Multiple trades in one direction with profit target

Hello Jim,
Great to see that you are continue to make progress towards the mystical "Holy Grail"
Keep Safe.
Ronald

Hey Ronald,

How goes it? Yes still trying but now having some decent success, but I wouldn't be silly enough to think that the holy grail is out there. But I will explain some of my thoughts when it comes to forex trading. Anyone that has seen any of my threads in this forum will know that I tend to look for slightly obscure ways to trade. I don't subscribe to what most traders would consider the norm ie using stops, risk reward ratios, support resistance etc. All good in theory but not suited to everyone. I'm not saying I am silly about the way I trade, but most would find it slightly left field.

I love my trading robots but I don't rely on them totally. I love trading forex but I don't want to sit in front of my trading screen all day either. The reason we trade forex is to make money. The reason we want to make money is to improve our lifestyle. I also trade forex to give me time, hence my love of robots. Going around in circles here it appears. Most of you know I basically use the same two custom MT4 indicators for most of my trading, that being the MACD Platinum and the QQE Adv. Throw in a LMA and I have more than enough to trade. I ignore news, Fib levels, Pivots, Support/Resistence, Overbought, Oversold, round numbers, candlestick patterns, divergence, moon phases etc. I keep it pretty simple, normally trading off a small time frame in the same direction as a larger time frame. I will take multiple trades, stacking these trades and then using a spreadsheet that I have already shared here, work out an overall position and then manage those trades as a whole.

I use the robots for entry only. They also give me the option of setting emergency stops, or outrageous profit targets, just in case I can't get to the computer for a day or so. As I run several live accounts and can't afford to have any down time, they are all run on a VPS. Small monthly expense but certainly worth it. I also use a trade copier so all the charts are only set up on the one platform, so it saves some hassle setting them all up. Money management is also controlled by the trade copier, whic is handy if you want to close all trades out when your account reaches a certain balance, so it can start all over again. I also have a desktop up that runs a mirror demo account with all my charts and my spreadsheets. I do trade multiple pairs on multiple timeframes so have a lot happening at once. I tend to trade the more volatile pairs also. Again refer to the picture I posted earlier in this thread.

The trading works on the EA opening the required trades on the parameters I have set. So I have no say in this and just let the EAs do their thing. Once trades are open (which is all of the time), I'll update my spreadsheets and keep a very close eye on my margin requirements. All my accounts are set up for hedging, so no problems being long and short at the same time on the same pair, which does help with margin issues. I do keep an eye on overnight interest rates also, as they can rack up pretty quick when you have a large number of trades going the same way, for example if you were long EUR/AUD. Not too bad if you were short though. So a few times during the day I will check the trades and make any necessary adjustments. This may include closing out any baskets of trades that I think are getting out of hand or turning ugly, or it may involve removing an EA and setting hard stops to lock in profit etc. Normally takes me about 15 mins, so I can then go and do things I enjoy.

I tend to keep my position size very small but keep in mind I do use an EA that does increase position size on each new trade opened based on the initial position size. Something I do have to keep an eye on. Having said that, I have another EA that does trade a tad more traditionally, and I even keep that pretty small. It is strictly a numbers game for me, looking to win way more than I lose. Just like any trading I guess. This style of trading does take a little bit getting use to as the majority of the time, your account will be in drawdown which would make some traders very nervous. I have no issues if the profits are constantly ticking over and I am in control of my margin and things aren't getting out of hand. Something I am trying to teach my son at the moment as he always questions why his account is constantly in the negative, even though his account balance is slowly increasing.

This style of trading is not for everyone. Some traders are quite happy to sit there watching the EUR/USD 1hr chart all night and just taking individual trades on whatever trading method they use. Fair enough. If it works for you, then that's cool. If it isn't working or you are getting the same crappy results, then it may be time for a change. Might be time to do what every one else is not doing. Just my opinion.

As I'm at a public computer at the moment, I haven't got access to my files. I will though attach some of my indicators, tools and EAs to a future post if anyone is interested. Keep in mind that these beasts were all designed for my private use so they aren't pretty compared to some of those comercially available. Cheers. Jim

Always nice to see your posts.

