Any easy way to make the next trade dependant on previous trades outcome?

I know how to make a trade open with a stop loss and take profit, however what I want to do is say that I've got a short trade open, and if it ends up with a loss then at the exact time the short trade is closed a long trade is opened. If the short trade goes for a profit then a short trade is open again. In other words, the next trade is dependent on the previous trade's outcome. Any easy way to do that? I was thinking of something along the lines of, but couldn't get it to work:


double TakeProfit=50, StopLoss=50, StopLossAsk, TakeProfitAsk, StopLossBid, TakeProfitBid;

boolean longtrade=true;
boolean busy=false;


int start()
{
if(longtrade==true && busy==false) //checks if should go long or short, and checks if there are any trades
{
ticket=OrderSend(Symbol(),OP_BUY,Lots,Ask,3,Ask- StopLoss*Point,Ask+TakeProfit*Point, "Trade 1", 12345, 0, 0); //tries to open the order
if(ticket>0)
{
if(OrderSelect(ticket,SELECT_BY_TICKET,MODE_TRADES)) //checks if an order is open
{
Print("Buy order opened : ",OrderOpenPrice());
StopLossAsk=Ask-StopLoss; //stores the stoploss price
TakeProfitAsk=Ask+TakeProfit; //stores the take profit price
busy=true; //makes it so that the loop does not repeat again because a trade is now open
}
}
else Print("Error opening BUY order: ",GetLastError());
}
if(StopLossAsk==Ask) //checks if trade is stopped out
{
longtrade=false; //will go short next time
busy=false; //not busy anymore, we have no trades
}
if(TakeProfitAsk==Ask) //checks if we are at take profit
{
longtrade=true; //will go long again
busy=false;
}
//blah blah blah the same with going short
...
...
return(0);
}


Now, please don't laugh, this is one of my first fruits with mql4, and I have done very little programming in the past. So what I want to know is if there is an easier approach to this? I have very limited knowledge of MQL4 so I was trying to see if I'm able to get my ideas working with the most basic stuff. So far I've got little success, and I'm asking for suggestions from fellow internauts.

Thank you, fellow traders!

hmm.. so many approaches to do it.. not going into detail but i suggest u look into Global Variables (its in the mql4 reference manual).. you can store the order ticket into memory as every OrderSend function returns the order ticket number.. then check the OrderCloseTime to see if its closed.. then check for the OrderProfit for the particular order ticket.. hope you catch the concept and flow..

My suggestion would be to go through the order history to see if a trade was a win/loss. Then have the EA adjust its settings accordingly.

Thank you guys for your replies.
So this is the approach that I'm thinking of right now:
check if the order is closed with OrderCloseTime( ), if it is true then with OrderProfit() check if it's less than zero, if it is then the trade was stopped out, if it's more than zero then the trade took the profits.

Ronald Raygun, I've found some code on mql4.com forums, is this what you had in mind?

string last;
for(int i=OrdersHistoryTotal()-1;i>=0;i--)
{
OrderSelect(i, SELECT_BY_POS,MODE_HISTORY); //error was here
if(OrderSymbol()==Symbol() && OrderMagicNumber()==magic)
{
//for buy order
if(OrderType()==OP_BUY && OrderClosePrice()>=OrderOpenPrice()) last="profit";
if(OrderType()==OP_BUY && OrderClosePrice()<=OrderOpenPrice()) last="loss";
}
}

Yes

just be careful with the >= - EQUAL means zero profit. Make adjustment if you want $0.00 orders to be registered as "profit" or "loss" - One should be >= and other just <. The example will always register 0.00 as a "loss" since <= is last comparison.

