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ktartarotti

Does Anyone Truly Make a Living Solely Trading the E-minis???

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hi MM - as a suggestion, if you keep a trading journal of some sort, or as you seem to be actually monitoring your trades closely, its definitely worth while really analyzing your trades and looking closely at where the money goes.

If you are having numerous fat finger errors (buying or selling by mistake), slippage losses, crossing the spread, - then each has a different solution so its worth while making sure you really understand where your losses and wins are coming from.....this may be the simplest, easiest and most cost effective solution to adding to the bottom line.

Also I think its important to be aware that if you are going to scalp, or take small wins and trades, then its vital to ensure you get set by buying at the bid and selling at the offer.

If looking to make 8 ticks - This will increase the PL by 25% (2ticks on every 8).

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Risking 2 to make 1 ( as above) with 60% winners and commissions of 4.72 is about a -$12 (guessing at it but I am pretty close) expectancy per contract traded. It simply tells me that this is a lot harder than most people think.

 

Indeed but my point is that you are accounting as 1:1 risk reward + "slippage" most (pretty much all) traders would account for as risking 2 to get 1...with 60% winners that won't work.

 

Take another tick without adversely effecting your % too much and you are golden :)

 

From your first posts it seemed like your execution was slightly off (everyone has been there :)), subsequently it would seem that maybe the plan is marginal (need more info tbh).

 

The advice DugDug gives is where I was heading for :) keep a journal and look at your actual figures. Calculate the R:R on where you actually get in and where you actually get out not on some number where you think you should have been able to get in or out. If you are using sim you might want to use MIT (market if touched) orders rather than limits gives more realistic figures.

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Indeed but my point is that you are accounting as 1:1 risk reward + "slippage" most (pretty much all) traders would account for as risking 2 to get 1...with 60% winners that won't work.

 

Take another tick without adversely effecting your % too much and you are golden :)

 

From your first posts it seemed like your execution was slightly off (everyone has been there :)), subsequently it would seem that maybe the plan is marginal (need more info tbh).

 

The advice DugDug gives is where I was heading for :) keep a journal and look at your actual figures. Calculate the R:R on where you actually get in and where you actually get out not on some number where you think you should have been able to get in or out. If you are using sim you might want to use MIT (market if touched) orders rather than limits gives more realistic figures.

 

I do keep notes and ledgers of everything i do and I rarely day trade. Unless, I am very fortunate to hit my target in a short period of time or very unfortunate and get stopped out right away. Otherwise, I'm in a trade for about 24 hours to about 5 days but there is no set time. I use a wide stop, but I look for large targets.

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I'll admit I am underfunded and being underfunded while getting advice from a hedge fund manager has led me to unnecessarily lose a lot of money. So I have come to the following conclusion. The less funds you have the shorter the timeframe you should trade with very reasonable targets. The objective being to build your account with small but consistant wins.

 

Start with $5000. Pick a market with ample opportunities - for me CL with a 21¢ target and a 5¢ SL - so risking $50 to make $210. Next never lose more than 3 trades in any given day ($150/day). This takes discipline but can be done. I did it for approximately 4 months - trading 1 contract making between $1000 - $2300/week.

 

However, once your discipline breaks down you are doomed. The two weeks prior to the Christmas break I did 2000+/week. Then the kids got off and I started spending money.... Come the new year I decided I am consistant and I spent too much over x-mas, so I'll just jump from 1 contract to 4 with the same strategy. To make a long story short lets say the emotions are not the same (for me) with 4 contracts on the line as it was with 1. I started losing. I started risking more than 5¢ with more contracts than I should have. I was rewarded a few times for this bad behavior and wound up losing my previous 4 months gains.

 

Ok - what am I saying here - I'm saying that if you are EXTREMELY disciplined and consistently make more money on your winning days than you lose on your losing days, you can earn a decent living. Consistency is the key - just hit singles and doubles and don't get greedy after earning your consistency.

 

Pete Rose was never a home run hitter but I'm sure most baseball players would have loved to have had the career he had. If nothing else charlie hustle was consistant.