I need to go through my settings on smsf. I had it set to open the first trade with .10, I noticed later that I had auto lots set to true. My open positions were 1.05 and .94 Dumb mistake on my part. No harm done and not much drawdown on my demo but this is why we test. I feel like a complete newbie again. lol

Thanks Mike for the kind comments. I really need to do up some sort of manual for my EAs and Custom Indicators for when I do share them. I guess as they are built for me I know what they are supposed to do, so it is pretty easy for me to understand what's going on. As you stated, lucky it was on a demo. We all make mistakes like buy when we should be selling or trading 20 lots instead of 2 lots - things I have done on live accounts. Cheers.

LOL Glad I wasn't the only one to make a lot size mistake. I didn't check my order ticket on mt4 and made a hasty limit order. Only to check hours later and find a rather large profit. Thank God right?

I for one would appreciate a pdf or even an instructional video-just pretend you are talking to children, so you don't lose me. lol

Have a great weekend! I'm going to do some snorkeling and the in laws are coming to visit.

Cheers,
Mike

Hi Jim,
Good to hear from you.
You are putting the hard work and I am sure that further down the track it will pay dividends for you.I will continue to follow your research and wish you great success mate.
Best wishes from cold Melbourne...No shorts here....Perhaps we should be over in calderones part of the world.
Ronald

Thanks Ronald. It certainly isn't shorts weather at the moment. Maybe during the day but certainly not when the sun goes down.

Attached are the main custom indicators I use for all of my trading. The MACD Platinum and the QQE Adv.
I have also attached a couple of visual aiding custom indicators. The QQE & MACD Dual Signal which will put red and green arrows on your chart based on a confirmed cross of the two indicators. Just helps clearly see the cross without lining the actual indicators up. You can put this indicator on your chart only and not worry about actually putting the two main indicators below the chart. The other indicator is called the QMP Filter. Again this is just a visual aid and is a little limiting. If you put this on a 60 min chart, you can then elect to have a higher time frame as a filter, say for example the daily chart (1440), and this indicator will show the 60 min crosses by red or green dots and also put arrows on your chart showing the same crosses on the daily. The only problem is that you are stuck with the same settings on each time frame. Just saves you looking at two separate charts. Told you I'm lazy...
Then we have the two different EAs I use attached. The FX1363 and SMSF. Both are the latest versions I have. I haven't got any instructions on what all the inputs are, but feel free to ask or PM me if you need further info. I may do up a basic manual for all of these one day, but don't hold your breath. Be warned with FX1363 as the default settings will increase position size the more trades you take. You can modify this so every trade is the same, or even go smaller etc.
Good luck with all of this and make sure you demo any of them first to get a feel for it. I don't think I should have to give a disclaimer here but be warned, Forex Trading is risky and you can lose money. Have fun and be sure to let me know if you have any success with any of these. Cheers. Jim.

I have now managed to make up a pretty basic word doc that could be considered a User Manual for the above mentioned SMSF 1.01 EA. Keep in mind that this is a private EA that was never intended to be sold, so please don't complain about the quality of the Manual. It is basic and I know it. Cheers. Jim

Okay, now going back to Post #1 and that trading idea. After much communication with my gun Programmer, plus she always seems to be on holidays, we have come up with a pretty decent version of the FX1363 EA. Things have certainly changed since version 1.00 posted above. This version has a few more bells and whistles and can achieve a lot more. Be warned though, this type of EA can blow up an account. I can't stress this enough. Use smart money management and a decent account size and you should be okay. If you are an idiot and greed takes over, then you will suffer the consequences. You have been warned so please don't complain if you lose money because of this. Demo this EA first so you understand exactly how it works.

Even though there is no instruction manual for this EA as yet, I can give you a few pointers on it's use. I do suggest you read Post #1 above just to get an idea of what I am thinking about here. I tend to trade off a smaller time frame and use a larger time frame as a filter, so basically trading with a major trend. I have foud putting the EA on the 30m or 1hr chart works well and then using the Daily chart, which is 1440m as a filter. I also like using the 40 LMA (3) as another filter. I use the same two custom MT4 indicators for everything, which are the MACD Platinum and the QQE Adv, which can also be downloaded above.

