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Straddle trading EA

  • #981
  • Feb 18, 2014 2:49am Feb 18, 2014 2:49am
used this EA for first time live on AUD/Usd in the morning, Traded with a smaller lot of 0.2 and small tp of 10 pips.
Worked amazingly better than my previous EA.
Thumps up for coder (y)
I am not getting one thing, When one order is executed the other one automatically got cancelled ? I have made OCO in the settings to false already?
Stwan time is also set to 15 secs but order got cancelled exact at the hitting of opposite order.
I dont want it to get cancelled because sometimes market move up hits buy order than stop loss then hits sell stop and tp of sell stop so compensation of previous loss and some profit can be made.
Any help on this?
I am not random, U just can't think as fast as me....
  • #982
  • Feb 18, 2014 2:49am Feb 18, 2014 2:49am
Quoting Pjt
{quote} Actually Alan, I would love this please! It looks like great software but I'm not into trading news. I am looking for a straddle tool that has many of the features you include in your AmazingEA. So if there is a configuration that would make it useful for trading any non-news straddle situation that would be very interesting. Thanks. Peter
Hi Pjt, There are a few posts about setting it up for breakout. Post 613 and Post 445. But here is the gist:-

Let's say you want to catch London open at 7am GMT and want to set your Buy StopSell Stop orders as bracket orders around the 6 hr range before London open. Assuming the brokers times are GMT. If the orders are not triggered within 1 hour delete them. The items in bold must be set, the other can be whatever you prefer. Assuming you are using a H1 chart.....


PointsAway=0
PointsGap=0
ModifyGap=0
TP=1000
SL=100
NYear=0
NMonth=0
NDay=0
NHour=7
NMin=0
NSec=0
CTCBN=6
SecBPO=10
SecBAO=10
SecBMO=0
STWAN=3600
OCO=1
BEPoints=0
BEOffset=0
TrailPoints=0
TrailOffset=0
TrailImmediate=0
MM=0
RiskPercent=2.5
Lots=0.10000000
MaxSpread=60
AddSpreadToSL=1
SlipCheck=0
MaxSlippage=200
AllowBuys=1
AllowSells=1
UseBrokerTime=1
TradeLog=AmazingEA

You can trade in a particular direction by setting AllowBuys and AllowSells..... Hope that helps, but try it on demo first.

Alan
  • #983
  • Feb 18, 2014 2:57am Feb 18, 2014 2:57am
Alan can u explain the working behind MM ?
what is the criteria you used for calculating it like it is based on 2.5 percent of equity?
mean if i have a stop loss of 10 pips + spread of 3 pips means net stop loss at 13 pips then it takes into account only 10 pips for determining lot size
or 13 pips?
Plus how it manage pairs with different tick sizes/pip value ?
I am not random, U just can't think as fast as me....
  • #984
  • Feb 18, 2014 3:24am Feb 18, 2014 3:24am
Quoting thinkpad123
used this EA for first time live on AUD/Usd in the morning, Traded with a smaller lot of 0.2 and small tp of 10 pips. Worked amazingly better than my previous EA. Thumps up for coder (y) I am not getting one thing, When one order is executed the other one automatically got cancelled ? I have made OCO in the settings to false already? Stwan time is also set to 15 secs but order got cancelled exact at the hitting of opposite order. I dont want it to get cancelled because sometimes market move up hits buy order than stop loss then hits sell stop and...
OCO definitely works, but times can be a little off from Brokers so 15 seconds could have turned into 5 ...... Or if you have UseBrokerTime=false, you must use something like timsynctool to set your clock.....
  • #985
  • Feb 18, 2014 3:46am Feb 18, 2014 3:46am
Quoting thinkpad123
Alan can u explain the working behind MM ? what is the criteria you used for calculating it like it is based on 2.5 percent of equity? mean if i have a stop loss of 10 pips + spread of 3 pips means net stop loss at 13 pips then it takes into account only 10 pips for determining lot size or 13 pips? Plus how it manage pairs with different tick sizes/pip value ?
MM works off the
Free Margin * Risk Percent divided by SL
There is also another setting AddSpreadToSL which will include the MaxSpread if set.
So the formula if you use AddSpreadToSL is
Free Margin * Risk Percent divided by (SL+MaxSpread)

If you choose not to set MaxSpread it will be 0.....and the same as the previous setting.
The reason I don't use the actual spread is that the trade could be setup assuming a low spread and the spread could widen suddenly which blow your risk sky high !

