Agility TRADER - Automate your ideas and expand your mind

Dear friend Dave_c, I am adopting this system manually with a good profit, I'd like to automate it, the rules are entry sell when the price closes below the moving average EMA 10 and go out when the price touches the moving average, entry buy when the price closes above the moving average eMA 10 and go out when the price touches the moving average
is an easy expert for you that you're a great programmer, I think this expert, will be the holy grail,
you can write it for us?
Thanks for your patience

First, I want to thank all of you who have commented, every post has been very helpful. Dave your instructions and been clear and precise and yes I did have all disabled under tools/ options. That has now been enabled exactly as you have shown.
Hang with me because we are getting closer but still not there. And by the way, Dave. ME, COMPLICATING THE ISSUE? LOL, my husband says that to me ALL the time, so you're probably right but I don't know how I do that.

This morning I, once again removed everything. EVERYTHING!!. But evidently not EVERYTHING because the below is where we are now.
It's telling me it can't load 1.0.24 because 1.0.28 is already there. Well, where is the little booger because I've looked everywhere. I've ran the 000uninst on two different occasions.
Where to go from here?
Also something troubling, I have noticed the date and time of my download this morning, I don't know where it's getting that. I downloaded at 6:58 AM on 7/16/2016 but when it went into my downloads folder this is the time. I don't believe I downloaded anything yesterday morning at 10:10 because I was at work. Is this GMT time and does this mean anything?

Dave,
I'm interested in what you will say to Michael above because his strategy is a lot like mine. I don't use Renko and I use a 25 LWA and I limit my trades to 30-50 pip. If you look at my markings below, the market right now has a tendency to (what I call 'reach and touch'). Some call this a buoyant market. I have just noticed the waves during the day with quick 'reaches' oro pull backs to the 24 or 21. This is my strategy too.
I haven't been able to look at the sets you created for me but they may work for Michael as well, however AG2 does not work on RENKO so Michael will have to adapt to different charts, but it can be done. I'm having to adapt a lot too since I'm not used to Mt4.

Good luck, Michael. Maybe we can compare stories.

OH MY GOSH, I GOT IT!!! I'M BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS!! but market is down, but still I GOT IT. Thanks to all of you and especially Alan who helped direct me to find the sneaky V1.0.28, located in the control panel.
Do I even care about the difference between .24 and .28? Right now we're working.
Thanks to all of you.

Rebecca, I did not want to be guilty of complicating the issue with you but you need to use the Control Panel to remove MtApi 1.028. I did not realise that it did not have unins000.exe and was trying to isolate you from Control Panel since it was adding another dimension.

If you type into the search box on the bottom left of your screen, "add or remove programs", you will be taken to the correct area to remove MtApi 1.028. The program would not have installed correctly because of Expert Advisor issue. Having removed it, just run the full installation again from the downloads directory. It will just overwrite the existing files.

EDIT: We just crossed posts.

YES, Alan said the same thing in a PM and it did work. Thank you and I guess I was over complicating. You really have worked hard to make all of this easy.
Only other issue which I'm not worried about right now because market is closed. When I click on Read Set on Companion, it wants another key and directs me to your website for another registration key. I wouldn't think I would need that since I just entered a new one on the download this morning.

I have previously catered for Renko bars but there is little demand for the extra coding required. If you contact me by PM, I can discuss this further, Everybody has their own pet strategy and I average about 3 PM's per day with requests for custom programming. Unless it is in the overall interest, my answer is always the same - that is there are more than enough tools already.

This week I am going to commence a series - HITCH HIKERS GUIDE TO PROFITABLE TRADING and here is some subject matter

1. Forget about obsession with technical indicators
2. Be very aware of the effect of leverage
3. Understand the difference between low spread and commission
4. The effect of news releases and how to trade them
5. What is 2% of equity and how should it be used
6. Commitment of Traders and how to apply it.
7. Fibonacci, Pivots, Elliott waves
8. Support and Resistance
9. Trading times and Trading days
10. Market hours and the significance
11. DISCIPLINE

If you look in the emails that I sent you, the upgrade key for the additional features is there. The key that you entered this morning is the standard key.

Dave this is great and I look forward to it. Full kudos to you for doing it.

Do you think you could add something about backtesting? I dont mean how to do it, as you have made this a breeze with AT2 simple and much faster.

I mean more about how to use results, I love your rolling 3 months idea but am not sure what constitutes the best results rather than just Best profit and least drawdown.

Many thanks, enjoy your weekend.

Alan

This is quite a significant update. A number of events over the weekend have given rise to a few changes. Notably http requests through Win 10 became very slow even though Win 7 requests operated normally. I'm not sure if it was just this region or whether Microsoft was working in the background and consequently slowing down all http requests. Nevertheless Win 10 returned to normal today. As a result I decided to add a feature which allows you to draw on local data rather than online data.

