Hey guys,
Just want to throw something out there for discussion. Some of you may already know that I dabble in the murky world of EAs, basically designing my own and having them built by my gun Programmer. I have also played with the idea of using multiple EAs on the one pair at the same time as a way of hedging etc. Had mixed success with this concept as I have found it pretty difficult to keep tabs on at times as it tends to get a little confusing. I don't like confusing!
Now to my latest idea, which I am currently testing in demo mode only. Which I might add, is the smart thing to do. Instead of multiple EAs on the one pair, why not the same EA on the one pair, but use a number of different timeframes and also different settings on the EAs.
I'll try and explain it a little better so it makes a bit more sense. I do have an EA called JAGfx, which is basically a trend following EA that uses two technical indicators called MACD Platinum and QQE Adv. The default settings on these are 12,26,9 and 1,8,3. This EA also uses a Grid type sequence where it closes out groups of trades when a certain target is achieved and then commences a new group if the conditions are still valid. If the trend does go against me, then this EA will go into martingale mode, SO BE WARNED. It also hedges, and a higher leverage would be preferred mainly due to the high number of trades open at any one time.
My plan is to use the EUR/USD only, on the 1hr, 4hr and Daily charts.
All three timeframes will have a combination of 3x settings on the indicators:
1. 12,26,9 & 1,8,3
2. 18,39,13 & 2,12,5
3. 24,52,18 & 2,16,6
On the 1hr chart, I will be using a Grid size of 8 only, so therefore there will only be 3x 1hr charts running.
On the 4hr charts, I will be using Grid sizes of 8 & 16, so therefore there will be 6x 4hr charts running.
On the Daily charts, I will be using Grid sizes of 8, 16 & 24, so therefore there will be 9x Daily charts running.
Which will give me a total of 18x charts running at the same time on the EUR/USD. I have made sure that all of these EAs have a different Magic Number just to ensure my Broker can identify the individual trades and there is no conflict. I have also added my own coded description which will come up in the 'comments' tab of my Trading Terminal so I can easily see which chart is doing what.
This is obviously going to be a very crowded screen with 18x charts, and some may find it a bit of a drain on your computer resources, hence I have it set up on my VPS just to ensure smooth operation.
Now I guess the trick is that I am going to have lots of trades open at once, and this is where it gets tricky. Naturally if the trend is in my favour on whatever chart, then I can just ignore those charts and let them run, as they will just close out sequence after sequence of profitable trades. But if I am in trades that are going against the trend, then I may have to take some action. I could just let them run and hope that the market retraces enough to close out the sequence at profit, or I could look at the big picture, and just manually close out losing sequences, knowing that I have had more profit than losses overall. My options here are many, so it is hard for me to cover every type of scenario here. So you can probably guess by now that this is not a fully automatic trading system as it does require monitoring and manual management if deemed necessary (which would be the recommended way of doing it).
To give you an idea of how the Grids work, if I was using a Grid of 8 on a long, then when a trade is opened for 0.1 lot, there would be two further orders placed above this price and one below. The 1st order above would be at +8 pips for 0.2 lot, and the 2nd order above would be at +16 pips for 0.3 lot. The 3rd order would be -40 pips (8x5) below this price (to buy) for 0.2 lot. All trades would close out at +24. If the 1st order at +8 was filled, then that order at -40 would be cancelled and a new limit order to buy would be set at -40 from that +8 entry for 0.4 lots. It is a little confusing, but there is a pretty good explanation under 'Trading Ideas' on my website if you want to know more.
So that's the plan. Not sure if it will work or not. If you want to follow along, I have set up my demo account on MyFXbook which can be found at https://www.myfxbook.com/portfolio/jagfx-ea/539629
I also look forward to any other ideas or opinions from the members here. And before the martingale haters jump on board and nail me to the wall, don't waste your energy as I've heard it all before and I fully understand the risks involved. If you can't handle martingale or your have low leverage or can't hedge, then this method probably isn't for you. Cheers. Jim
Just want to throw something out there for discussion. Some of you may already know that I dabble in the murky world of EAs, basically designing my own and having them built by my gun Programmer. I have also played with the idea of using multiple EAs on the one pair at the same time as a way of hedging etc. Had mixed success with this concept as I have found it pretty difficult to keep tabs on at times as it tends to get a little confusing. I don't like confusing!
