EXCEL Trading

Hi Folks

If this has already been covered, please point me in the direction. The search revealed a few threads, but didn't cover my topic here.

1a) I have a system I wish to develop a spreadsheet for, and have that spreadsheet enter multiple orders when preset criteria are met.

1b) The TF for trading is the 4H candle, and may be the 8H candle, formed through either the "Period_Converter" .ex4 or else some function of the Excel programme.

2) I would like to get streaming data to the spreadsheet, from either my MT4 platform, or direct from MetaQuotes, or a broker.

3) The Excel programme would need to send me SMS to mobile or audible alarm, or flashing screen etc when a trade is triggered.

4) The programme would need to run around 8 currency pairs.

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway - I am a complete boof-head when it comes to Excel programming, and knowing what is available with this software.

Would any patient soul out there have an answer to any of this, in terms an illiterate with Excel would understand?

Kind regards

Ivan

Ivan, this post might help to get you started, in terms of getting streaming data from MT4 to Excel. Check out the formulae in the XLS attached to that post; it appears that you can get Bid, Ask, Last tick time, (daily) High, Low, etc data direct from a MT4 platform that has its Allow DLLs parameter checked on. I know virtually zero about Excel add-ins/macros, so I'm not sure how or why this works. Also, I should point out that I can get streaming MT4 data on my Excel 97, I'm not sure about the 2003 or 2007 versions.

Re the SMS/alarms, I'd guess that you're heading into the realms of Visual Basic, the programming language that underlies Excel. Again, not my area of expertise, I'm afraid.

David

Thanks David ... that confirms what I have been able to discover.

I have an acquaintance who has a successful (and secret) .xls spreadsheet which alerts him to trading setups 24/7. But he won't divulge anything about it, so I have to learn it myself. He has used trading as his main source of income for over 5 years now, so no wonder he keeps his cards close to his chest. They are a single income family.

It seems there are some good programmes available to traders if only we had the knowledge to utilise them. And it seems that acquiring that knowledge will come at a small cost. It looks like I will be going back to "school" to master XLS code.

Unfortunately we go about our trading businesses with only half the tools required sometimes. Having a method is good ... having an ability to analyse and execute quickly is another facet which many of us have placed less weight on until now (for me).

My method delivers quite a lot of pips with maximum (and rare) 10% draw-down, and is very strongly pip positive over a month and a year. I am wanting to code it onto a spreadsheet because of the calculations required. I do not want to share this method, thus I am already against the wall getting assistance.

Finding a coder who can be trusted is also difficult - few could resist the temptation to respect the intellectual property of others, when it comes to an ability to make money.

You are one I would trust, because of our past dealings, but I don't know any others - even the well-known ones on FF are unknown to me, and I have no knowledge of their trustworthiness when it comes to keeping a method confidential. It would therefore not be fair to make a judgement either way.

I have a half-baked spreadsheet written by someone who has only a slightly higher level of Excel Literacy than I. It will do (some of) the calculations, but not place the trades, and there is still far too much manual input from the operator.

The way it is, I am still better doing the calcs with a pen, some paper and a desktop "Canon".

I believe I can do this and will find a way.

It was perhaps a bit naive of me to attempt to find assistance on a public forum.

.

I'm a bit of an Excel junkie....we had kicked this idea around quite a bit and had solved the technical issues re how it would work. If you get Excel to write the trade instruction to a text file, you could get the EA to read that text file and then execute the instruction. It's a clever way to get the instruction to MT4 without trying to pass directly fro0m Excel to MT4. If you need some help with the Excel stuff, put some of the issues here and I'll see if I can help. Or PM me if posting here does not work for you.
Cheers
CanuckCT

http://book.mql4.com/functions/files

Some reading here

Hi CanuckCT

I appreciate your information and the offer of assistance.

Best for me to do some homework and then get back to you when my understanding of the terminology has improved - that would make your job and my progress much easier.

The link you posted seems to be a good starting point.

Thank you for the reply - gives me encouragement.

Kind regards

Ivan

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/xltraders/

lots of info here

someone has already done it

Just because your friend has his trading automated through excel, does not mean you have to. A good option may be to at least consider coding everything in MT4, that way you will not have to deal with the problem of getting your trading instructions to MT4. MQL is quite capable at a variety of calculations and it may be able to handle what you need. Of course it is hard to tell without knowing more details about what it is you are trying to accomplish. I have done quite a bit of work with Excel and VB, and while it is a very capable environment, it will not be an easy feat to master. So like I said, you should at least consider MT4 and MQL.

Hi Kenz987

That is indeed a very big site ... and I think I have my time cut out for awhile researching that.

Thanks for the link. As a member of yahoo! usergroups already, I logged straight in, and will begin looking for the programmes.

Thank you for posting the link ... it might be exactly what I am looking for.

Of course I realise I could get this fixed in a jiffy by going through fxdialogue dot com, but only as a last resort.

