PipStalker EA

I"m running a backtest (strategy tester on MT4) with your latest version on the EUR/USD 1Hr. chart for 2006. It opened a few trades at the beginning of January but none during the next several days even though there were several 1hr. candles greater than 50 pips. Shouldnt EA trade on these candles if trigger is set at 50? Thanks.

EA traded again on the 12th but lots of 50 pip candles between the 4th and the 12th with no trades. Do I need to adjust inputs or something? I really like the basic strategy of this EA but I'm wondering if it's trading properly. Thanks

The EA only looks at trigger bars where ABS(OPEN-CLOSE) > 45 pips, not ABS(HIGH-LOW) > 45. Maybe this is why there are no trades?

Hedge removed, straddle in place. 180 TP, 40 SL, 45 trigger bar.

The previous EA was not taking commissions into consideration. This one does, and still nets 4,000 pips.

Hi tdion What kind of money management does this ea use ? and is it set up for a mini account ? Thanks....Valerie....

It is trading a single lot for now. You can modify that by changing the "size" variable at the top of the code. We'll worry about money management after I see the backtests for 2001-2003. If the EA does well in those years, I will look into MM.

Thanks for your response. Candle length from open to close. I understand.

Here is what my backtest shows. It's exactly what I'd hoped for...

The first circle is a trigger candle. The second circle shows the price had moved 40 pips away from the close of the trigger candle close. A straddle is opened 40 pips above and below the close of the second candle.

The third circle shows the short entry, consequently nullifying the other pending straddle trade.

Hi,

I like this idea. Why not use GBP/JPY? Its more volatile. 60-70 pips on 1h chart should be enough to get you in the market.

ForexDude maybe you can backtests GBPJPY for us with some different settings. I'd think the TP would need to be between 250-300 and the trigger bar around 150 or so. I only have H1 backtest data for EURUSD at the moment so that's what I've focused on.

Nice one.

You need to reprogram it, if you want to test on 1M data.

Try use "iOpen" instead of "Open"
ex.

double iOpen( NULL, 60, 0)
Instead of:
Open[0]

So now you can hard copy the time frame into the EA.
Then you can run it on 1M

Good luck

I challenge all of you to load the EA and backtest it. Learn the method, and check your charts to see if the entries appear where you'd expect them to.

That's about all you can do with no forward tests. This EA would be in a drawdown of 800 pips.... forward testers would have called this EA crap if they started a few months ago. I think verifying backtests is the way to go.

I'm back testing EA on GBP/USD for 2006 and it looks very impressive (up almost 50% as of Jan.24th). I have seen a couple trades it has missed. Look at hour candle Jan. 19th at 15:00 (open to close was 68 pips but no trade orders were set up). Also on Jan. 25th 9:00 (open to close was 80 pips and no trade orders were set up). Do you see that happening on your platform? I'm using MT4 with IBFX. Thanks

Tooth did you modify any of the settings? (trigger, TP, SL)

No dude. I'm using default settings (TP 180,SL 40, trigger 45)

Would missed trades have anything to do with running my strategy tester on a 1hr TF ?(modeling quality) EA missed trade setup on the 27th 13:00 also. All three missed setups in Jan. were when price was going up. I'm going to be back testing EA on all majors. Running it on GBP/USD and EUR/USD at the present. Will keep in touch.

Looking into missed trades... will report back shortly.

The EA is hardcoded with a spread of 2 for the EURUSD.... GBPUSD spread would be an extra 2 pips/trade..... do the math and it loses.

This EA is an accidental success.

I found out that the Trigger Method I posted would have resulted as a loser. The EA does this algorithm:

1) identify the close of a trigger bar
2) check the high/low of the previous bar (trigger or otherwise) and opens a straddle if the high or low is > the SL to the close of the most recent trigger bar
3) closes the other half of the straddle when it opens

*** The reason the EA ignores some trigger bars is if another trigger bar comes along before the +- SL to the previous trigger bars close. Sorry this is complicated

I believe the results of my accidental discovery are real and should be forward tested.

Something else I realized today is the EA keeps you out of ranging markets. Look at March 11, 2004 - March 16, 2004. There are tall candlesticks, but the open and close are tight together. It seems that the distance from open to close on candlesticks is higher in trading markets.

Full backtest.... settings SL 26, TP 180, trigger 40

My M1 EURUSD data came from this website:

http://www.michaelsaganski.com/downloads/

I am suspicious because there is a 2 week gap from 12/01/04 - 12/14/04.... The division occurs between the two rectangles. The same algorithm is running on the data and look at the difference!

Here is the EA that made the chart in post #59. Anyone that would like to forward test it is welcome to. In the chart, it made 7,200 pips in the last 3 years.

Settings: TP 80, SL 20, trigger 25