For those that don't know, MaxSpread cancels your orders and waits 5 seconds if the spread exceeds this setting. If the spread drops and there is time left, new orders are entered.
  • #986
  • Feb 18, 2014 6:31am Feb 18, 2014 6:31am
Quoting Alan111S
{quote} Hi Pjt, There are a few posts about setting it up for breakout. Post 613 and Post 445. But here is the gist:- ..... Hope that helps, but try it on demo first. Alan
Thanks very much Alan, much appreciated.

Peter
Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning!
  • #987
  • Feb 18, 2014 12:00pm Feb 18, 2014 12:00pm
Hello,

I have a problem, each time I use Amazingea 4.2, the expert write line on the account history, but doesn't take order, as you can see in the screen copy.
In France, the GBP news was at 10:30 (11:30 on MT4), we can see that the expert add lines,

This is my parameters : PointsAway=40
PointsGap=2000
ModifyGap=10
TP=60
SL=30
NYear=2014
NMonth=2
NDay=18
NHour=10
NMin=30
NSec=0
CTCBN=2
SecBPO=45
SecBAO=5
SecBMO=3
STWAN=5
OCO=1
BEPoints=0
BEOffset=0
TrailPoints=0
TrailOffset=0
TrailImmediate=0
MM=0
RiskPercent=2.50000000
Lots=10.00000000
MaxSpread=0
AddSpreadToSL=0
SlipCheck=0
MaxSlippage=200
AllowBuys=1
AllowSells=1
UseBrokerTime=0
TradeLog=AmazingEA

With this parameters, I trade only on big news like NFP, FOMC, with 10 lots and for 6 pips of profit.

Is something wrong ? Could you correct me ?

Thanks a lot
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Capture.JPG Size: 46 KB
  • #988
  • Feb 18, 2014 6:35pm Feb 18, 2014 6:35pm
Quoting Tutela
Hello, I have a problem, each time I use Amazingea 4.2, the expert write line on the account history, but doesn't take order, as you can see in the screen copy. In France, the GBP news was at 10:30 (11:30 on MT4), we can see that the expert add lines, This is my parameters : PointsAway=40 PointsGap=2000 ModifyGap=10 TP=60 SL=30 NYear=2014 NMonth=2 NDay=18 NHour=10 NMin=30 NSec=0 CTCBN=2 SecBPO=45 SecBAO=5 SecBMO=3 STWAN=5 OCO=1 BEPoints=0 BEOffset=0 TrailPoints=0 TrailOffset=0 TrailImmediate=0 MM=0 RiskPercent=2.50000000 Lots=10.00000000 MaxSpread=0...
Hi Tutela

Your parameters look OK but I don't understand why your params say 10 lots but the image has 11 ?

I can't explain what has happened without all 3 logfiles. Please zip them and upload them here. To find the logfiles use this extract from the Amazing EA TroubleShooter.txt

12) To install the EA and view the logfiles, from Build 600 onwards, within MT4 you choose 'File, Open Data Directory'. Windows explorer will open with the current directory set to where all your MT4 data directories and logfiles are. In these instructions, I am going to refer to this directory as <MT4>. The first time you run Build 600, it copies the contents of the <MT4>\experts directory into <MT4>\MQL4 subdirectory. After that the experts directory isn't used and can be deleted, but the MQL4 one is used instead. To install the EA, copy the AmazingEA.mq4 file into the <MT4>\MQL4\Experts folder.
13) The Data directories that were under the Program Files area where you installed MT4 are no longer used at all.
14) Check the 3 logfiles. The standard name is AmazingEA followed by the Currency Pair of the Chart, so for EURUSD it will be called 'AmazingEA-EURUSD.log'. From Build 600 onwards, you will find this file in the <MT4>\MQL4\Files folder of your MT4 platform, with detailed explanations what took place while EA was running. There are 2 other logfiles named YYYYMMDD.log where YYYYMMDD is the current date e.g. 20130507.log. These are located in <MT4>\MQL4\Logs and <MT4>\logs.
  • #989
  • Feb 21, 2014 10:30am Feb 21, 2014 10:30am
Hello Alan111S

In attachment, you'll find the files. I hope I've understand what you want.

