Hello people,
This EA is attached for testing. Long term plan is to take it commercial but for now it is a work-in-progress. Grab it while it's free. The attached version expires on Christmas day(2016). Those that make a decent contribution to the testing process will receive a free copy of the final version for one account.
Just a couple of points about the process.....I am obviously looking for feedback but I am only one person. I may not be able to respond quickly or to you personally for every issue. Also note, that I am not going to consider endless modifications for the EA to suit your trading. I will make it as broad as I can to accommodate most scenarios but there are limits. I will also not be taking requests for additional work.
Very important!......I am not here to teach you how to run MT4, how to install EA's or how to get them running. If you do not know how to do these things, then this EA is not for you and you should move on to another EA.
Ok, about the EA.....this is a multi-currency EA and you run it on the M15 chart(any chart but make it an active one like EURUSD or GBPJPY), although you can experiment with TF for M1 to H1. It has been built around M15 so I have no idea how it trades on other TF. I suspect M5 may be ok and I would expect H1 would not work at all or would provide very few trades. It is also the first of 2 EA's that I am working on, the second being based on a breakout strategy. That is still to follow......
Be aware that this EA will trade every single instrument in the marketwatch window, even CFD's and Indices. TIP.....set up the instruments you wish to trade in the marketwatch window before running the EA.
It goes without saying that it is very resource intensive.....FXPro has 280 instruments available for trading and the EA looks at every one of them. Please consider a dedicated testing account for this EA. You need inspect the Experts tab for errors on a regular basis. Because of the volume of trading instruments, this EA can generate a lot of messages if there is a critical error. This will crash your terminal eventually if it goes unnoticed.
You can trade demo or live account but you trade live account at high risk as even I am not running this on real money yet. Refer to known issues at the end of the post........
You cannot backtest this EA because it is multi-currency. I have created a single currency version that I play with. I may or may not release it at a later stage but that remains to be seen. In fact, the strategy you see here is one example. You can look at the other strategies in my profile to get an idea of other instruments.
Settings :-
Catch_Pips_Fact= 2
Use_Catch_Pips = true
Use_Extend_Profit = true
Catch_Pips is a simple trailing SL routine. Once your trade is halfway(Catch_Pips_Fact(or) = 2 ) to TP, it will start running a SL that is equal to the Pips to go to TP. So the closer you get to TP, the tighter the trailing stop becomes.
Extend_Profit is an extension of this function but is still under development....for now the setting does nothing.
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Time_Frame = PERIOD_M15;
Simple check to ensure that the chart TF matches the EA timeframe. Does nothing else.
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Own_Symbol_Only = false;
Use if you only wish to trade the symbol that the EA is placed on. This is completely untested at this stage so I'm not sure it works properly.
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Cease Making NEW trades
This stops the EA from taking new trades. The EA will continue to manage existing trades until they are all closed out.
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Initial Order Type
Limit order or stop orders. I am interested in which performs better......backtesting is inconclusive.
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Use bargaining Stop-Orders
This is a routine that I created that allows the EA to adjust the price of stop-order entries as price action changes. Further down the setting you will notice a setting called Stop_Space......this tells the EA to lay a stop order x pips away from the current price. Looking at a buy order for example......EA finds a EURUSD trade @ 1.1108 and lays a SO at 1.1110(2 pips). If the price continues down to 1.1100, it will cancel the SO and make a new one at 1.1102, so effectively your entry price will be 8 pips better. Sounds nice in theory but I have reservations. If price action does not turn where expected perhaps the market is saying something and the trade should rather be allowed to expire.
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Initial_Lots = 0.1;
Money management applies so this trade sizing represents what will be trades in EURUSD on $10 000 account. EA will correct for account size and instrument(see known issues).
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MagicNumber = 4000;
Lot_Exponent = 1.0;
Pip_Step = 0;
Yes yes yes......there is an element of cost-averaging.....it is not martgingale. There is a limited amount of cost averaging, pretty much as much as you like. The risk is offset by the fact that this EA only trades with the dominant trend(H4 and D1). Also given the number of potential trades, you need to keep the trade sizes small anyway. Other protection include limiting the number of cost-average trades(see below). Also you can limit trades to once per bar thereby protecting you from spikes in price. My experience is that long slow trends are what kill accounts. Prices spikes tend to retrace quickly and are good for cost averaging. Anyway.....use it, don't use it.....your choice.
Pip_Step is ATR based. Given the multi-currency nature of the EA, I suggest leaving at default.
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Order_Space = 0.5 Spacing for limit orders
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Stop_Space = 2.0 Spacing for stop orders
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Profit target in Pips
Pretty much what is says......I suggest leaving at default 0 as this will use ATR to determine a target.
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TP_ATR = 10;
Multiple of ATR for the setting of TP when profit target = 0
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Use_SL = true;
SL is set equal to TP. You cannot change this.
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Use Trend_Exit
Uses a trend change to exit trades.....requires testing.
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Cost Averaging only once per bar
Max cost averaging trades
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Minimum Margin Percent available for new trades
If you start having big drawdown, when the margin % falls below this level, no new trades will be entered although cost-average trades will continue to be made.
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Trade Factor Higher = more trades 25
Does what it says.....
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Text_Color = clrWhite;
Does what it says..........
Known issues........
1. Lot sizing. I am still trying to get a handle on the lot sizing. Some instruments are unusual, specifically CFD's. There have non-standard tick sizes and different minlot sizes. I am working on this, but don't be surprised if you see an unusually large trade or very small trade. If you have any doubts, remove them from the marketwatch window.
2. Occasional invalid stops error. I suspect that this occurs in instruments where the normal spread exceeds the typical ATR values. The EA is correctly coded to check stop levels, etc but in certain extreme cases errors can occur......Once again, a work in progress. Remove the instrument if the error keeps on happening.
3. Multiple correlated trades. If a currency runs(eg JPY) it will open multiple JPY(CHFJPY,USDJPY,GBPJPY,AUDJPY)......and obviously this is an effective overexposure to one currency and my poses some risk management problems. It remains to be seen if the multiple instrument nature of the EA can offset this, or if a filter needs to be put in place.
Good luck and good trading
CF_Trend_Follow_V1.ex4 - Invest Download