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Start with $5000. Pick a market with ample opportunities - for me CL with a 21¢ target and a 5¢ SL - so risking $50 to make $210. Next never lose more than 3 trades in any given day ($150/day). This takes discipline but can be done. I did it for approximately 4 months - trading 1 contract making between $1000 - $2300/week.

 

5 cent stop loss in Crude? Yeah, that's a real tight scalp you got going there.

 

Ok - what am I saying here - I'm saying that if you are EXTREMELY disciplined and consistently make more money on your winning days than you lose on your losing days, you can earn a decent living. Consistency is the key - just hit singles and doubles and don't get greedy after earning your consistency.

 

Pete Rose was never a home run hitter but I'm sure most baseball players would have loved to have had the career he had. If nothing else charlie hustle was consistant.

 

Definitely a hall of famer, far as I'm concerned. If you can bat.400 in the markets, consistently, and manage your losses, effectively, you should be alright in the long run.

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I do keep notes and ledgers of everything i do and I rarely day trade. Unless, I am very fortunate to hit my target in a short period of time or very unfortunate and get stopped out right away. Otherwise, I'm in a trade for about 24 hours to about 5 days but there is no set time. I use a wide stop, but I look for large targets.

 

I'd not have guessed! In that case I presume you are not too bothered having to pay the spread ;)

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Interesting thread I forgot I was a member here but was reminded today by receiving a email from here giving me the MAX trading system pitch. Does it work well not any better than a lot of free manual systems and you don't need to pay $2000!

 

Okay back to this thread. I have been trading for just over a year now. It's my income and I trade full time the Forex market spot retail. I trad for a long time going from one manual system to another one of the reasons I took the above mentioned course. However I was not successful. I never lost much because I had good mm right from the start but I never made much either. then I got into automated trading and found the place I belong. I spent a good deal of time playing around with every kind of EA I could find. What I ended up with was if I wanted a EA that would continue to make me good profits I would have to write one and I did.

 

Long story short since November last year I have made a solid 20% per month. It may not seem much but you do the compounding on a $10,000 seed and you will soon see it's a lot of money. I take half of the balance out which goes into my other $10,000 seeded account that I never touch it's just there if a terrorist blows up the white house of something and my account blows.

 

Happy trading

Randy

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I am with BF - MM you sounded like you were scalping.

if not scalping and looking for bigger swings, then small slippage and brokerage should not be a major issue.... as I mentioned this way its sometimes easier to just wait for the one or two trades a day, or week. Once consistently profitable, you can increase the size.

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I'd not have guessed! In that case I presume you are not too bothered having to pay the spread ;)

 

It is part of the reason why I don't scalp. I tried for a fairly long time and, simply, I suck at it. I feel like the small stack at the final table of a poker tournament. So I stay away. It's certainly fun, but I am doing this to make money.

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I am with BF - MM you sounded like you were scalping.

if not scalping and looking for bigger swings, then small slippage and brokerage should not be a major issue.... as I mentioned this way its sometimes easier to just wait for the one or two trades a day, or week. Once consistently profitable, you can increase the size.

 

In the beginning somewhere I think I said that I need 25K a contract to support a 2% stop per contract which means like $500 or so in risk everytime I click go.

 

Actually from reading some of the threads on TL I can see why you guys think I might be scalping with a $500 stop on 1 contract. But, I would never risk so much to make so little unless I was a 100% winner.

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I do scalping and I make a profit. However I use something that really helps me a lot. when I was scalping and having to manage every trade you know enter, place stops,trailing stops, take profits etc that takes time. Now days all I need to do is enter the trade and my multipurpose trade manager takes care of everything else faster than snapping your fingers. since I use this trade manager I stayed in profit. It's highly programmable. You can even have it jump a stop loss if need be.

If your scalping without something like this then your really foolish to continue on doing all of it yourself cuz your at a big disadvantage like I was.

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Thanks it''s a real shame that this forum does not allow attachments. They really limit you here. FF is so much better.

randy

 

 

You are correct auto trading does help tremendously. When I was using interactive brokers I used a third party app called autotrader (AutoTrader Software - Home). The thing I liked best is move to break even after x ticks.