For 10 lots, or 11 lots, I've just copy and I've made a mistake, it's 11 lots of course like the trade tab.

On logs, you'll see another expert aewt18, that I found on a forum in France. I think it's the same as amazingea but older.
This expert (on test for me), takes order without problem.

Only amazingea, don't take order.

Thanks for you help
Attached File(s)
File Type: zip 20140218.zip   3 KB | 385 downloads
  • #990
  • Feb 21, 2014 4:43pm Feb 21, 2014 4:43pm
Quoting Tutela
Hello Alan111S In attachment, you'll find the files. I hope I've understand what you want. For 10 lots, or 11 lots, I've just copy and I've made a mistake, it's 11 lots of course like the trade tab. On logs, you'll see another expert aewt18, that I found on a forum in France. I think it's the same as amazingea but older. This expert (on test for me), takes order without problem. Only amazingea, don't take order. Thanks for you help {file}
I checked your logs. The timing settings are:

SecBPO=45
SecBAO=5
SecBMO=3
STWAN=5

This means place orders 45 seconds, move them into position 5 seconds before, stop modifying them 3 seconds before and delete them 5 seconds afterwards.
A possible problem is that this only allows 2 seconds to get the orders in place - I would say 3-4 seconds is safer.
So from the following extract from your logs you can see that it has done that. There is usually a 1-2 second delay between the EA timing and MT4 reacting.

10:29:17 AmazingEA GBPUSD,M1: open #3083296 buy stop 11.00 GBPUSD at 1.68960 sl: 1.68930 tp: 1.69020 ok
10:29:17 AmazingEA GBPUSD,M1: open #3083297 sell stop 11.00 GBPUSD at 1.64788 sl: 1.64818 tp: 1.64728 ok
10:29:56 AmazingEA GBPUSD,M1: modify #3083297 sell stop 11.00 GBPUSD at 1.66783 sl: 1.66813 tp: 1.66723 ok
10:29:56 AmazingEA GBPUSD,M1: modify #3083296 buy stop 11.00 GBPUSD at 1.66960 sl: 1.66930 tp: 1.67020 ok
10:30:06 AmazingEA GBPUSD,M1: delete #3083297 sell stop 11.00 GBPUSD at 1.66783 sl: 1.66813 tp: 1.66723 ok
10:30:06 AmazingEA GBPUSD,M1: delete #3083296 buy stop 11.00 GBPUSD at 1.66960 sl: 1.66930 tp: 1.67020 ok

The problem is you have UseBrokerTime=0 (or False) which means that the EA is using your PC Time. The older Amazing 1.8 which is what your other EA is based on only uses Broker Time.

So in the case of GBPUSD the other log is showing me:-

2014.02.18 11:29:04 Amazing Forex System Expert Advisor v 4.2.0 By Alan Prothero
2014.02.18 11:29:04 Opening BuyStop @ 1.68960, OrdersCondition=0
2014.02.18 11:29:04 OpenBuyStop, OrderSend Executed, ticket=3083296
2014.02.18 11:29:04 Opening SellStop @ 1.64788, OrdersCondition=0
2014.02.18 11:29:05 OpenSellStop, OrderSend Executed, ticket=3083297
2014.02.18 11:29:44 Modifying Orders, OrdersCondition=11
2014.02.18 11:29:44 Sell Stop was @ 1.64788, changed to 1.66783
2014.02.18 11:29:44 Buy Stop was @ 1.68960, changed to 1.66960
2014.02.18 11:29:44 Modifying Orders, OrdersCondition=11
2014.02.18 11:29:54 Deleting BuyStop and SellStop because STWAN expired, OrdersCondition=11

The brokers time is 10 seconds earlier (your PC clock is 10 seconds late) which means the orders have already been deleted 5 seconds before the news came out.

