Building an equity millipede

Hello,

I would like to share with all you my Mayordomo EA. I created this EA for taking care of trades by setting the SL and moving it to BE when some pips reached in the green side. This EA also does partial close of the trades that move some pips into green side. I think the EA settings are self explanatory and I provide the code for anyone to review it.

My goal with this EA is to only concentrate on opening trades, the EA will take care of them to build a long millipede. Attach this EA to one chart only, it will manage all opened orders.

If you decide to give it a try, please go ahead but remember that this EA is still under testing and you will use it at your own risk.

My coding skills are yet to improve but if you have a feature request I'm open to hear your ideas for improvements.

Hoping you all like it

cheers
Aimak

Edit: since first posted I have done some minor changes translating comments. Sorry for this late change

Well, let's be careful about Canada
I live in Toronto, and last time I checked with FXCM's local sub (Friedburg) here, they told me that since Sep 2012, Canadian regulations do not allow them to offer more than 1:20 or 1:30 leverage !

Athar.

Respected pipEASY has given an''All encompassing trading methodology''. Any deviations is surely uncalled for and confusing. If any body wants otherwise can do so in a new thread of his own. Please take it in the good spirit. Kindest regards. Roy

I've been following the way that pipeasy has described for us for the last few weeks, and in that time I managed to recoup all losses from before. The knowledge of immense value to all the traders, new or experienced alike, that lays a clear path in front of you to alladin's cave and all you need to do is take the first step.

I've started trading on demo a couple of months ago, learned about many different strategies and, being and avid fan of "doing less with more", ventured into EA' land in search of holy grail that will do the work for me. What was written here by master pipeasy needs to be digested slowly, in small dozes, coming back and doing it, again and again. My next step would be taking his 3x20 pips profit exercise for the next six months and I'm wondering how others have went on achieving this.

To be honest, I tried twice, roughly for a month each time. Only to find that it requires too much time and is not rewarding enough for me to continue doing it. Yeah, I did have some success. However, is it really a success if you enter a sell based on specific pattern, expecting that the price will drop quickly, while in reality it ranges for three hours before finally hit your TP? So I cannot claim that it was a display of skill rather than sheer dice rolling to my favor.

Hi,

A lot has been written about the 20x3 exercise already, here are my thoughts:

The thing is, the 20x3 exercise tests much more than your ability to see setups on the chart: if you keep to it, it develops discipline, infinite patience and emotional strength against losses in the account, and these traits are crucial to any successful trader. The goal of the exercise is not to make you rich, but to develop your ability as a trader and the psychological traits.

I know most people in this thread gave it a shot for a few days maybe, or weeks, and then for various reasons like "it's boring", "too much work for too little profit", "I don't see the point" they gave up on the idea. Others, traded the 20x3 on demo whilst in a live account they traded their normal way, I think you have to be 100% committed to do just the 20x3 for a while if you are to extract the best results from it, such that you can have 100% focus on the task and feel the pain that comes with it, take it in, train to get used to it. Don't worry, 6 months in the whole picture is like a drop of water in the ocean ... think long term, 6 months out of 50 years of future trading, it is not a long time.

Some responses for various reasons to not do the 20x3 exercise:

"it's boring" - trading in general is boring if done right, in the sense that we repeat entering the same setups on and on. If it's not boring, you are doing it wrong... or you simply need to go out more ;-)

"too much work for too little profit" - if you do the exercise every day for at least 6 months, the value you will get out of it is priceless and it is hard to cover everything you would learn, but it includes training your believe to be able to go on. It is a painful exercise, so you definitely need to believe that it is going to help you in order to practice for at least 6 months. But it is the same with trading and very long term trading, after 100 losses on probes, you need to believe that at some point you will hit the jackpot and cover all your losses and triple your account in the process as well.

"I don't see the point" - and you are not going to see it unless you do the exercise every day for at least 6 months, because it is an individual journey of discovery... of self discovery.

It is less likely that my words will sway anyone who tried the exercise and "didn't like it", but hopefully some new traders will still give it a shot, but remember, with 20x3 you are not getting the rewards beforehand, you need to stick to it for a good 6 months.

Cheers,

Cam

Right on, cameron1st, you've hit the nail there, it's not so much about the immediate profits or ups and downs, but about the journey. If you've managed to consistently follow up and discipline yourself to the point that it becomes automatic, then you'll be well on your way of becoming a master trader. Because we do not control how or where the market moves, it becomes more of an artistic skill rather than purely rationalized act.

cameron1st, I'll have to disagree. Different people learn differently and with different speed. Some might need 6 months to gain the insights you mentioned, while others might get there in three weeks. IMO, the best way to develop discipline in trading and overcome the fear of loss in trading is to get at least a brief study in statistics and probabilities theory. Knowing that the specific outcome does not matter in the long run and that odds are in your favor simply eradicates any emotional impact from small losses. At the same time, the same knowledge also eliminates the "if I did like that, that loss wouldn't have happened/my profit would be so much more" way of thinking, which is probably the single most important reason why discipline is needed.