At the moment I am not planning for any break-even trades in my EA, so I should be alright. But thanks for the input anyway, advise is always welcome

ok, here's what I've got at the moment:


extern double TakeProfit=500.0;
extern double StopLoss=500.0;
extern double Lots=0.1;
int ticket;
int i;
bool busy=false;

int start()
{1


if(busy==false) //checks if busy, if not opens a trade
{2
ticket=OrderSend(Symbol(),OP_BUY,Lots,Ask,3,Ask-StopLoss*Point,Ask+TakeProfit*Point,"comment",16384,0,Green);
if(ticket>0)
{3
if(OrderSelect(ticket,SELECT_BY_TICKET,MODE_TRADES)) Print("BUY order opened : ",OrderOpenPrice());
{4
Print("BUY order opened : ",OrderOpenPrice());
busy=true; //no orders should be opened until the state is set to 'false' later on
}4
}3
else Print("Error opening BUY order : ",GetLastError());
}2
if (busy==true)
{5
i=OrdersHistoryTotal();
OrderSelect(i, SELECT_BY_TICKET,MODE_HISTORY);
if(OrderCloseTime()!=0) //checks if the trade was closed
{6
if(OrderProfit()>0) //checks if the trade was closed for a profit
{7
busy=false; //releases the busy state, goes to the beggining
}7
}6
}5


return(0);
}1

The program opens a long trade, and everything is fine until the TP is reached. Then, the program starts opening a trade on every tick, and soon there are tens of trades being opened. Of course, what I expect is for the program to open a single trade. For some reason the trade open loop keeps on repeating, I believe this has something to do with the part where the EA checks if the order is closed.
I have put numbers on the curly brackets so that it would be easier to see where is what, as the spaces get deleted for some reason when I post the message.

Any ideas anyone?

The open part keeps repeating because the trade signal is still there. The other solution is to restrict the number of orders the EA has open at any one time.

Thanks, Ronal Raygun. Problem solved using the OrdersTotal() function. So far so good, and hopefully I'm past the most difficult point on my first EA.

I guess there's something wrong with the way I check if the order was closed for a profit or loss, or the way I check if the order is closed.
Sometimes if the previous order was SELL and reached TP opens a sell again, sometimes opens a buy, seems random. The same with a stop loss, some times the orders are reversed, sometimes not. The same is for both buy and sell trades.

I thought it will be easier to read everything if I just attach my code instead of copying it here.



Any thoughts anyone? (I'm looking at Ronald Raygun, lol)

Instead of checking by OrderProfit...


if(OrderClosePrice() == OrderStopLoss()) CloseStatus = "Loss";
if(OrderClosePrice() == OrderTakeProfit()) CloseStatus = "Win";

This snippet here:


You are looking for a trade with the ticket "i" which is equal to the amount of trades in the history. Not the actual order ticket number. Here's what I do when checking through previous history.



The way the code works:

 

1. Pick an order in the history.
2. Check to see if the EA opened that trade.
3. Check to see how that trade ended.
4. Add that to the count the EA has on itself.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 for every order in the order history.
6. Put the data into a popup.

I understand your code, you are running through all the trades to see how many trades were wins and losses. But on my EA, I only care about the trade that was just closed. So I don't think I need the "for" loop, do I?

I'm sorry for what might seem as silly questions, but I'm new to programming and my logic might be a bit "fuzzy".
I'm implementing your idea to check by "if(OrderClosePrice()==OrderTakeProfit())" at the moment. I've also got an idea when I place an order to record the the SL and TP of that particular order and then to check if any of those prices are reached, instead of using the OrdersHistoryTotal() function.

Like I've said, I abolished that OrdersHistoryTotal function and went with a what I thought was a simpler (for me) idea. Now the EA works just as I intended. I'm sure there might be easier/better ways to do it, but for now I'm happy as it is.

Here is the attached ea.


Any comments, anyone?

And I thank everyone for their time, especially Ronald Raygun.

The 'for' loop allows me to be able to recover in the event the EA is reinitialized (power outage, system reset, etc). I can have the EA take a trade, remove the EA, then reattach the EA (with the same settings of course), and the EA can pick up where it left off. That's the reason for putting in the for logic.

As for just waiting for the price to hit a certain level, that's also an option, but I'm not sure whether or not the EA can recover if reset for any reason.

by using a for loop through your trade history, you can look for the trade with the latest close time.

Does anyone know how I restrict the EA to one currency pair? At the moment I can only have one EA running at a time, the idea is that if I restrict one to trade, lets say EUR USD I'll be able to run the same EA on other pairs on the same account.

Did you see how I filtered trades in the order search code? I put my exit and trade management criteria in there.

are you talking about this line?

Yes