Wanted gap trading EA | Forex Factory

Options

Go to
Permalinks
Print Thread

Similar Threads

Gap Up and Gap Down terminology 8 replies

Book Wanted: Trading For A Living 43 replies

Everything You Wanted To Know About Electronic Trading, by Linda Bradford Raschke 0 replies

Book Wanted - Day Trading To Financial Freedom 0 replies

Book Wanted: Trend Trading By Guppy 3 replies

Attachments: Wanted gap trading EA
Exit Attachments

Wanted gap trading EA

  • #1
  • First Post: Sep 20, 2008 3:26pm Sep 20, 2008 3:26pm
HI,

I need something simple but specific as I do have the knowledge to do so:

I would like an expert or an indicator that does this:

I would like mt4 to create for me an excel file where I will find:
all the gaps (only friday-sundays)
price closed on friday
price open on sunday
if the gap opened up I would like the highest price before the price went back to the close on friday and the opposite if the it gapped down
how many hours it took for the gap to close and when did it close.

I will give you an example:
in this file
http://www.levymoshe.com/forex.jpg

I will want those values:


september 12 2008 closed at 1.4215
september 15 open at 1.4341
high (before the gap closed) 1.4481 on september 15th at 6:23AM GST
gap closed september 15th at 1h29 PM GST

If you have a question pleas fell free to reply.
Thank you
  • #2
  • Sep 19, 2009 11:17am Sep 19, 2009 11:17am
there are no gaps or just one or two pips. use oanda they will fill the gaps
  • #3
  • Sep 19, 2009 2:18pm Sep 19, 2009 2:18pm
you might be interested in reading this: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=28645

Also resizing your chart would be very gently.
  • #4
  • Oct 20, 2009 12:41am Oct 20, 2009 12:41am
Hi,
This seems like a lost thread, but I'll give it a go anyway.

I'm looking for an EA that will allow me to input various parameters *SL, TP, TS etc.) and back test them. There was an EA put out by KirkaFund but I couldn't get it to work and neither could most other people (another dead thread!)

Failing that, is there a piece of SW that will allow me to build my own strategy and back test it?

Many thanks,



Mike

I wonder why the odd 20% of the time the Sunday gap goes in the wrong direction? Hmmmmm..... Are the Big Boys just playing with us?
  • #5
  • Oct 20, 2009 1:58am Oct 20, 2009 1:58am
Found that one yesterday here in the board.

It's ex4 and I have no idea how it works but just try it out
Attached File(s)
File Type: ex4 GAP TRADER v_04.ex4   9 KB | 2,004 downloads
  • #6
  • Oct 20, 2009 2:18pm Oct 20, 2009 2:18pm
Quoting cobraforex
Found that one yesterday here in the board.

It's ex4 and I have no idea how it works but just try it out

Hi Cobra,

Ahh, there is still some life in the beast! :-) I thought this thread was due for the knackers yard!

I too found that EA and tried it, but it never did anything; kept telling me the gap was too small. Maybe there should have been something else with it, like an indicator or something? How does it recognise Sundays? Does it get the time from the chart?

Tried strat testing it - no results. I was hoping the author would drop by the forum.

Do you gap trade Sunday/Monday?

I did use another EA I found (maybe here) called Gap Trader by Goshur, and that seemed to work except it ignores my input of 0.1 lots and does it's own thing with 0.36 lots LOL! That EA strat test gave me $8K profit in 10 months, but then I may be overoptimising it. I'm only starting out with optimisation and don't really understand it fully.

Cheers,

Mike
  • #7
  • Oct 29, 2009 12:16am Oct 29, 2009 12:16am
HI Frenchtrader,

If you'd like to compare gap trading ideas, please reply or PM me.


Cheers,


Mike
  • #8
  • Oct 29, 2009 1:31am Oct 29, 2009 1:31am
Yes Mike I trade gaps but manually, I'm from the generation that still makes musik with a guitar in the hands.

If you like you can email me and I have someone of my coder Team to look at it why it doesn't accept your order.

With the one I posted we can't work as it's ex4.

Quoting blott
Hi Cobra,

Ahh, there is still some life in the beast! :-) I thought this thread was due for the knackers yard!

I too found that EA and tried it, but it never did anything; kept telling me the gap was too small. Maybe there should have been something else with it, like an indicator or something? How does it recognise Sundays? Does it get the time from the chart?

Tried strat testing it - no results. I was hoping the author would drop by the forum.

Do you gap trade Sunday/Monday?

I did use another EA I found (maybe here) called Gap Trader...
  • #9
  • Oct 29, 2009 3:01am Oct 29, 2009 3:01am
Try this one...it is coded by FOREXflash.
http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...21&postcount=1
  • #10
  • Oct 29, 2009 2:02pm Oct 29, 2009 2:02pm
Quoting cobraforex
Yes Mike I trade gaps but manually, I'm from the generation that still makes musik with a guitar in the hands.

If you like you can email me and I have someone of my coder Team to look at it why it doesn't accept your order.