Just my two cents.

Let's think sports for a moment, say Football.

John has talent, no doubt about that but he's lazy, goes to bed too late, doesn't eat as he should etc.

Simon also has talent but is one dedicated mother. He goes to bed early, only ever drinks in the off-season and for the last month has worked, worked, worked on his left foot. He's normally first into training and last to leave. The work on his left foot was boring, tedious, slow, no instant results and cold (it's winter). He also feels that 1 month's work might not be enough so he's willing to do several if neeed be, perhaps even a year, same drills, same workouts, same boringness.

In sports it's you versus the man.

Many have the wrong belief in trading that it's you against the market. Wrong in my opinion. It's you against OTHER people. And just like sports it's the ones that put the time in that from a probability point of view stand the best chance. You see, when you make money the market doesn't pay you, some other (nameless) trader will. When you lose money it goes into the pocket of another trader, the market just facilitates the transfer.

The 3x20 exercise is no different from working with your (weak) left foot for long periods of time. Of course there are different ways you can spin the 3x20 but at the end of the day it probably has to be done for most people. And right now if you're net down in your trading career (or a small winner) perhaps the only reason is because you're not willing to put the work in...

Barb, yes that will help but only if you have a decent method of entry, that is the main point the 3x20 exercise attempts to teach people.

Yes, but how do you define a "decent" entry method? This board is full of topics starting from a post that basically says "hey guys, look at that chart, I marked the perfect entry". Sure, on that specific chart, which is never going to be replicated exactly in the same way ever again... So to evaluate an entry method, you need some statistics, one way or another. I'd like to raise another question as well - how good of an entry method you actually need? Obviously, the better the method, the smaller the losses, but what would make you judge a method acceptable for this long-term trading strategy?

One way is to put 6 months of work in via the 3x20 exercise.

If you can, work 8-12 hours a day following the 5m chart. Keep good records, go back after the day has finished to see where you went right and where you went wrong. Doing this you'll start to see some patters in both yourself and your ideas then try to do more of what's working and less of what's not.

For example, if you have a habit of trading breakouts but your results show you're a net loser over many trades, don't just stop taking breakouts, look to turn the method around, ie trade against the breakout.

This is the hard, laborious and often boring work that needs to be done -

 

1. Trade
2. Record results
3. Study results
4. Find useful insights in the data
5. Refine your trading via the useful insights
6. Repeat, everyday for 6 months

Then if you want bring in the stats and probabilities but for many there will be no need as that information will already be in their head via the countless hours of practice they've been doing.

It would be great to document the journey of this exercise via trade journal using trade explorer. any takers ???

I must admit, I did this exercise in demo back in 2010/11 which was not very helpfull. I transitioned gradually into live accout...with any SL or TP orders.

So we've agreed that you judge the quality of the method by its statistical performance. Now, would it be very different if you approach this from analytical instead of practical point of view? Because, let's face it, that's a full-time job you're talking here.

Hello everyone,
I strongly believe that Pipeasy's intention behind the 3x20 exercise was to get people to realize on their own that it was the wrong way to trade since it goes against the main message he was trying to convey to his readers throughout his posts, which is to let a winning trade grow to its maximum potential and cut a losing one short.
The first question I asked myself a couple a years ago was:
Why would somebody who spent a great deal of time and effort insisting on the importance of long tails ask his avid followers to do exactly the opposite and shoot for 1:1 R/R ? For six months?
Enlightenment is a key word in his suggestion and it comes at a price.
The 3x20 or TheRealthing's one-penny-profit experiment are both meant, as I see it, to teach the struggling trader (a few years of trading and nothing or very little to show for it) how not-to-trade rather than how to. Infinite yield needs to be the focus and one has to be very careful with what that means. It should not be taken literally.
Success, no matter the endeavor, is usually hard to measure when it's not clearly defined with preset reference points that show the progress along the way. Time-outs and reality checks should be made a priority and, as I suggested in a previous post, knowing when to be an accountant and when to be a trader is of extreme importance. One should never be both at the same time. Because the trading business usually starts out as a one person adventure, it is very easy to fall into that trap.