Now to my latest idea, which I am currently testing in demo mode only. Which I might add, is the smart thing to do. Instead of multiple EAs on the one pair, why not the same EA on the one pair, but use a number of different timeframes and also different settings on the EAs.
I'll try and explain it a little better so it makes a bit more sense. I do have an EA called JAGfx, which is basically a trend following EA that uses two technical indicators called MACD Platinum and QQE Adv. The default settings on these are 12,26,9 and 1,8,3. This EA also uses a Grid type sequence where it closes out groups of trades when a certain target is achieved and then commences a new group if the conditions are still valid. If the trend does go against me, then this EA will go into martingale mode, SO BE WARNED. It also hedges, and a higher leverage would be preferred mainly due to the high number of trades open at any one time.
My plan is to use the EUR/USD only, on the 1hr, 4hr and Daily charts.
All three timeframes will have a combination of 3x settings on the indicators:
1. 12,26,9 & 1,8,3
2. 18,39,13 & 2,12,5
3. 24,52,18 & 2,16,6
On the 1hr chart, I will be using a Grid size of 8 only, so therefore there will only be 3x 1hr charts running.
On the 4hr charts, I will be using Grid sizes of 8 & 16, so therefore there will be 6x 4hr charts running.
On the Daily charts, I will be using Grid sizes of 8, 16 & 24, so therefore there will be 9x Daily charts running.
Which will give me a total of 18x charts running at the same time on the EUR/USD. I have made sure that all of these EAs have a different Magic Number just to ensure my Broker can identify the individual trades and there is no conflict. I have also added my own coded description which will come up in the 'comments' tab of my Trading Terminal so I can easily see which chart is doing what.
This is obviously going to be a very crowded screen with 18x charts, and some may find it a bit of a drain on your computer resources, hence I have it set up on my VPS just to ensure smooth operation.
Now I guess the trick is that I am going to have lots of trades open at once, and this is where it gets tricky. Naturally if the trend is in my favour on whatever chart, then I can just ignore those charts and let them run, as they will just close out sequence after sequence of profitable trades. But if I am in trades that are going against the trend, then I may have to take some action. I could just let them run and hope that the market retraces enough to close out the sequence at profit, or I could look at the big picture, and just manually close out losing sequences, knowing that I have had more profit than losses overall. My options here are many, so it is hard for me to cover every type of scenario here. So you can probably guess by now that this is not a fully automatic trading system as it does require monitoring and manual management if deemed necessary (which would be the recommended way of doing it).
To give you an idea of how the Grids work, if I was using a Grid of 8 on a long, then when a trade is opened for 0.1 lot, there would be two further orders placed above this price and one below. The 1st order above would be at +8 pips for 0.2 lot, and the 2nd order above would be at +16 pips for 0.3 lot. The 3rd order would be -40 pips (8x5) below this price (to buy) for 0.2 lot. All trades would close out at +24. If the 1st order at +8 was filled, then that order at -40 would be cancelled and a new limit order to buy would be set at -40 from that +8 entry for 0.4 lots. It is a little confusing, but there is a pretty good explanation under 'Trading Ideas' on my website if you want to know more.
So that's the plan. Not sure if it will work or not. If you want to follow along, I have set up my demo account on MyFXbook which can be found at https://www.myfxbook.com/portfolio/jagfx-ea/539629
I also look forward to any other ideas or opinions from the members here. And before the martingale haters jump on board and nail me to the wall, don't waste your energy as I've heard it all before and I fully understand the risks involved. If you can't handle martingale or your have low leverage or can't hedge, then this method probably isn't for you. Cheers. Jim
JAGfx