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I do scalping and I make a profit. However I use something that really helps me a lot. when I was scalping and having to manage every trade you know enter, place stops,trailing stops, take profits etc that takes time. Now days all I need to do is enter the trade and my multipurpose trade manager takes care of everything else faster than snapping your fingers. since I use this trade manager I stayed in profit. It's highly programmable. You can even have it jump a stop loss if need be.

If your scalping without something like this then your really foolish to continue on doing all of it yourself cuz your at a big disadvantage like I was.

 

Out of curiosity, how does it jump a stop loss? Or, why would it jump a stop loss?

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Here you go it's fairly large because they do not allow attachments here..

Multi-purpose trade manager – instructions for use

Your answer is in number 2 which I highlighted for you. This great EA probably has many options your not familiar with. I know it did for me.

Enjoy

Randy

 

 

This ea supervises open trades and offers these facilities for: selected individual trades;

groups of trades linked by a common magic number or comment; or all trades

 

.

Moves the stop loss at appropriate intervals – to breakeven, jumping stop, trailing

stop. Offers the option to hide the stop from the broker; likewise the take profit.

.

Close all open trades when the upl reaches a set target; this can include pending

orders.

.

Part-closure (50%) when the price reaches a set target.

.

Hedge-trade opening for trades that are going bad.

.

Equity protection: close all open trades when upl hits a specified level.

By default, all options are set to 'false', so the ea will do nothing until you choose some

options.

 

I am a reasonable amateur software writer, play and teach a mean piano but am a rubbish

writer, so sorry if any of this fails to make sense.

 

The easiest way to get used to the ea's features is to set up a demo account and open

simultaneous buy and sell trades for a dozen or so pairs, and leave them to cook for a few

hours, so that some of the trades move into profit. After a few hours, load the ea onto a

chart, make your selections and watch it work.

 

I have tested this ea on Alpari UK's MT4 platform, so I know it works on this; I have no

idea what it does when used on the platforms provided by other brokers, so do test it on

demo first.

 

I coloured the previous paragraph to draw attention to it. Here it is repeated for those who

have difficulty with colour: I have tested this ea on Alpari UK's MT4 platform, so I know it

works on this; I have no idea what it does when used on the platforms provided by other

brokers, so do test it on demo first.

 

The ea goes in the Experts folder or your MT4 folder. Put “Remove stop losses” in the

Scripts folder. Use this whilst you are playing with the ea – drag the script onto your chart

and it will cycle through the open orders and set all to sl's to 0.

 

 

Here is what to do:

 

Choose your 'management style'

 

Here is where you tell the ea what to look for, by setting one or more of the following to

 

true:

1) ManageByMagicNumber: tells the ea to manage trades with the same magic

number. Using different magic numbers on different charts allows you to use the ea

to manage trades placed by different trade-setting ea's and scripts. The default is

my default, so change it to suit yourself.

2) ManageByTradeComment: tells the ea to manage trades with the same comment

as the ea.

3) ManageByTickeNumber: tells the ea to manage a single trade, identified by the

number in the 'Order' column of the trade terminal.

4) ManageThisPairOnly: tells the ea to manage all trades for the chart into which it is

installed. You can also use it with one of the previous three to achieve accurate

monitoring of an associated group of trades. Do not try to use it with more than one,

or the ea will not function.

5) ManageAllTrades: take care with this setting. If enabled, it will monitor all

open

trades, overriding anything you enter in the previous settings. Only set it to 'true' if

none of your open trades require individual care and attention.

 

Choose your 'management facilities'

 

By default, all options are set to false, so the ea will do nothing until you set one of them to

true. Use these options in combination with those in 'management style' to get the ea to

manage individual or group trades and move stop losses in the way you want.

 

None of the default settings are recommendations. They are the numbers I am using

in my own trading, or are ridiculous figures for safety when you first use the ea.

 

Stop Loss Manipulation

 

1)

Break even settings: set a break even stop loss after the price reaches the setting

in BreakEvenPips. You can use this in conjunction with the Part-closure routine

(details later), as well as a stand-alone routine.

 

.

BreakEven: set to true to enable this facility.

