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The Captain: an always-in auto-trader by SteveHopwood

  • #21
  • May 3, 2011 4:20pm May 3, 2011 4:20pm
Quoting The Captain
Thanks again for making this Steve. I have no system in place, and this is more from an idea I have been testing.

So far the EA works great with a couple of bugs I have noticed.

1. If loaded on a chart in the middle of a 4 hour bar no trade is taken, which is good. However, this is hard to explain but if loaded the same way and on MT4 all the data hasn't loaded on the chart, and you grab the chart and drag it, the EA enters an order, sometimes twice.
Don't understand. Sorry.

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2. I tested on a 1 minute chart and works flawlessly, but had it running on a 4 hour and came home to notice there were trades running both ways on the same pair (this could be from some of the trades that were opened during the chart drag I mentioned, and therefore did not close)
Chaging tf's whilst a bot is running is guaranteed to cause chaos.

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3. I just noticed that on my last 4 hour close it opened 2 identical orders for many pairs.
This is a regular problem with mt4 which is a platform best described as, 'Crap deliberately coded by criminals to be crap so that the criminals distributing it have more and more opportunities to separate the rest of us from our cash'.

You would not believe how much coding there is in my bots to counter this - including a fabulous routine by Matt Kennel, whose coding skills make mine look like those of an infant.

Happily, this bot only needs to operate once a candle, so I can add a post trade-send sleep that is the only truly reliable way of countering this.

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4. Is there any way to disable the trade context is busy error that happens when running on a lot of pairs? From what I have seen this has no effect as the EA seems to retry until the order goes through.
Nope. Trade context busy is a platform-generated error. My bots are already coded to deal with this, but sadly the crap appears deliberately written so as to make it impossible to avoid this when multiple instances of a robot are all trying to do their thing at the same time.

There is another alternative, which is to write a multi-pair robot. I will do this if the method looks like having any legs. To be brutally frank, I doubt it; I cannot help feeling that if trading were as simple as merely trading in the direction of the previous candle, we would all be making a mint. I am fairly sure I tried this at some stage in the past; works brilliantly in a strongly trending market and gets murdered at all other times.

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My manual backtesting with an excel spreadsheet shows far better results, I'm not sure why. I think I will test on visual mode and slow it down so I can watch candle by candle to try and find any differences.
Good plan.

  • #22
  • Edited 6:41pm May 3, 2011 5:46pm | Edited 6:41pm
From 1.1.11-30.4.11 , tf 4h , gmt +2 PAIR EU

rsi true, tp 78, sl 35

win 81(44.02%) loss 103(55.98%) trades

total net profit 1908.65$, lot size 0.1

I HAVE A SUGGESTION, WHEN NEW CANDLE START NEAR THE LAST OPEN TRADE, DONT OPEN A NEW TRADE IN THE SAME DIRECTION.
'NEAR' MEAN BY PIPS

THANKS FOR THE IDEA AND THE EA

FXHOP
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: TesterGraph.gif Size: 8 KB
  • #23
  • May 3, 2011 11:54pm May 3, 2011 11:54pm
Quoting FxHope
From 1.1.11-30.4.11 , tf 4h , gmt +2 PAIR EU

rsi true, tp 78, sl 35

win 81(44.02%) loss 103(55.98%) trades

total net profit 1908.65$, lot size 0.1

I HAVE A SUGGESTION, WHEN NEW CANDLE START NEAR THE LAST OPEN TRADE, DONT OPEN A NEW TRADE IN THE SAME DIRECTION.
'NEAR' MEAN BY PIPS

THANKS FOR THE IDEA AND THE EA

FXHOP

Agree with you, we need to have candle hight parameter to validate the next trade, for example if candle_hight < 3 not to open new trade and leave the current one.
  • #24
  • Edited 5:42am May 4, 2011 5:19am | Edited 5:42am
Quoting SteveHopwood
This is a regular problem with mt4 which is a platform best described as, 'Crap deliberately coded by criminals to be crap so that the criminals distributing it have more and more opportunities to separate the rest of us from our cash'.

You would not believe how much coding there is in my bots to counter this - including a fabulous routine by Matt Kennel, whose coding skills make mine look like those of an infant.

Happily, this bot only needs to operate once a candle, so I can add a post trade-send sleep that is the only truly reliable way...
Yeah double orders just happened again. Unless this can be fixed there is really no way to accurately test this right now.

Also I notice that there are some pairs with orders running both ways.