It might be of interest to some to do the following:

1- Use a detailed statement to identify all the trades taken while doing the 3x20 exercise and nothing else ( the 6-month duration would have been preferred but anything over two or three weeks is still usable.)

2- Calculate the Contribution Margin as follows:

CM = Total Realized Profit (TRP) - Total Realized Loss (TRL) (Not calling it “Profit” for a reason.)

3- Identify all the trades that made a profit but would have been still alive today if their life wasn't cut short through profit taking.

4- Calculate the Optimum Contribution Margin as follows:

OCM=Total Unrealized Profit (TUP) - Total Realized Loss (TRL)

5- Calculate OCM-CM : The odds are it is going to be a relatively high positive number but a relatively small negative one is not a mathematical impossibility.

6- Draw your own conclusions in the form of an essay analyzing the results and how that could be used as a confidence building tool for, as cameron1st puts it, the next fifty years.

This could reopen the door to a few interesting topics dear to Pipeasy that have been ignored as of late.
Cheers.

[quote=BizFx;6414917]Hello everyone,
I strongly believe that Pipeasy's intention behind the 3x20 exercise was to get people to realize on their own that it was the wrong way to trade since it goes against the main message he was trying to convey to his readers throughout his posts, which is to let a winning trade grow to its maximum potential and cut a losing one short.
The first question I asked myself a couple a years ago was:
Why would somebody who spent a great deal of time and effort insisting on the importance of long tails ask his avid followers to do exactly the ........


Mere thanking pipEASY is not enough,he has shown a way to profit in difficult FOREX market. As for me I would rather follow the master until I am enlightened! At the end of his stipulated 6 months of probation would want to go to the next level,i.e. start small live acct with his preferred broker. In the mean time my demo acct shows a very encouraging results(though it premature to conclude due to short time exercise),entered long E/J at 119.49,120.42.Also realize the fact I need to be heartless while trading his methodology.

That's a very valid point BizFx. Personally, I don't think you need to focus on entries that much. pipEasy even proposed the .00 entry, which is nowhere near optimal, but can still work. The quality of the entries lowers the cost of establishing a position, but that's all it does.

Not me personally. I would judge my method by how confident I am with it and I could only get that confidence by living with it everyday for long periods of time. The trouble as I see it with relying on stats before you live and breathe your trading strategy is that it's just a bit of paper with a load of figures and probabilities on it. For me that would offer no confidence (although the figures might be correct) so in order to get the all-important confidence in both myself and my method I'm going to have to trade everyday for a long period of time. So whatever way it's spun you have to put the time in...

Yes. And from a probabilities point of view part time traders who don't put the time in to learn their craft are no match for professional traders who have put the study/practice time in and are trading every day. No different from sports, part timers are no match for professionals over the length of a season. However, the part timers might win a game here and there.

To be honest entries don't really matter in this method in terms of success rates I.E percent chance to break even, IMO what is important is logical entries, ones that have a good chance of surviving. You will find these at apexes or Flying Buddha at they are called here, but in simple terms pull backs against the trend. Compressed areas of price are another, or stairsteps/flags whatever, what happens is when price does fly out of these zones eventually they create very strong supply/demand zones that often when revisited get bounced of again so your initial position surives, I will stress DO NOT move your stop to BE here just take of half at 1:1 then your remainder has a much better chance of surviving and the risk is still coverd. In the first few posts G ever made he talked about "chance to survive".

Lets be honest if you are doing the 3x20 thing on a pair and getting a win rate of 65% plus at 1:1RR with a sample size in the thousands & yes this is what is needed to prove a win rate with such and edge, then there is no point in even trading long tails, just scale up to more pairs start getting a decent amount of frequency (trades per day) and keep compounding your returns untill liquidity is an issue. The fact is I don't really know of anyone who can get a 65% 1:1 Winrate day in day out on lower time frames with any amount of frequency. On high timeframes maybe but then you would struggle to beat the ROI you can get with longtails, even if your profit factor is higher your low frequency effects your returns. Its like people who play poker (my bread and butter money btw) and just play premium hands AA,KK,QQ AK etc (very 2003 but I'm making a point) they don't realise they are losing money by folding hands that may not be as good but still will make a profit if played.

Anyway I have gone off on a tangent, but long story short find some good logical entries that YOU understand and understand why they make sense then just trade and hold, I have made the usual mistake of reading this thread over the years and still moved on trying to find a better "grail" and yet here I am still lurking 2 years later working on my millipede method, just hoping I really do "get it" this time

One thing I will say position building/stacking and managing positions does take effort and time, and please don't get too hung up on how razor sharp an entry needs to be, just probe and stack probe and stack.