Basket Robots

This thread will be an Open Source Project dedicated to trading Basket(s) off-line charts.
It was pulled from the Robot Lab Project as the basket was too big to fit in the lab.

The initial version will be a Manual Overdrive, which means that trading decisions are made by the trader not the robot.
So the robot will act only as a basket manager allowing to trade the basket off-line chart as close as possible to a normal on-line chart.

Next versions will provide Fully Automatic options, so that the Robot will trade/exit according to built-in strategies.

Copying Files:

1. Copy Create_Basket_Script_xx.ex4 into ...\MQL4\Scripts\ folder. Latest Version Here
2. Copy Basket_Manager_xx.ex4 into ...\MQL4\Experts\ folder. Latest Version Here

M1 Historical Data:

1. Make sure that you have “enough” M1 history data for each pair that will be used in the each basket you create
2. M1 history data can be refreshed by opening each pair on M1 time frame, zoom out to the maximum, scroll back as much as MT4 allows you to, and Refresh the chart by pressing Mouse Right Click and selecting Refresh from the pop up menu.

Creating the Basket

1. Place Create_Bastet_Script_xx on a chart of your choice on M1 time frame
2. Input the required information and Press OK:
   1. Basket Name : This is a user defined name for the basket.
      1. Maximum 12 characters
      2. Examples: USDBSKT,#USD#,XYZ01,#A1#,ENRGY,HITECH etc

      
      
      

   2. Time Frame Name: The time frame to be used to create the Offline Chart for the Basket (i.e. M15, H1, H4 etc)
   3. Basket Pairs: Here you define the Basket Component Pairs. Use Exact Pair Name as it appears in Market Watch. Pairs should be separated by comma
   4. Pairs Directional Weight :
      1. Direction should be Positive if you want the basket price to go up when the pair price goes up, and Negative if you want the basket price to go down when the pair price goes down, and vice versa
      2. Weight : You can simply use 1 (to be discussed later)

      
      
      
      

   
   
   

3. The script will show an alert with the created basket name/time frame
4. Go to File>Open Offline> and select the basket chart that was created

Running the Robot

1. Place the robot Basket_Manager_xx.ex4 on the opened offline basket chart
2. Enjoy Your Shopping !

The Basket Manager Provides:

1. Market Orders

    

   1. Buy Orders (3)
   2. Sell Orders (3)

   
   

2. Pending Orders

    

   1. Buy Stop Orders (2)
   2. Sell Stop Orders (2)
   3. Buy Limit Orders (2)
   4. Sell Limit Orders (2)

   
   

3. All orders offer Draggable SL and TP Lines
4. You can make trade decisions using your favorite strategy/indicator(s) on the off-line chart
5. You can trade multiple basket charts on the same account. Just make sure you give different Magic Number for each Robot Instance.
6. The robot adds 2 digits to the input magic number in order to differentiate between different basket orders . For example if you set the magic number to 999, the first buy basket orders will have an internal magic number of 99901, the first sell basket order internal magic number will be 99911, and so on. So use magic number of 3 to 5 digits in order to allow space for the additional 2 digits added by the robot.
7. Once market order is created, its button will show the current P/L for the underlying set of actual orders. You can close it by pressing on the button showing the P/L.
8. Current P/L of all market orders will show on the Green Button. You can close all the orders by pressing this button.
9. Once a Pending Order is triggered, it will be converted to a Market Order (provided there is space for it).
10. .... to be continued

Basket Tools (updated) :

 

1. Basket Creation Scripts :
   1. Version 2 (template option). Post # 88.
   2. Version 3 (multiplication instead of summation) Post # 160.

   
   

2. Basket Manager EAs:
   1. Version 2 (FINAL) Post # 84.
   2. Version 3 (FINAL) Post # 309.

   
   

A screen shot

Regards,

Khalil Abokwaik

Hi

I am following your work for long time but my way of trading is totally different. I really appreciate your time, dedication and hard work. Time is money in this world.

Excellent work Khalil

I will run it this week.....

Hello abokwaik

Thanks for your work very appreciate.

