Jimmy Noodles TRACER EA

DISCLAIMER
I accept absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for anyone losing or making money using this expert advisor to trade. You use this robot at entirely your own risk.

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Please find attached an EA I have written.
It is called the TRACER EA (which is short for Trend-Retracement).

It is designed to go on the EUR/USD 15M chart but I think that with the correct settings it could also work on GBP/USD 15M chart and also the EUR/USD 5M and GBP/USD 5M charts.

Please feel free to backtest the EA and post your relevant findings in this thread in order that we may find the best settings.

The settings and how it works.

Here are the EA inputs:

Magic Number:
Self explanatory

ECN Broker:
Set this to true if you use an ECN broker. If not, don't.

extern double Lots:
Lot size - default 0.01

extern double Stoplossmargin:
The EA places a stop loss at the high of the last swing high/low. This number is the added number of pips away from the high/low it will set the stop loss. Default at 1 PIP (0.0001 for E/U).

extern double takeprofitmultiplier:
The EA multiplies the stoploss distance by this number to set the takeprofit. Think of it as a R:R setting. The default is 3 giving a risk reward ratio of 1:3.

extern int Slippage:
Maximum allowed slippage. Default = 3 (3 PIPS).

The EA uses three different MA's to determine trend direction and strength. A Fast MA, a slower MA, and an even slower TREND MA. Below are the default settings which worked best in backtesting but please test further. The MA period is self explanatory. MA shift is best left at 0. For MA method 1 = ema, 0=sma. MA price 1=close price.

extern string Remark2 = "== Fast MA Settings ==";
extern int MA1Period = 20;
int MA1Shift = 0;
int MA1Method = 1;
int MA1Price = 0;

extern string Remark3 = "== Slow MA Settings ==";
extern int MA2Period = 60;
int MA2Shift = 0;
int MA2Method = 1;
int MA2Price = 0;

extern string Remark4 = "== Trend MA Settings ==";
extern int MATrendperiod = 70;
int MATrendshift = 0;
int MATrendmethod = 0;
int MATrendprice = 0;

The final 2 inputs are:

extern double minimumgapdistance = 0.00030;
This determines the minimum gap distance required between the fast and slow MA's for the EA to take a trade. The default proved best in my backtesting but we may find a better one.

extern double minimumgapdistance2 = 0.00010;
This determines the minimum gap distance required between the slow MA and Trend MA for the EA to take a trade. This is untested so is set at default of 0.0001 but we may find better setting for this.


A starting point.

Run the default settings through strategy tester on an EU 15M chart for a few months worth of data. Then we can start manipulating the settings to find the best ones. I would recommend changing the MA settings, takeprofit mulitiplier settings and minimum gap settings in order to find the best. This bot has shown some promise in backtesting.

As an alternative, DEMO the robot to see how it works. Drop it on an EU 15M chart (or G/U 15M). The robot leaves its 'fingerprints' after trades so you can see where it entered and set its TP and SL etc. I think you will be suprised at the quality of the entries it generates. The key to profitability lies in finding good settings. This is where we can come together and help.

Noodles.

What are the conditions for this EA to enter in a trade?

For a short:
The fastest MA should be below the Slower MA which should in turn be below the Trend MA.
The MA's should be sloping down.
There should also be minimumgapdistance between the MAs as determined by the variable minimumgapdistance.

The opposite of the above should be true for a long.

This determines the trend.

The retracement is determined by a similar strategy to the 'Urban Towers' strategy (search for it if you're not familier).

In a down trend if you have three consecutive bars with a higher low, which also pierces the fastest MA and closes below the Slower EA ( a retracement to the MA's), then the robot will open a short if the low of that bar is broken, setting a SL at the high of the swing + stoplossmargin, and a TP and the stoploss distance times the variable 'takeprofitmultiplier'.

Opposite is true for a long.

If you put the EA on a DEMO chart EU 5M in a good trend it shouldn't be that long before a trade is taken and you can see more clearly how it functions.

To everyone who has dowloaded the EA from post 1 and run it through the strategy tester there was a slight but important error in the code. Please re download the correct version posted here and also in Post 1. Thankyou.

Here is a chart which makes me think this bot has potential. Backtest Results from last month 01/04/11 to 01/05/11. EUR/USD 5M chart.

Starting Balance: 10000
End balance: 13798.60

Settings:
Lots: 1
Stoplossmargin: 0.0003
takeprofitmultiplier: 3
slippage: 3
MA1 period: 20
MA2 period: 41
MA Trend period: 70
minimumgapdistance: 0.0001
minimumgapdistance2: 0.0002

Hello, so this EA only work in ECN broker is that what you really means? thx.

I think he means if you use a non-ECN broker, set it to false.

This is correct.

Jimmy,
I've had the EA running all day on 5M then 1M TF for 3 different pairs today and no trades have been generated....is this normal ?. I have adjusted parameters to your settings for the 5M. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Jimmy,
Please disregard previous post. EA entered 2 trades. One on the 1M chart E/U and closed for 15 pips gain and also A/U currently up 7 pips so far on that one.

Early, but looks very promising.

Jimmy.

Letting it run on a M5 chart that I have free, just took its first trade and now watching what will come out of it.
SL & TP showed up, so that part is working fine.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your testing.

Jimmy

EA took one long trade and paid after I poster earlier.

Then a thunderstorm passed over and knocked the power off.
More testing next week.

REMEMBER: I am doing M5 OOTB

Hi just wondered what the rest of the results were ie % winning trades lossing trades consecitive losses etc

Also was the month a trending month or ranging month for eu or typical

Thanks for your help

Not sure. Enter all those values into your own MT4 strategy tester and run it, then you can see all the more detailed results for yourself.

Jimmy

All I get with ibfx is:

order send error 4110
order modify error 4051

thx
todd

Hi Jimmy. This looks pretty good. As far as selecting the best combination of MAs, your choices are probably as good as any. I've been looking at your setup on 5 and 15 minute charts and it seems pretty bulletproof so far, although a 20ema as a 'wave' for price to ride never looks quite right to me. After messing with a number of alternatives, I tried plugging in the ALMA indi (it's the yellow line) just to see what it would look like. It would create a lot more entries in sustained trends, as you can see. Just some food for thought.

Anyway, I'm testing it on 5M, ootb. I'll load it up on the 10 pairs in the IBFX demo and see what happens.
In fact, I think I'll open another demo account and run it at 15M also.
I'll let you know how its doing.

Hi Todd,

Not sure about that sorry. If IBFX is an ECN broker then you will have to set ECN broker to true in the settings. If not I'm not sure, maybe a more experienced coder would know....

Jimmy

Thanks a lot for your suggestions and willingness to test. Any other guys got any test results this week?

Jimmy

I've got it running demo EU/GU M15