The simple fix is to change UseBrokerTime=1 (or True) or to install http://www.timesynctool.com/ which keeps your PC time very accurate

http://www.timesynctool.com/nettime.png

Regards

Alan
  • #991
  • Feb 21, 2014 5:44pm Feb 21, 2014 5:44pm
Quoting Alan111S
I checked your logs. The timing settings are: SecBPO=45 SecBAO=5 SecBMO=3 STWAN=5 This means place orders 45 seconds, move them into position 5 seconds before, stop modifying them 3 seconds before and delete them 5 seconds afterwards. A possible problem is that this only allows 2 seconds to get the orders in place - I would say 3-4 seconds is safer. So from the following extract from your logs you can see that it has done that. There is usually a 1-2 second delay between the EA timing and MT4 reacting. 10:29:17 AmazingEA GBPUSD,M1: open...
Thanks Alan,

I'll check on Monday.
I'm afraid that my broker (Saxobanq) was not compatible.

Just one thing, is it possible to backtest amazingea with mt4 backtest ?

Thanks for all, and have good WE
  • #992
  • Feb 22, 2014 1:11am Feb 22, 2014 1:11am
Hi Alan111S,

Thanks for your reply and explanation on previous post. I've done the 99.9% BT on several currency pairs and was managed to tune a better settings for some of the pair to trade on news. Unfortunately I'm having x2 losses trade on 21-Feb-2014, both the GBP Retail Sales and CAD CPI at night. Both trade were found a big Spike about 30 pips. When I done via the 99.9% BT with my setting, both trade I earned some pips even though the market spike and went to different direction at the end. I suspect that the SL did not move to the BreakEven point during my live trading but in the BT environment the SL was actually moved to the BE point. Brief about my setting is when the market move 2 pips and above of my BE, SL will move to protect 1 pip away from the BE.
Just wonder that why the SL did not move since both trade I've tested in 99.9% BT environment and both SL are moving, but in real live trading it is not moving?
Below is my setting and the log file (attached) retrieved from that trading day, hope you can help me to clarify is it the broker problem or my setting actually went wrong

PointsAway=100
PointsGap=2000
ModifyGap=10
TP=1000
SL=100
NYear=2014
NMonth=2
NDay=21
NHour=15
NMin=30
NSec=0
CTCBN=1
SecBPO=20
SecBAO=5
SecBMO=1
STWAN=70
OCO=1
BEPoints=100
BEOffset=1
TrailPoints=50
TrailOffset=2
TrailImmediate=0
MM=0
RiskPercent=2.50000000
Lots=0.50000000
MaxSpread=0
AddSpreadToSL=1
SlipCheck=0
MaxSlippage=200
AllowBuys=1
AllowSells=1
UseBrokerTime=1
TradeLog=
Attached File(s)
File Type: zip 20140221.zip   1 KB | 366 downloads
  • #993
  • Feb 23, 2014 8:28am Feb 23, 2014 8:28am
Hello all, Initially I would like to thank all contributors in this thread and specially the coders.

I have one question, that probably Alan111S could answer, anyone else also well come. If the order will be hit before the time we set up, would the trade be cancelled and open a new order or will keep it open and trade it?

I used to use an older version I think was AmazingEA 1.1.7 , that one would cancel the trades and place new trades, if they were hit early. However, I think that the settings the current EA has are significantly better.

The reason I ask is that I try to use this EA to trade morning opening as well as news. To this respect I have some additional ideas about some settings that might help achieve trading safer and more profitable.

1. Open trade at the beginning of the next new candle. I think this can be a safe option for some news as Price action can be extremely volatile if you trade at 1M or 5M sometimes might be better to wait some minutes. Also, if trade morning breakouts, you can save some false signals if the candle retraces in a 15M or even 30M.