With the one I posted we can't work as it's ex4.
Hi Cobra,
I intend to only trade manually too, just use the EA for optimising SL, TP, TS etc. A system I tried on last week Sunday open and the week before, with GBPUSD & EURUSD, was to trade in opposite direction to gap, at the open of first bar of the week, with SL 100 TP 40. Resulted in two wins in both weeks. Checking back manually for 11 weeks, showed that GU & EU had -400 pips drawdown with 800 pip wins, net result +400 pips which, @ 1 lot = $4000 and @ 2 lots = $8000 etc., etc.. That would pay my weekly shopping bill!

Since I did these tests, I wondered how I could eliminate those nasty 100 pip drawdowns and I found that all the drawdowns went against the trend (indeed, all the wins nearly always went with the trend - the wins that went against the trend simply had a 50-80 pip retracement, resulting in TP, before continuing on the trend), which brings us back to 'how does one forecast the trend?'! Hmmmm.....

Anyway, just for now, I want to find an EA that will do the following:-

1) detect close of last bar of Friday trade

2) detect direction of gap (sometimes 0.1 pips - 60 pips) when Sunday evening trade starts again. This may not be possible on strategy testing. Maybe the EA could have a built-in calendar to synchronise with strat test dates?

3) place a trade in opposite direction to gap direction i.e. if gaps up, place SELL trade & vice versa.

4) must be able to work with MT4 strategy tester and detect every Friday/Sunday gap for the time period selected, in which ever timeframe I select (analysing visual results is not possible on just a daily chart as it often does not show whether it hit the TP before or after SL.)

5) variable SL, TP, TS, - all values in pips.

You could build a non-trading feature into it (will not trade current day) as it is only needed for optimisation.

I've attached two EAs for you to look at.


BTW, I'd be interested to know how you trade the Friday-Sunday gap?

Many thanks for your kind offer to try to help me with my problem.


Regards,


Mike

PS Back testing GBPUSD and only trading with the trend, allowed me to easily increase the TP from 40 to 100. The only times I lost was when I wrongly identified the trend! Now, all we want is an EA to identify the trend and we're filthy rich LOL !! When you snap your fingers, I will wake up....
Attached File(s)
File Type: zip GAP TRADER v_04.zip   7 KB | 1,661 downloads
File Type: zip Gap_Trader.zip   < 1 KB | 1,410 downloads
  • #11
  • Oct 29, 2009 3:27pm Oct 29, 2009 3:27pm
I'm still a babycoder, lol.

Still learning and now comes MT5 on top of all.

If there is a small mod to make I can ask my coder friends but a new proyect is too much as we all are very busy at the moment.

Anyhow I'm interested to see how the ones you posted perform, also thanks for the hint to Parazite.

I only trade the gap to fill, nothing else, than other methods come in play.

Quoting blott
Hi Cobra,
I intend to only trade manually too, just use the EA for optimising SL, TP, TS etc. ....
  • #12
  • Oct 29, 2009 3:57pm Oct 29, 2009 3:57pm
Quoting cobraforex
I'm still a babycoder, lol.

Still learning and now comes MT5 on top of all.

If there is a small mod to make I can ask my coder friends but a new proyect is too much as we all are very busy at the moment.

Anyhow I'm interested to see how the ones you posted perform, also thanks for the hint to Parazite.

I only trade the gap to fill, nothing else, than other methods come in play.
Actually, when I think of it, if I trade in the direction of the trend, irrespective of what the gap does, then I'm not really taking any advantage of the weekend gap; I might just as well choose to follow the trend from the start of Tuesday's daily candle!

I have proved to myself that the gap direction is largely irrelevant to which direction the trade will go; it always follows the trend!

So, it seems I have two choices:-
1. Trade mechanically in the opposite direction of the gap, using SL=100/TP=40, trust in the statistics and make money by trading more than 2 lots, or

2. Place trades only in the direction of the trend, use larger TP=100-200 and make money by being right most of the time, using mini-lots.

Hmmmm... let me think!

Regards,


Mike

PS. I quite understand, regarding coding an EA - it must take quite some time. Thanks for the offer.
  • #13
  • Oct 29, 2009 4:06pm Oct 29, 2009 4:06pm
If you trade against the open gap and not in the direction to fill it you will have 85% chance to be wrong, at least until it gets filled.
  • #14
  • Oct 29, 2009 4:23pm Oct 29, 2009 4:23pm
Quoting cobraforex
If you trade against the open gap and not in the direction to fill it you will have 85% chance to be wrong, at least until it gets filled.
Hi Cobra,
What do you mean by "against the open gap"? Do you mean in the opposite direction to the gap direction?


Mike
  • #15
  • Oct 29, 2009 4:46pm Oct 29, 2009 4:46pm
Well, when we are talking about gap trading we talk about the close of the gap.

There have been some clever heads which made a statistic that says that 85% of all weekend gaps get filled sooner or later.

Now I hear already from all sides that gaps don't exist in FX and that's right for banks but our lazy retailbrokers force us to have BBQs and some Scotch and/or Guinness in the weekend and don't allow us to trade.

I just picked one that was very wide but it's to explain how this works.