A zip file download of all data for 2016 is available from http://agilitytrader.com/Data/2016Data.zip. This download is quite large (35mb) and is optional and the unzipped contents need to be placed in a new directory (created with the new installation file) - Documents\AgilityTrader2\Data. I have enclosed a screen shot of the new option which allows local access. The data will be updated monthly by the 5th of the following month. This will increase the data loading speed and remove the need for http requests.

As a result of installation misunderstandings, the full installation file is renamed to AgilityTrader2Install. I have had to make changes to the set files, so I would suggest that previous installers use the full installation and allow existing files to be overwritten. (MtApi does not need to be re-installed)

The limitation on charting of condition1 only is now removed.

A new user input has been added for Leverage (the default is 100 meaning 100:1 leverage). Because the connection through MtApi is not required, this input is needed as it does affect the Lot Size as a percentage of equity risk. I will discuss this in detail in my series this week - Hitch Hikers Guide to Profitable Trading.

Use the full install at Post #1

Dave,
Your instructions couldn't be more timely. Matter of fact, I was going to post about now that we have AT2, how do we manage it? Once we optimize a great strategy, how often do we check it because the market is a living, breathing animal that is constantly changing. We know that AT2 is a tool, it's not and nothing will ever be the holy Grail. It still requires trade by trade management.
Save me a seat on the front row. I'm ready to take notes.

The inputs for Wager Type have changed order so any existing set files you have created may need to have the the Wager Type reviewed before backtesting or optimization with the companion program. Also ensure that your conditions are contiguous, that is Condition 2 must follow Condition 1.

Either of these factors can cause a backtest or optimization to fail.

A HITCH HIKERS GUIDE TO PROFITABLE TRADING
===============================

I used that analogy for a particular reason. You are going along for a ride and have no control over the outcome.

The market is dominated by the big players such as the banks, investment groups and hedge funds. Just remember that volume in Forex terms is completely different to share trading. Your wager of .01 lots is reported exactly the same way as a large bank with a wager of 2,000 lots. The volume is 2.

Weight of money moves the market but you have no information on the flow. I will talk during the week on Commitment of Traders. (Google the term).

MYTH No. 1 - Technical indicators can indicate reversals. Reversals occur when there is a change of sentiment, usually financial news releases, political actions or civil unrest. Let go of technical indicators - full stop. The big players feed off traders who follow technical indicators. They only indicate what has gone on in the past and seldom predicate the future. The real reason for back testing and optimization is to hone your money management skills. Every currency has it's own "DNA" and a 50 pip stop loss for one currency can be the same as a 100 pip stop loss on another currency. The behavior of the market is constantly changing and that is why most EA's fall over. You know my thoughts. I update monthly on the previous 3 months trading results.

Technical indicators can be useful in a sideways trending market but remember the cliche, "the trend is your friend". That doesn't mean a trend on a 15 minute chart, it means watching the daily trend always. Monitor the live news sites all the time. When a major announcement occurs, the trend can change abruptly. Don't jump straight in because there is nearly always a pullback opportunity and most trends last for more than a couple of days! I will cover the various support and resistance psychological levels during the week.

Back to the content of this topic, do not rely on any combination of technical indicators alone for your trading decisions. Just when a technical indicator indicates an oversold or overbought level, there is a very good reason for this, weight of money. One reason that technical indicators break down is that they cannot cope with fundamental news.

Tomorrow I will discuss leverage, because this is probably the most misunderstood factor in your trading. The next big move akin to currency trading is occurring now with the introduction of share CFD's (Contracts for Difference) so leverage is a factor that will be so important in future trading.

Dave dont you ever stop?

I just woke up for an "easy like Sunday morning" day now how do I tell the family who is walking the dog etc!

Cheers, great stuff!

Alan

...and good move on download data!

OK walked the dog and loaded and tested latest version with local data on my PC with 1.0.24 working fine.

Cheers

Alan

EDIT:
Have now loaded on my PC which had 1.0.28 on. It worked fine, MtApi install failed as it said I had a newer version which I accepted and all working fine.

UGH!!! Could someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? So frustrating. My companion seems to be working, as I load sets, they change accordingly, If I create a single chart, it downloads. Parts are working and parts are not. But the heat map is blank and I get this error when I try to connect. See the attachment where it advises no connection and yet at the bottom it says it loaded successfully. What am I not understanding? I'm soooo close!!! LOL.

Did you uninstall MtApi V 1.02.8 before your re-installation because the DLL's included in the AgilityTrader2 installation are associated with MtApi V1.02.4.