2. Amazing EA to be able to open multiple i.e. up to 3 trades, instead of just one. BUT, all these trades must have different TP and Trailng Stop and even Lot size. The reason behind it is that lets say the spike is only 15 pips, with a trailing is 10 pips so you make something around 5 pips. If have 3 trades with 5, 7, 10 pips TP, from this small spike we can make 21 pips!

3. AmazingEA to be able to trade multiple Events, up to 3 for one currency. This mean that we have to add all Time Information for up to three different events in a day in order to fully trade the spikes in a single currency.

It is really down to what strategy you use or most Importantly what news you are going to trade, however if we assume that each news spikes just 15- 20 pips (Include 3 and 2 stars news) and we can capture safely this number of pips between 1-3 times in a day in each currency, I believe the odds are in our favor.

I currently trade live and demo this EA in different brokers and settings so to test the slippage and spreads. Feel free to add your comments and If you believe these are settings that could be a help as well. Any addition that you believe can be useful, would be much appreciated if a coder can add it on.

Have a good day and a fulfilling week.
  • #994
  • Feb 24, 2014 5:11am Feb 24, 2014 5:11am
Dondouk, if your stop order is hit early, the EA will open another one. I have thought about changing this but in some cases the inevitable loss might be saved by a good trade afterwards so I have left it.

The EA can also handle multiple trades even on the same currency pair. The rule is you have to set a slightly different news time (even by 1 second) to use on the same pair. Different pairs can use exactly the same news time.

I never bothered putting TP1, TP2 TP3 etc because with slippage TP becomes fairly meaningless anyway. For example if you want to grab 20 pips but you are slipped 15, you get 5 pips but how annoying if the deviation is large and the trade goes on for another 10-15 pips above TP. However , you can setup multiple trades as described above with varying TP if you really want.

Alan
  • #995
  • Feb 27, 2014 2:51pm Feb 27, 2014 2:51pm
Hello,

I'm completly lost.

I've some difficulty to adapt my strategy on the expert.

I work with time line : 12 seconds as you can see on the graph.

Before the news, I draw a range with 8 pips of height. Before the news, the market are quiet.
This range is centered on the current price. For exampl, if the price is 1,3412, I have my range with 1,3416 and 1,3408.
This range is normally corresponds to stop if offered, and stop if bid.

The target is set with 10 pips, in this example, it will be 1,3426 and 1,3398

When the news explodes, I would like to take profit à 10 pips.

Could you give how can I set amazingea to be as close as possible of my strategY

It's really hard for me to understand some parameters like pointaway or secbao...

Do you think It's possible to use 12 seconds instead of (or adapt) M1 on MT4

This is my parameters, and each time I loose money :

PointsAway=40
PointsGap=2000
ModifyGap=10
TP=100
SL=30
NYear=2014
NMonth=2
NDay=18
NHour=8
NMin=30
NSec=0
CTCBN=2
SecBPO=45
SecBAO=5
SecBMO=3
STWAN=5
OCO=1
BEPoints=0
BEOffset=0
TrailPoints=0
TrailOffset=0
TrailImmediate=0
MM=0
RiskPercent=2.50000000
Lots=10.00000000
MaxSpread=0
AddSpreadToSL=0
SlipCheck=0
MaxSlippage=200
AllowBuys=1
AllowSells=1
UseBrokerTime=1
TradeLog=AmazingEA

Thanks for you help, and sorry for my english.
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: pro.jpg Size: 82 KB
  • #996
  • Feb 27, 2014 4:49pm Feb 27, 2014 4:49pm
Quoting Tutela
Hello, I'm completly lost. I've some difficulty to adapt my strategy on the expert. I work with time line : 12 seconds as you can see on the graph. Before the news, I draw a range with 8 pips of height. Before the news, the market are quiet. This range is centered on the current price. For exampl, if the price is 1,3412, I have my range with 1,3416 and 1,3408. This range is normally corresponds to stop if offered, and stop if bid. The target is set with 10 pips, in this example, it will be 1,3426 and 1,3398 When the news explodes, I would like to...
Tutela

For a start, most of your parameters are fine. If SecBAO is 5, then SecBMO needs to be 0 to allow 5 seconds for the orders to be put in place. At the moment, there is only 2 seconds which is a bit short. It is not possible to change to 12 second candles because it isn't available in MT4, so CTCBN=2 should be reduced to CTCBN=1, which means it takes the high and the low from the last minute before the news then adds 4 pips for Pointsaway=40. I would say that with Pointsaway as low as 40, on news with high volatility, your orders may go live early. and with 10 lots, you are highly likely to get slippage. If you get slipped more than 10 pips, your TP of 10 pips becomes an instant Stop Loss and your trade will be stopped out for a loss.