You see the blue line which marks friday close and a huge gap to our platform open on sunday.

To trade the gap you would love to trade in the direction of the red arrow as you expect that at any given time this hole will get filled and it was the case.

Is that understandable?
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: gap.jpg Size: 67 KB
  • #16
  • Oct 29, 2009 5:24pm Oct 29, 2009 5:24pm
Hi Cobra,

I'd be grateful of your findings, if you have a spare moment, on which trade (in the oppposite direction to the gap direction, with SL=100, TP=40) or in the direction of the price trend, irrespective of the gap direction, (SL=100, TP=100) makes most money from the attached GBPUSD chart.

I manually wrote down 11 weeks trades GBPUSD, using the mechanical method of trading in the opposite direction to gap direction, with SL=100, TP=40 and had only one drawdown of -100 pips, which is a 90% success.

This success rate may not apply to all pairs as each has it's own daily rate of movement, so SL & TP may have to be altered accordingly. Certainly, over the same period EURUSD had three -100 losses and USDCAD has -700 pip drawdown, so this mechanical system is not useable across all currencies with just one SL & TP level. If all the losses across e.g. 10 pairs line up at the same time, it's weeping & gnashing of teeth time!

I did notice that the GBPUSD trade that lost went against the trend on 17th Aug. Gap was down (the trade would have been BUY) but so was the trend and the two went in opposite directions! If you set up a daily chart, with vertical lines on a number of Sunday opens, and use it on 10 different pairs, you will probably notice that the losing trades nearly always went against the trend, which I suppose figures...

I have marked the Sunday opens with vertical red lines (the Friday bars are the ones to the left). My broker is Alpair UK who is GMT + 1.

The Daily bars often don't show if price hit SL or TP first, which is why I need the EA to work on any timeframe.

I'll continue to look at how the mechanical system can be used on other pairs, but not havng an EA for strat testing means it's a SLOW job...

I hope you find this info useful and if you have any suggestions for improvement, they'd be most welcome.

regards,


Mike
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: gbpgapcobra.gif Size: 31 KB
  • #17
  • Edited 5:49pm Oct 29, 2009 5:38pm | Edited 5:49pm
Here's another chart pic with gap directions marked with yellow arrows and the 17th Aug trade marked with yellow X

Hope they are clearer than the previous one.


Mike

Noticed some arrows have been 'lost', as has the yellow X, but I hope you can make sense of what remains. It seems that basically, if the gap is below the 10SMA SELL, and if above BUY and if it's at the bottom /top of a curve, the Stochastic can be the tie-breaker. But, why wait until Sunday to place trades if gap direction is not important?
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: gbpgapcobra1.gif Size: 47 KB
  • #18
  • Oct 30, 2009 12:58pm Oct 30, 2009 12:58pm
Quoting cobraforex
Well, when we are talking about gap trading we talk about the close of the gap.

There have been some clever heads which made a statistic that says that 85% of all weekend gaps get filled sooner or later.

Now I hear already from all sides that gaps don't exist in FX and that's right for banks but our lazy retailbrokers force us to have BBQs and some Scotch and/or Guinness in the weekend and don't allow us to trade.

I just picked one that was very wide but it's to explain how this works.

You see the blue line which marks friday close and a...
Hi Cobra,
Yes, quite clear, thanks. Howevev, in that picture, if you were to trade the trend instead of the gap you will make more profit, and sooner. Am I correct? How many pips above the gap and how many pips below?

Just think, while bankers sweat over the weekend, it allows us, as you so rightly observe, to indulge in the finer points of life. I'll bet they even take their Blackberrys into the toilet too!! Me? Just 'Private Eye'!

Cheers,

Mike
  • #19
  • Oct 30, 2009 2:44pm Oct 30, 2009 2:44pm
Sure Mike, you have all the reasons but than I wouldn't call it "Gap trading", let's call it "Blue Monday trading" or so.

Big gaps are mostly formed by weekend events like meetings etc and can give the market good reasons to react further on it during the first days of the week.

Quoting blott
Hi Cobra,
Yes, quite clear, thanks. Howevev, in that picture, if you were to trade the trend instead of the gap you will make more profit, and sooner. Am I correct? How many pips above the gap and how many pips below?

Just think, while bankers sweat over the weekend, it allows us, as you so rightly observe, to indulge in the finer points of life. I'll bet they even take their Blackberrys into the toilet too!! Me? Just 'Private Eye'!

Cheers,

Mike
  • #20
  • Oct 30, 2009 2:56pm Oct 30, 2009 2:56pm
Quoting cobraforex
Sure Mike, you have all the reasons but than I wouldn't call it "Gap trading", let's call it "Blue Monday trading" or so.

Big gaps are mostly formed by weekend events like meetings etc and can give the market good reasons to react further on it during the first days of the week.
Hi Cobra,
You're correct, what I'm doing shouldn't really be called Gap Trading; I'm not looking merely to fill the gap, I'm looking to go beyond it. It's my version of gap trading!

I'll keep you informed how I'm doing.

Have a great weekend,

Cheers,

Mike
0 traders viewing now