23am
check for error messages under the journal or experts tab in the terminal window.
  • #3
  • Apr 21, 2008 7:45pm Apr 21, 2008 7:45pm
Thank you for your reply, I did check the messages in the expert and journal tabs and there are no error messages, it appears that the EA simply didn't attempt to take the trades. The conditions were definitely present for the trades to execute. The demo account is a NorthFinance demo, and as I mentioned the live account is an IBFX mini. I did put in a lot size of 0.01 previously and it did take trades, is there anything else I have to do to specify this EA be used with a micro account? I could understand if it didn't work at all, I could take steps to correct that, but I can't understand why it works some of the time but not others.
  • #4
  • Apr 21, 2008 11:18pm Apr 21, 2008 11:18pm
That is one of the joys of dealing with MT4, no real good way to debug code.

Open the data window and turn on the cross hairs, move the mouse over the area that you think it should have made the trade. Occasionally when it is really close it won't make the trade because stupid computers are very literal. In other words, 1.000000000 is less than 1.0000000000001 it may look like it is equal to when you look at it on the chart but when you look at it on the data window it will give you the exact numbers that it is seeing.
  • #5
  • Apr 22, 2008 7:28am Apr 22, 2008 7:28am
Thanks, I appreciate what you are saying but this was not close, it was absolutely definite that it should have taken the trades. All necessary indicators were in the correct position and the numbers clearly different in the right way. They were taken properly on the NF demo but not on the IBFX live account. So far since I started the EA live, there have been 5 potential trades, 3 were taken correctly and 2 were missed. The 2 missed ones were breakeven, so no biggie, but of course the concern is how many more is it going to miss? The EA on NF demo has operated perfectly for about a month now.
  • #6
  • Apr 22, 2008 7:53am Apr 22, 2008 7:53am
Quoting jwpdad
They were taken properly on the NF demo but not on the IBFX live account.
That might be your problem, demo on one broker and live on a different one. Odds are something was different between the two.
  • #7
  • Apr 22, 2008 7:56am Apr 22, 2008 7:56am
There were slight differences, but again, the conditions were absolutely correct for it to take the trade live.
  • #8
  • Apr 26, 2008 7:32am Apr 26, 2008 7:32am
OK, now I know what the problem is. The experts tab shows that the system refused the trade because of not enough money. This is not the case, I entered the same trades manually when the EA failed to execute the trade and everything was fine, I am not even close to using all my margin on each trade. But the platform thinks the EA is entering a trade larger than what is actually being entered. I had checked the experts tab previously and nothing was there other than the EA being initialized, but that was because I had shut down the MetaTrader program then reopened it so I didn't see anything about the trades. The EA itself is definitely working and attempting to take the trades at the correct time. I did have someone look at the code for me and he said there were no errors. I still don't understand why it did work some of the time (the margin situation would have been worse when it did take the trades), although recently it isn't working at all. If any of you have any ideas of what needs to be done to correct this, let me know. Again I am trying to use this EA live on a micro account (0.01 lots) with Interbank FX. Thanks so much for your previous replies.

Joe
  • #9
  • Apr 26, 2008 11:14am Apr 26, 2008 11:14am
Quoting jwpdad
OK, now I know what the problem is. The experts tab shows that the system refused the trade because of not enough money. This is not the case, I entered the same trades manually when the EA failed to execute the trade and everything was fine,
Joe
Sounds like it tried to make a too-big trade - be glad it didn't!

The way lot size is specified varies between brokers. Try running the ea on a IBFX demo.

Put in some print statements to tell you the trade size, getlasterror(), etc., this can be a good way to debug if you've narrowed down the area where the problem is; in this case you have, it's lot size.

Another problem is that MT4 is not "stable" in the sense that things don't always happen as requested, and your EA needs to account for this. In regular programming, as long as the computer is working OK, anything you code will be executed, then decisions based on previous actions will be valid, etc. Not so in the MT4 environment. That trade context can be busy for minutes. Your EA has to keep trying until the order is placed.
  • #10
  • May 12, 2008 1:38pm May 12, 2008 1:38pm
In case anyone is still interested in this, I solved my problem. I had someone help me with this, he found that the EA had some code it it for margin protection. I created the EA at a website where you can put in trade and order parameters and it gives you the EA, I did not put anything in there about margin protection but apparently the EA's built at the site add that in. We removed that code and all is working well now. Just thought I would post this in case it might help someone else with a similar issue.
  • #11
  • May 31, 2008 7:02am May 31, 2008 7:02am
Quoting jwpdad
In case anyone is still interested in this, I solved my problem. I had someone help me with this, he found that the EA had some code it it for margin protection. I created the EA at a website where you can put in trade and order parameters and it gives you the EA, I did not put anything in there about margin protection but apparently the EA's built at the site add that in. We removed that code and all is working well now. Just thought I would post this in case it might help someone else with a similar issue.
Hi JWPDAD,
i came across your comments on the problem above. I think I have the same problem with "expert advisor builder". my EA is not placing any deal although it functions just fine on historical data. may I ask which code is responsible of Margin protection? would appreciate your help.
BTW for those who are wondering what is EA builder go to http://sufx.core.t3-ism.net/ExpertAd...index.html#Buy it is free.
  • #12
  • May 31, 2008 1:30pm May 31, 2008 1:30pm
Quoting Hjn
Hi JWPDAD,
i came across your comments on the problem above. I think I have the same problem with "expert advisor builder". my EA is not placing any deal although it functions just fine on historical data. may I ask which code is responsible of Margin protection? would appreciate your help.
BTW for those who are wondering what is EA builder go to http://sufx.core.t3-ism.net/ExpertAd...index.html#Buy it is free.
I think the code for margin protection is the line

if (AccountFreeMargin() < (1000 * Lots)) {

For example if order lots is 0.1 then free margin needs to be at least 100 to proceed with the order.

It is in this part of the code:

if (Order == SIGNAL_SELL && ((EachTickMode && !TickCheck) || (!EachTickMode && (Bars != BarCount)))) {
if(!IsTrade) {
//Check free margin
if (AccountFreeMargin() < (1000 * Lots)) {
Print("We have no money. Free Margin = ", AccountFreeMargin());
return(0);
}
  • #13
  • Last Post: May 31, 2008 2:06pm May 31, 2008 2:06pm
hi

one workaround i have for you is to use terranin's mt4 copier...

run your ea on your demo, and use the mt4 copier to execute the trade on your live account

the mt4 copier mirrors trades from one mt4 terminal to another

use the search tool to find his thread.... no charge for his software

cheers.
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