Whilst the journal may tell you it loaded successfully, did it stay loaded? Do you still have a smiley face on your chart?

If you don't, you still have a problem with MtApi and this is symptomatic of not having the Visual C++ 2010 runtime loaded, as detailed in this post http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...73#post8925573.

It could also possibly time out with a very slow internet connection. Do you have the first symbol AUDNZD (and for that matter all other symbols in AT2 as displayed symbols in MT4). If AUDNZD times out that may be your problem. The fact that you state that you were able to create a single chart, I am leaning towards the possibility that you maybe don't have AUDNZD displayed in the symbol list on MT4. Check all the other pairs as well (GBPAUD is normally not a default symbol as well)

Back testing and optimization using set files do not need the MtApi connection.

A HITCH HIKERS GUIDE TO PROFITABLE TRADING - second instalment
===============================

Today I am going to cover leverage. The most common leverage is 100: 1 but many brokers offer other leverage rates even up to 1200:1 The best way to check your leverage is to hover over your Account Number and Name within Navigator in MT4. If you right click on any instrument and select "Specification", if the Margin Percentage is different from 100%, then that will be the overriding leverage. For example if the Margin Percentage shows 2.5% then the leverage is 40:1. Also take note of the "Contract Size" on the right click because that is the Number of Units you will be purchasing with a lot size of 1.

The real point about leverage is the cost of entering a trade.

Here is a simple example. If you were to purchase 1 lot of your currency with an exchange rate 1.0000 v any other currency and the spread was 1.8 pips, then the cost of entering that trade is $18 if your leverage is 100:1. If your leverage is 1200:1 the cost of entering that trade is $216.

Most Important - Your exposure to adverse moves is greatly diminished. Adverse movements cost $10 per pip at 100:1 and $120 per pip at 1200:1

So in summary, the higher the leverage the greater the risk.

It is generally accepted that 2% risk of equity in any trade is a sound philosophy, so your stop loss needs to be tighter with higher leverage rates. Here is the formula to calculate the lot size taking into account the percentage of equity that you are prepared to lose an any trade.

Lot Size = Equity * Risk Percentage * Exchange Rate / Leverage / Stop Loss / 10.
(Contract size is assumed at 100,000 - the FX contract size, for other instruments the Lot Size will vary by the relationship of Contract size v 100,000 )

The point to note here is that the exchange rate is based on the exchange rate of your base currency against the first mentioned currency of the pair you are trading.

I will place a simple calculator on AgilityTrader2 as a small floating window in my next revision which will automatically gather the equity, required exchange rate and the leverage of the account. All that you will need to input is your required risk factor as a percentage of equity and stop loss in pips.

Higher leverage involves higher entry costs, reduced exposure (therefore lower stop losses) to control the percentage of equity risked.

Providing the above formula is applied meticulously, higher leverage does not affect your trading but it is the tendency to keep the Lot Size the same with higher leverages that brings most traders undone.

Another update to the companion program with the following additional features

1. Lot size calculator
2. Ability to use any symbol (including CFD's) from MT4 for backtesting and optimization. Available data is automatically downloaded from the MT4 server.
3. Automatic set file naming and display.

Program exe only enclosed below. Full download at Post #1. Please read the Readme file very carefully.

EDIT: Just an additional note regarding the testing of other symbols -

If you require a FX pair for example -EURCAD 60 min timeframe - Enter EURCAD_60
For a Commodiies or Index say FTSE 100 , enter the MT4 code and timeframe - GB100_60
For a CFD pair say Apple , enter the MT4 code and timeframe - #S-AAPL_60

(Undersvore after the code)

A HITCH HIKERS GUIDE TO PROFITABLE TRADING - third instalment
===============================
Understanding the difference between low spread and commission.

Some brokers advertise a fixed spread (say 2.0 pips so the cost of entering and exiting a trade is 2 pips)

Other brokers advertise a variable spread (say 1.5 pips exists at the time of the trade) and a fixed commission for each trade. That means commission on both Entry and Exit.

Be very careful because this second broker actually costs you more. Entry cost is 1.5 pips (spread) and Commission of .5 pips giving a total of 2 pips, and the Exit cost is .5 pips Commission so in actual fact the total cost of the trade is 2.5 pips. Always be aware of the spread when entering and exiting a trade.

The easiest way to display spreads in MT4 in by right clicking on the header of the symbol list and checking the Spread column. Also there are many spread display indicators available within the Forex Factory forums.

The cost of trading together with the overnight interest charges has a most significant impact on your trading and you should actively consider your brokers charges and current spread when entering and exiting trades.

This reference makes interesting reading.
How I saved over a million in one year of live trading.