Do you know how your broker is with slippage?
  • #997
  • Feb 28, 2014 7:10am Feb 28, 2014 7:10am
Quoting Alan111S
{quote} Tutela For a start, most of your parameters are fine. If SecBAO is 5, then SecBMO needs to be 0 to allow 5 seconds for the orders to be put in place. At the moment, there is only 2 seconds which is a bit short. It is not possible to change to 12 second candles because it isn't available in MT4, so CTCBN=2 should be reduced to CTCBN=1, which means it takes the high and the low from the last minute before the news then adds 4 pips for Pointsaway=40. I would say that with Pointsaway as low as 40, on news with high volatility, your orders may...
Hello Alan,

Thanks for your answer.

I have observed that my broker has about no slippage.

The problem with the amazing is that with my bad french, I don't reallu understand what's PointsAway, PointsGap, and SecBAO.
If someone who speaks french could translate, It will great for me.

Thanks a lot
  • #998
  • Mar 4, 2014 6:03pm Mar 4, 2014 6:03pm
Hello Alan,

Great EA have been using it for the several weeks with promising results...I looked forward to strategy testing so I could tweak the settings.

2 of the brokers whom I have accounts recently updated to MT4 build 619. I have noticed that since that time my strategy tester does not work with any EA on either platform. Your EA and others work fine on a live charts and demo charts.

I have racked my brain on the internet looking for a fix, have followed your instructions as per post 988, reloaded history center, put a copy of history file in MQL4 file, increased maximum # of bars on chart, but I still get that dreaded instant squeak sound no matter what pair, date, timeframe, spread I use...

Any light you could shed on the matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!
  • #999
  • Mar 4, 2014 6:13pm Mar 4, 2014 6:13pm
Quoting Wigglesworth
Hello Alan, Great EA have been using it for the several weeks with promising results...I looked forward to strategy testing so I could tweak the settings. 2 of the brokers whom I have accounts recently updated to MT4 build 619. I have noticed that since that time my strategy tester does not work with any EA on either platform. Your EA and others work fine on a live charts and demo charts. I have racked my brain on the internet looking for a fix, have followed your instructions as per post 988, reloaded history center, put a copy of history file...
Hey

Quote
with promising results
sounds like you are back testing ......I wouldn't bother. Personally, I have never back tested it either. Back testing this EA has no bearing on reality. Even forward testing using demo won't reflect real results. It's fine to use Demo to get used to all the settings and learn how to use it, but the only results that are reliable are forward tested live ones. Sorry to be blunt, but it's a waste of time.

I would also ensure that your broker has a large liquidity pool that doesn't dry up at news time.
  • #1,000
  • Mar 4, 2014 6:57pm Mar 4, 2014 6:57pm
Quoting Alan111S
{quote} Hey {quote} sounds like you are back testing ......I wouldn't bother. Personally, I have never back tested it either. Back testing this EA has no bearing on reality. Even forward testing using demo won't reflect real results. It's fine to use Demo to get used to all the settings and learn how to use it, but the only results that are reliable are forward tested live ones. Sorry to be blunt, but it's a waste of time. I would also ensure that your broker has a large liquidity pool that doesn't dry up at news time.
Hey Alan,

Thanks for the response..Yes I agree with your thoughts and I don't back test for results but to rather quickly learn the nuances of the EA...Your EA has various settings and I find that they can be tested more quickly with a sped up strategy tester, accuracy notwithstanding. Kinda like driving a Ferrari in a parking lot..It may not prepare you for the highway, but at least you get to figure out how the clutch, shifter and other goodies work..Also good points on the broker as well.
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