If somebody wants to join me in backtesting this by hand (takes forever) I think you may be pleasantly surprised. I don't have any trust in the MT4 backtesting system
Cap
  • #25
  • May 4, 2011 7:27am May 4, 2011 7:27am
there is another system called 2 candle system. enter long on bullish candle, close only when you see red candle and reverse. but there he doesnt enter on every bullish candle if already theres one long order. here we are adding longs for each bullish candle. this may work better than 2 candle system

why do u want to cap the max open orders ? we are adding to profits. lol

but in ranging market it will kill the account, we know that. adding a filter like rsi may solve this to some extent. or use PA. if candle size is small, ignore it. if we see whips on last 10 candles ignore it. may be u can add market hours filter. somebody mentioned Hiekin-Ashi candles are good, thats a good point, they dont change color as normal candles. theres a system that enters trade on change of color

but the key is to avoid the ranging market, thats a tough thing to do. higher TF should do better. atleast H4
  • #26
  • May 4, 2011 8:43am May 4, 2011 8:43am
i am using renko chart blocks of 5 , how about if we filter out some trades using this indicator . only buy when green ... only sell when grey...here it is attached
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: renko action.jpg Size: 92 KB
Attached File(s)
File Type: ex4 minurri2 profx indi.ex4   7 KB | 903 downloads
  • #27
  • May 4, 2011 11:13am May 4, 2011 11:13am
Hi all,

I picked the thread yesterday and I am testing on 5min TF for GU mainly. The robot works fine for me, with no double entries, it opens and closes the trades as it should be it gives an error when the robot is attached to different pairs at the same time but never the less it opens and closes the trades (so far). I understand that this will give better results on a higher TF than in 5 min but firstly I wanted to find out if it works. I would like to know please how the rsi works on the robot, I have seen that it filters some trades but I don't understand under what conditions.

Personaly I would like to filter the trades in relation with an MA for example only trade long when the price is above ema 50 or short when below ema 50, a trailing stop will be also nice.

I will continue monitoring in 15 min tf this time during the london NY overlap.

Lastly, Captain you are follow EO's thread (which I greatly value and understand) do you like to use the robot in relation with any of the EO's rules?

Steve, thank you for your effords and contributions
  • #28
  • May 4, 2011 4:26pm May 4, 2011 4:26pm
Quoting The Captain
Yeah double orders just happened again. Unless this can be fixed there is really no way to accurately test this right now.
I have added the function to sleep after a trade send - length of time in minutes. SleepMinsAfterTradeSend is the relevant input; defaults to 10 but you can set any figure you want. I am demoing this on the D1 chart, so I may set it for about 6 hours. Even this damn platform should have cought up by then.

  • #29
  • May 4, 2011 4:33pm May 4, 2011 4:33pm
is it possibile to add the indicator i attached on the previus post ?
  • #30
  • May 4, 2011 4:37pm May 4, 2011 4:37pm
Quoting SteveHopwood
I have added the function to sleep after a trade send - length of time in minutes. SleepMinsAfterTradeSend is the relevant input; defaults to 10 but you can set any figure you want. I am demoing this on the D1 chart, so I may set it for about 6 hours. Even this damn platform should have cought up by then.

Ain't that the truth. Thanks for the update, You are the man Steve! Here's a screenshot I just took with a few more problems. I'll blame MT4 and not your programming skills!
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: robot.png Size: 40 KB
Cap
  • #31
  • May 4, 2011 5:04pm May 4, 2011 5:04pm
Steve, I've done a quick visual test on various currencies and TF's with the HEIKEN ASHI candles (attached indi).

It seems to work as HA candles do a pretty good job filtering out the noise of those short retracing candles that may make this EA open and close positions like crazy (Please see attached pictures and examples).

Also, this way we could forward test the bot in the shorter TF's

Would it be too complicated to configure the bot to rely on this indicator's candles to open and close positions instead of the regular candles? I'd be willing to do extensive testing on this

Diego
Attached Image(s) (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: REG CANDLES.png Size: 212 KB
Click to Enlarge Name: HA CANDLES.png Size: 198 KB
Attached File(s)
File Type: mq4 Heiken_Ashi_Smoothed.mq4   5 KB | 572 downloads
  • #32
  • May 4, 2011 5:14pm May 4, 2011 5:14pm
Quoting bobbye
is it possibile to add the indicator i attached on the previus post ?
Yes, it is possible but I am not going to because I see no value in it.