In attachment 2 scripts for load history if some people need

Regards

Apparently you can create multiple Baskets, and running a Basket Manager on each of them, so things might get messy.

A Manager of Basket Managers is required. :nerd:

This Manager can run on an on line chart and shows summary information on all baskets, (something similar to iExposure indicator), but on Basket Level instead of Pair level AND with action power.

Thank you howa,

It would've been great if you could post the MQ4 files also (in case you have them), in order to keep the thread an Open Source Project.

Regards,

Basket trading is a risky way of trading the market. So I suggest for new traders to be very patient in going live with it.

The Major factor in basket trading IMO, is the ART of Creating the Basket.

Well, I love cooking.
So lets think of the Basket Creation as Making a Salad, a Soup or Main Meal.
Ingredients should mix very well together to produce a delicious dish.

bon appetit,

If you are planning to trade multiple baskets, you have two options to preserve the basket settings:

1. Save Input Settings in a .set file. The settings can be loaded when you like to create/re-create a specific basket.
2. Create a version of Create_Basket_Script for each basket by modifying the inputs in the MQ4 file and saving the script under a different name.

Additional Notes:

1-The Basket Manager EA will know the pairs used to create the basket.
2-It is not necessary to keep the chart of the basket component pairs open after creating the basket. You need only 2 charts to be open, the One you applied the Script to it, AND, the one that you applied the EA to it.

You can share your baskets here if you like.

This is a basket example of Metals (GOLD,SILVER,Platinum,Palladium) ... quite heavy,

I think the spread calculation in Basket_Manager_02 needs a review. I will do it hopefully before market opens.

Hello abokwaik.

I just found one of them sorry for that.

In attachment

I love you man

OLD CODE :

double get_spread()
... spread+=(MarketInfo(pairs[i],MODE_ASK)-MarketInfo(pairs[i],MODE_BID))/Point;

CORRECTED CODE:

double get_spread()
... spread+=MarketInfo(pairs[i],MODE_SPREAD)*(MarketInfo(pairs[i],MODE_POINT)/Point);

Here are the corrected files: (current spread may look huge but that is due to end of week, and should return to normal few minutes after market open)
I also added the basket pair names on the offline chart for easier followup.

When creating a basket we need to make sure that we do not loose significant digits of pair rates.

For example this is a YEN basket where :

1. Pairs = "USDJPY,EURJPY,GBPJPY,AUDJPY,CADJPY,NZDJPY,CHFJPY";
2. Pairs_DW = " -1 , -1 , -1 , -1 , -1 , -1 , -1 "; / Directional Weight (derection is - (negative) because Yen is on the right side of the pair name), and weight is 1 because its the default, but in this case loosing some details by rounding significant digits

And this is the same basket (with more details), Using directional weight of -1000 instead of -1




BIG DIFFERENCE ! :nerd:

And these are magnified images of the previous two Yen basket charts

Poor Details



Rich Details



BIIIIG DIFFERENCE ! :nerd:

You see I am focusing at this stage on Building "meaningful" Basket Charts.

I consider this stage to be more important than the chart trading itself.
Because if the Basket chart looks like a standard pair you can simply trade it like a standard chart, provided of course that you already know that.

So the first step after creating a basket is to check the basket chart.

1. Does it have trends
2. Can you spot S/R levels
3. Apply some indicators of your choice, and see how they reflect the price
4. ... etc.
5. It should look like a standard live chart (nor a weird chart which makes no sense and hence can not be traded)

Of course based on the M1 history available for underlying pairs you will see that the chart regular some days or months back, but before that you'll notice big jumps as some history data is missing. But no problem with that as we will trade the recent price action of the basket.

So if our basket is H1 time frame, 2 months of data will be enough for intra-day trading.

With reference to the previous post, this is the Yen basket chart. I have loaded M1 data back till February, 1st.
So the chart looks ugly before that date. Not because yen made a big JUMP at end of January BUT because of missing historical data.

In addition to looking into any bugs that might show up during forward testing, I will work this week on developing a Baskets Administrator EA.

hi abokwaik,

for example, if I want create gbp basket ( all 7 pairs )

Pairs DW ? ( - ) or ( +) ?