If I do a bit of work and avoid my natural tendency to be lazy, I will be rewarded with knowledge. If not, there is always that easy option.

Kind regards

Ivan

I agree Sergiu. But when you see the complexity of what I need to programme, it seems to me to be the best option. I can not code in .mlq myself, and can not find anyone I trust who has the time or inclination to have a go at it for me.

Again - it is a matter of working with someone who is capable of understanding what I need, to begin with, and then writing the code. Further, trustworthiness is important to me, because I am not the originator of this method, and do not with to see the other person's method being sold for USD$197 in the next promotion.

So I will divulge what I need, basically, without the fine details.

* The programme needs to be able to determine trend, according to one of my indicators.
* It also needs to place SL and TP orders, and this needs to be done a multiple of times (ie more than one order) for each pair. The SL and TP are worked out on a multiple of the volatility indicator.
* The programme needs to be flexible in placing orders on any of the 15M, 1H, 4H, 8H, 12H, 16H, daily etc ... or whatever I nominate, so that functionality also needs to be preserved, or written in.
* SL and TP need to be automatically changed as frequently as the volatility changes (for whatever volatility indicator I nominate).
* Position size needs to be determined according to my formula, which will be different for each order, and perhaps different for each pair. Position size is based on a multiple of the Account Balance.

There are other things, but I can't say more at the moment ... but do you see now why this is such a task? It is ok to say that MT4 will do it, and "why do you need Excel" ... but you are talking to a non-programmer here, who knows just enough about Expert Indicators to know that this can not be written in 5 minutes.

Further, I would say (from my position of limited knowledge) that Excel code is simpler, and it is not difficult to redirect streaming data from an MT4 broker to an Excel programme, through the "Allow DDE" function etc.

You can understand why I want to keep this method close to my chest - it is not mine to divulge.

Thus I am having difficulty finding someone to take a look at the coding.

But it is ok mate ... If I have to learn Excel coding to get this over the line, I will. It is just a view, but I suspect Excel coding is about a thousand times easier than .mlq.

Could be wrong.

Thanks for your reply, Sergiu - I do appreciate your input. And I realise many of my assumptions may be wrong. If so, I humbly apologise for them. I do not want to close the door on enlightenment.

Based upon these high-level requirements, there is nothing here that cannot be done with MQL4. With what you have described, there would be no better solution than to create an EA using MQL4.

My advice to you is the same advice I have for everyone in this area: learn to code the EA yourself. You will have no dependencies on anyone else. A few months of "learning" MQL4 will be well worth it in the end.

Since you are a non-programmer, this may be a time-consuming effort. But like I said, it will be worth it.

The poster above has a good point. Not only is MT4 capable of handling this, it is exactly what MT4 was designed to do. Not only that, having knowledge of both, Excel and MQL I can tell you, that implementing this in Excel would be a tremendous challenge, and I am afraid you will be doing it "backwards". If you feel uncomfortable disclosing your method to a programmer, your best option is to learn MQL4, which by the way is easier in some regards than VB. Excel itself can be fairly simple to learn, but what you need done, goes well beyond the typical excel capabilities, and you would need to venture into VB, which is basically what MQL4 is for MT4 - a scripting language.
You may also consider a non-disclosure/non-compete agreement between you and a potential programmer. It is common practice, and as long as you go for a well respected professional it should be fine. Either way, I wish you luck, whatever way you may decide to go.

Hi Ivan,

I don't see hiring a programmer would be the issue in your case as long as you know how to write your strategy's formula in Excel. You can safely keep your secret strategy. Considering the fact that many trader have good knowledge in Excel compared to MT4, when come to keeping the secret strategy, I think it is the main advantage of using Excel as your source of technical analysis "indicator".

Based on what you need (post #1), you can do the following things:

1. You need H4/H8 OHLC price to be streamed from MT4 to Excel. Ask programmer to program a mql + DDE/COM dll wrapper that will send H4/H8/Daily OHLC (you name it) from MT4 to Excel sheet (MT4 DDE server only serve tick price and Daily OHLC). It's not difficult task, I have done it in the past. In this step, you don't need to disclose your strategy because the code involved in this part has nothing to do with how you would use those streaming data. If you need ready to use commercial product: fxdialogue or ddetool

2. You need the capability of Excel to send trade request. Ask programmer to program an Add-Ins in the form of xll file (Excel dll version) that can be used as a wrapper to PostMessage/RegistereMessage and a companion mql script. The xll should be programmed to give you a function with some parameters like =OpenOrder(pair, lotsize, ordertype, sl, tp...). Like the point 1, no need to disclose the strategy.

3. You need the capability of sending sms. You need to open an account with Clickatell or the likes, ask them for the SMS API. Give the API to your programmer, and told him to code an Add-ins that can act as Wininet wrapper that will send data to Clickatell server via http protocol. The Add-ins should be allow you to call a function like =sms(your number, your text).

After you get all the tools/programs, you can write the strategy's formula in Excel sheet on your own.