  • #33
  • May 4, 2011 5:17pm May 4, 2011 5:17pm
Quoting acostafulano
Steve, I've done a quick visual test on various currencies and TF's with the HEIKEN ASHI candles (attached indi).

It seems to work as HA candles do a pretty good job filtering out the noise of those short retracing candles that may make this EA open and close positions like crazy (Please see attached pictures and examples).

Also, this way we could forward test the bot in the shorter TF's

Would it be too complicated to configure the bot to rely on this indicator's candles to open and close positions instead of the regular candles? I'd...
The bot works off candles on the chart. I have no idea what HA candles are, but if HA creates candles then the bot should work with them. Try it and see.

  • #34
  • May 4, 2011 5:32pm May 4, 2011 5:32pm
To make it short, they're candles that smooth out PA movement by drawing themselves using averages, so that trends appear more clear and without all the noise.

The thing is it draws this modified candles on the chart (see attached) so the bot would still base its decisions on regular candles... I had to hide them for the screenshot)....
So I'm guessing the only way for the bot to trade based on them would be to incorporate them into the EA's code (if someone knows other way please correct me).

Does this spark enough interest for you to give it a try? If not I'll see if some other coders can help me out, On visual this seems like a good idea.
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: HA+REG.png Size: 218 KB
  • #35
  • Edited 6:16pm May 4, 2011 5:43pm | Edited 6:16pm
ok steve , thanks anyway just wanted to forward test to see the results. on renko chart
  • #36
  • May 4, 2011 6:08pm May 4, 2011 6:08pm
Quoting acostafulano
Does this spark enough interest for you to give it a try? If not I'll see if some other coders can help me out, On visual this seems like a good idea.
That is horriffic.

Cutting out noise is one thing; hanging on grimly and increasing market exposure in one direction when the market is clearly moving against it would be financial suicide.

Cap's method may or may not be flawed, but it does at least pay some attention to pa. HA appears to insist on prices moving in one direction until the market has moved so far against it that accounts will be blown.

So no, I will not be incorporating HA into this bot. Thanks for the explanation though; I often wondered in passing what HA was about. Looks like 'in passing' is the best way to meet it.


  • #37
  • May 4, 2011 6:33pm May 4, 2011 6:33pm
Steve did you see my message? Post #30
Cap
  • #38
  • May 4, 2011 6:52pm May 4, 2011 6:52pm
Quoting The Captain
Steve did you see my message? Post #30
Yes I did, but couldn't read it properly so I ignored it. Strangely-coloured backgrounds etc might suit you, but they play hell with a post here.

The bot is coded to operate only at the opening of a new candle. Anything that happens after this initial burst of activity and before the open of the nest candle is nowt to do with the bot.

Sorry, but I have no idea what is happening at your end. It is not happening at my end, and until it does there is nothing I can do about it. This is the simplest bot I coded for about 2 years; there is not much to go wrong with it.

I could be wrong, but I get the impression that you are not an experienced ea user. Do you understand that, once dragged onto a chart, that chart has to be left alone? Muck around with it and you will mess up the ea.

  • #39
  • May 4, 2011 6:58pm May 4, 2011 6:58pm
Quoting SteveHopwood
Yes I did, but couldn't read it properly so I ignored it. Strangely-coloured backgrounds etc might suit you, but they play hell with a post here.
Strangely-coloured backgrounds? It is a white background with black and white candles... I have no idea what you mean.

Yes I understand that. I have added the EA and haven't touched a thing. I will try to close all orders and reload it all.
Cap
  • #40
  • May 5, 2011 9:09am May 5, 2011 9:09am
Hello Steve and thank you for ALL your work on this forum. Regarding this Captain EA, I have some ideas you can play with if they are worthwhile.

Indicators: 6 and 52 SMA.

The 52 SMA establishes the trend. While the 6 SMA is for exit. If a candle opens and closes above the 52 SMA, then we are in an uptrend and the EA will only buy. If a candle opens and closes below the 52 SMA, then we are in an downtrend and the EA will only sell.

Entry:
Go long only in an uptrend. Go long only using green candles. Do not close trades when the candle is red. Do not go long with a green candle below the 6 SMA. No limit to number of trades. And vice versa.

Exit:
Exit all trades when a candle close below the 6 SMA.

Time frame is 4Hrs.
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Click to Enlarge Name: a.gif Size: 23 KB
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