This EA trades in cycles and each cycle is dictated by either a profit target or a set trailing stop. Once one cycle closes out, a new one will begin if this is what you have selected to do. The input MaxCycles refers to this. I tend to just put '2' in here and I'll explain why in a sec. The next 2 inputs go hand in hand with this as they are 'FirstLot' and 'SubsequentFirstLot'. The way I look at it, once we get a new signal on the higher time frame ie Daily chart, then this is when you should load up your trade on the smaller time frame ie the 30m chart as I believe you would have the best chance of success here. So for example you may elect to use 0.5 as your FirstLot, so this cycle would base its trade sequence on this initial trade size. A 2nd cycle or SubsequentFirstLot may only have a position size of 0.1 so therefore I am reducing my risk after that initial first cycle. A little confusing to explain, but throw it on a demo and play around with it and you will see what I mean. You can elect to have as many cycles as you want. One cycle is not a bad option but it can then be a long time between trades, but it will have a higher strike rate. If you want to select unlimited cycles, just put '0' in this field.

OrderLotMultiplier refers to the sequence of position sizes for each cycle. Remember in Post #1 I make mention of the fib sequence of 1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34. Thsi is what i am referring to here and that is exactly how you would input it into this field, the number followed by a comma with no spaces in between. You can use any sequence you wish. I have found with trading off the 30m charts, if you just enter 1,2,3 here, that this will work fine as the maximum size trade would be 3x your FirstLot size. Then the next field is MaxLevels. I keep this number pretty big around 40-50, so using the example of 1,2,3 above, then if the cycle required a lot of trades to complete then it would look something like this - 1,2,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3 so you can end up with a lot of trades open. Remember what I said about money management first up.

There is also a 'UseHedge' input there which allows you to take trades in both directions at the same time. May not work for some US Traders depending on your Broker, but I do like to trade both sides of the market at the same time. Just true or false for this.

You can control your cycles by either nominating a profit target or by closing it out by the use of a trailing stop. Both these options are catered for in this EA. There are also dedicated trading times if you wanted to trade off a 5m chart for example just during the UK session. If you don't want to use this option, either leave one or both fields blank, or have both times the same. It is based on a 24hr clock eg 10.30pm is 22:30 and it is based on your Broker's platform time. There is also a FridayCloseTime where you can nominate a particular time on Friday where all open trades will be closed if you don't want to hold over the weekend. If you don't want to use this, then just leave it blank.

CloseonTrendChange and CloseonFilterChange refer to the higher time frame signals and give you the opportunity to have all open trades closed if either of these reverse. Not something I use as I tend to let the current cycle just close out naturally. Might be something that you may find useful though.

That's about it in a nutshell. Did I mention money management and how important it is. This is not an EA that will work on a $1,000 account with a minimum position size of 0.01 lot unless you are very selective on your trades. If you only have a $1,000 account I would suggest that you look at a broker like XM so you could have a Nano account. So any questions, feel free to bombard me here on this thread. Good luck and if anyone finds the perfect settings, make sure you let me know. Cheers. Jim

Hi

I have tested the EA. It can run and produce good result. However, when I placed it into demo account, it won't place any order. Pair: GBPUSD , USDJPY. Both H1.

No trades at all.

I have change the magic number also.

Can anyone help?

Thank you.

Hello jim, I have purchased your book on High Probability Forex, great book! I just stumbled on to your video on youtube about your EA Fred, I really do not care for the idea of Martingale, but I was wondering if you could email me a .mq4 version of FRED so I could take a look at the code. Interesting ideas. If you could email it to [email protected] that would be great! Thank You in advance for all your Forex insights!

Steven Souders

Hi
I get error while backtest
2017.12.29 13:14:38.890 2017.11.30 09:15:00 MACD_Platinum GBPUSD,M15: unknown subwindow number -1 for ObjectCreate function


See attach chart...
Thankx

Hi
on demo account also get error like this:
2017.12.29 15:08:57.026 MACD_Platinum GBPUSD,M15: unknown subwindow number -1 for ObjectCreate function

Morning Jim,

Recently tried this on my demo forward test and it worked amazing however, it fails to open trades on my live account. Could you help me out on this?