FlexBox indicator

Quoting deathpan

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can we use it on 4 hour chart? which settings will we must change? thank

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Quoting Lou G

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I've been interested in breakout strategies for some time. I like them because they are price-driven with little or no lag involved and reflect the reality of the market - there are trends and periods of relative inactivity between trends during which price does not gain or lose much. Many popular strategies have been developed using boxes and breakouts (Big Ben comes to mind), in fact my primary trading strategy is based on daily highs and lows which is, for all practical purposes, a box.

I developed the FlexBox indicator to take advantage of breakouts in a more flexible way without making the assumption that "boxes" form according to a predictable schedule.

The FlexBox indicator is posted below and can be used on any timeframe. First, a few thoughts on how to use it:

Entries - Enter a trade at the close of a bar outside the box. Wait for the current bar to close completely.

Stoploss - Place a stoploss at the opposite side of the box from the breakout (or add a few pips if the box has a small price range).

Exits - Exit when the entry rule is met for a trade in the opposite direction.

The indicator is already compiled so simply copy it to your experts/indicators folder and place on the chart from there. It's unfortunate to be compelled to post compiled code on this forum but there have been several instances of the intellectual property of members being sold on EBay and I don't want that to happen to me.

The user-accessible parameters are:

ROCPeriod - Boxes are formed based on an imbedded ROC indicator. The default here is 2 but I have tried values up to 5 without changing the results much - boxes just start a bit later.

BoxThreshold - This is important. After experimentation I've settled on a default of 12.0 but this may need to be smaller for timeframes shorter than 1 hour (which is the timeframe I recommend).

BoxMinBars - The number of bars in a box before it actually appears on the chart. Default is 3 because it works for me.

BoxColor - self-explanatory.

I have not traded live yet with this indicator but have done a lot of "eyeball" testing and feel that the indicator is interesting enough to share. I hope to learn more by reading the comments of others than I can learn by myself.

A few requests:

Please post questions/comments to the thread directly so we may all learn from them rather than by PM - my mailbox is too full already.

PLEASE do not post "how do I put an indicator on a chart..." questions. Metatrader is very well documented in its help screens and these questions are also answered in the stickies in the beginners forum.

Please, no charts larger than 600x600 (how to post charts is also covered in a sticky - you can do it from within MT4, no external websites needed).

No, there is no EA yet. I'll get to that in due course if I determine that the indicator is effective enough to be worth the effort. That's where all of you come in...

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Quoting Lou

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Hey Lou G,

Thanks for the system. For those of us who do not use this charting package, could you give us the basics of the set up?
As you stated below, it looks like 3 touches create the S/R lines.
Entry is on the close of a candle outside the box.
Typically the expected TP is the range of the box.
But is there anything else that is imbedded in the system, that those of us without the particular chart pkg, should be aware of ?

Thanks,

Lou (without the G)

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Quoting et_phonehome_2

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LouG

With the breakout, do you ever consider the candle type whether it is bullish or bearish?

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Quoting Daemien

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Hi Lou!!

Very Nice Indicator!!! Thanks a bunch for sharing it...

I am in the process of testing various pairs for optimum inputs, as well as a different type of take profit strategy. I do have a couple of questions tho:

I'm curious why you use the open close for the box parameters?? I have used a box method before, but it uses the high/low for drawing the box. Any chance for a mod?

If my bar setting is 8, and the history shows a box of say 15 bar width, at what point would that bar have initially appeared? After the first 8 bars? or is it more complicated?

Thanks again. I'll post my findings soon.

D.

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Quoting Lou G

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To answer your last question first, the bar should appear at 8 and highlight all 15.

I use open/close because it's less volatile - we've all seen candles with huge tails (caused by news or whatever). Using these distorts the box. I tried it and didn't like it.

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Quoting accrete

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Cool Lou G, for some time now i've been trading the "Box Play" and Asian market breakouts into the London Open primarily as seen on this chart with an indicator that draws boxes around PA during certain hours. I'm going to incorportate the indicator you've supplied with that one to see what will come of it.

This is a screen shot of the session boxes drawn from 5pm EasternTime to 2am ET, second box is from 2am to 3am (1 hour before London Open to L.O.), then the third box is the first two hours of the London session...). I've already tested the two box-drawing indicators on the same chart and they are compatible, so i can have my heads up sessions boxes and when a flexBox shows up it might be a high probability setup.

http://fx-ttdd.accrete.com/chart-pag...onsExample.gif

I guess i might as well put up the chart with both box indicators... it works : )

http://fx-ttdd.accrete.com/chart-pag...ns-FlexBox.gif

Cheers,
Thom

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Quoting Daemien

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Wow! You just made me check the GBPUSD charts @ around 2:00am EST for a few months. It definitely usually seems to make a large move at around this time... is this what you are targetting?? If so, how are you using the Box Play to target this.

Was thinking of maybe some buy/sell limits hehehe

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Quoting accrete

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Greetings Derek, yes this is what i've been trading for actually about a year off and on depending on how my work schedule allows. Now (for the past 8 months) i've been in a groove and work only during the Asian session up to about Midnite Eastern (it's only 9pm here on the Oregon Coast, and i luv the short 5 hour shift during the Asian doldrums). Anyway, i take the hight of the "Box" as taught by JC and take that as my first TP. I usually will close 50 to 75% of my lots and let the rest ride at BE+1 or so. Unfortunately, more times than often this results in being stopped out with 1 pip profit, but i suppose that's not that bad.

My biggest issue in my personal trading is getting to a place of just taking the X pips and maybe closing out 100% of the lots and just calling it a day. Most of my trades are over before the first wave of GBP news that hits at 1:30 Pacific and i'm hitting the pillow shortly after 2am. Most if not all of this is phycological and i need to work it out. This i believe is on topic as the Box Play/ Breakout has some basic rules as explained by JC and i think we can elaborate on those TP rules and develop a consistantly profitable breakout strategy.

: ) Thom

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Quoting 5324736

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I have been unable to save the FB indicator to my MT4 files. I keep getting a message telling me to search for the program to open it with,online. Am I missing something or is the link broken? Glad of any advice/help.
Cheers.

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Quoting et_phonehome_2

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LouG

Do you do any type of filtering when deciding whether to go long/short since I presume you are not trading based upon the trend with this method? In today's early session for the GBPUSD, a breakout showed to go long, but then the second candle was bearish after the first candle break. The FlexBox should only be used on the first candle on the break, right?

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