A question to coders - Is this normal?

Hey all

I am in a process of asking (paying for that job) a coder to do my first EA and he said in a NDA the following:

“For EA’s development, it must be left on the chart 24/7 for it manages the orders properly, and not close/switch the chart or even the MT4.”
It means that once you attach the EA onto a chart, you cannot close/switch switch the chart or even the MT 4, neither change its parameters . If you do that, the EA will “reset” its variables and the system get lost. All (os most of them , it depends on the logic ) EA’s on MT4 cannot be “reset” in a such way, unless you apply one of my protection system , which I charge U$xx per file to create a protection to if one of those 3 issues happen, the EA will read a txt file written from time to time in your hard disk before it restarts. Also, still talking about additional protection, when I say “close the MT4” , it means a “crash” in the windows system and not doing it on purpose ( manually you go there on the upper right hand“x” of the window and close it out)"

Is this normal?
I truly appreciate the answers from you guys and ladys since it is my first EA and I really do not know a lot about it.
Best regards

Kristjan

A few hints:

1. An EA can only manage orders when Mt4 is up and the EA attached.

2. The EA should be coded in a way that it finds its own orders under all circumstances like
- you change settings in properties menu while the EA has open orders
- power outage and restart of Mt4
- somebody detaches the EA and when you attach it again
- switch of timeframes ( but that depends on the strategy. If the EA is coded for a certain timeframe only, then of course you must not switch timeframes )

You should ask the coder if the EA is able to do that.

The requirement is not normal practice, but I suspect the coder has been "burned" in the past and is covering his ass.

Restarting an EA after a reset is not simple unless the EA itself is simple minded. It's not much coding, but it takes a lot of analysis to identify all the states that must be preserved and it takes a lot of testing to be sure that nothing was missed. IMO, the coder is trying to save his ass or your money by making a major issue of it.

Edit: I have suspected MT4 cannot restart an EA/indicator properly even if the coder does include the proper code based on some of the experiences I have had reported to me.

Thank you both fxtr51 and CodeMeister for very quick response and confirming my own thoughts on that issue.
We learn as we live

Best regards and thank you again

Kristjan

What do you mean by that?

Kristjan

kristjantelve

I agree with CodeMeister, hes covering his ass.

From what you are saying I assume that your system auto trades and can hold positions over night, all done with out you at the monitor.

In that case he is right in saying the system has to be up to manage trades. BUT if he is working on such a project he should be coding in protections. He appears that he knows that and is will to do it for more money.

My personal system not only backs itself up but will look for any unmanaged open orders and inform me of it finds any, given me 60 second to respond to a dialog box, if I dont respond by that time the system automaticly assumes ownership of the orders, even if it did not open them, Its set up that I can shut down my system and my trading partner hundreds of miles from me can resume my trading. And if there is any crash that I can not recover from I have my eStops that assures me of what my maximum lost (and potental profits) will be at any time.

Dont settle for half the job it will cost you more if the system goes down for any reason.

all so you can rent server time and not worry about your system being on. but you still need the other protections coded in.


Keit

Thank you Keit

Regards

Kristjan

I have seen cases where an EA stops opening orders and the only unusual thing that happened was changing a parameter on the fly. But of course it doesn't happen consistently.

Along the lines of CC's thinking, you should ask how much extra it would cost to remove the clause from the NDA in order to provide the extra protection.

Well he asks almost the same price as for the EA itself for that extra protection feature but as I can understand it works on only half times only when the PC crashes and not when I myself closes the MT4 and then restart it for what ever reason I might want to do it.

Regards

Kristjan

That seems a little extreme, but he may have more insight than I do. Full restart/reset capability is not trivial, but not impossible either.

"Covering his ass" sounds like a bad thing phrased that way. Making sure all your bases are covered is just good business practice. Doing coding jobs for individuals can be especially risky.

It's better to say he's protecting his business, "covering his ass" makes it sound like he's ripping you off - I assume you've checked his references.

I don't know about MT4 but with Tradestation you can send OSO / OCO orders so that your system always has stop/limit on server side. That way you can shut your pc down, no worries. I think that's the smart way to do it and I'm sure MT4 must have the option.

Covering your ass has become such a commonly used term, it has lost most of its negative connotation. In its pejorative sense, it used to mean someone who is overly cautious. Most of the time its used now to refer to someone who takes reasonable care ie. not someone who blunders ahead without caution. That was the way I intended when I chose that term.

Anyway, terms involving business interests are just too corporate for my liking. This is a hobbyists' site after all.

Huge thank you for everybody who responded here your help is highly appreciated.

Regards

Kristjan