.

BreakEvenPips: the number of pips you want the market to move in your favour

before setting the stop loss to the order entry price, ensuring the trade cannot

turn into a loss.

.

BreakEvenProfit: will add this to the stop loss to a buy order, subtract it for a sell

order. My default of 2 pips means the sl is set to break even + 2, ensuring a

minimum of 2 pips profit. Set it to 0 if you do not want this feature.

 

2) Jumping stop loss settings: this will jump the stop loss by JumpingStopPips

 

 

when the price moves in your favour by that number of pips. Many traders consider

this to be a better option than a straight trailing stop. The first time this option is

triggered by the market price, it will set the stop loss to break even. After that, it will

increment the sl by JumpingStopPips every time the market moves sufficiently in

your favour.

 

This routine incorporates settings to part-close a percentage of the profits every

time the sl jumps.

 

.

JumpingStop: set to true to enable this facility.

.

JumpingStopPips: the number of pips to jump. For example, my default of 300

works like this:

Market price hits order open price + 300: moves sl to break even.

Market price hits order open price + 600: moves sl to + 300.

Market price hits order open price + 900: moves sl to + 600.

.

AddBEP: adds BreakEvenPips to the break even if set to 'true'.

.

JumpAfterBreakevenOnly: use this in cooperation with BreakEvenSettings to

manage longer-term or positional trades. If set to 'true', this will force

JumpingStop to wait until the sl has been moved to breakeven before operating.

.

HideJumpingStop: this hides your 'real' jumping stop from the broker when set

to true.

.

PipsAwayFromVisualJS: the number of pips away from the stop shown in the

trade you want your real stop. For example, you want a real stop loss of 200

pips and an emergency trade stop of 400, so you set:

JumpingStopPips = 400.

PipsAwayFromVisualJS = 200.

.

----part-close settings---.

PartCloseEnabled: set this to 'true' to enable the routine.

.

Close_Lots: this is the amount of the trade you wish to close at each jump.

.

Preserve_Lots: this is the amount you want to leave 'on the table'. The ea will

only close down the amount of the trade you specify in Close_Lots if there is

more than this setting left to close.

For example, suppose you have a 1 lot trade. You want:

 

.

The jumping stop to move the sl every 20 pips profit.

.

Lock in 2 pips profit at the first jump.

.

0.2 lots of the trade closed at each jump.

.

0.4 lots of the trade left on the table to follow the move until tp or a retrace hits your

stop.

These would be your settings:

 

.

JumpingStop: true

.

JumpingStopPips: 20

.

AddBEP: true (and set AddBEP to 2 a little higher up)

.

JumpAfterBreakevenOnly: false

.

PartCloseEnabled: true

.

Close_Lots: 0.2

.

Preserve_Lots: 0.4

 

3) Trailing stop loss settings: works like the conventional trailing stop you can enter

into the MT4 platform. Set TrailingStop to 'true' to use this facility, then enter the trail

distance into TrailingStopPips.

 

.

TrailAfterBreakevenOnly: set this to 'true' to tell to EA to start trailing only after

breakeven. Use this in conjunction with BreakEven.

.

HideTrailingStop: this hides your 'real' trailing stop from the broker when set to

true.

.

PipsAwayFromVisualTS: the number of pips away from the stop shown in the

trade you want your real stop. For example, you want a real stop loss of 200

pips and an emergency trade stop of 400, so you set:

TrailingStopPips = 400.

PipsAwayFromVisualTS = 200.

4) Instant trailing stop loss settings: this will start moving the stop loss as soon as

the market moves in your favour. It will set a sl at InstantTrailingStopPips if there is

not one already in place, otherwise it will act on the existing sl. I cannot imagine a

use for this, and wrote it only to satisfy myself that I can.

 

.

InstantTrailingStop: set this to 'true' to use this feature.

.

InstantTrailingStopPips: the number of pips to trail.

.

StopInstantTrailAfterBreakEven: set to 'true' to disable this feature as soon as

the trade has achieved breakeven.

5) Hidden Stop Loss: this allows you to hide your stop loss from the broker. You send

an emergency stop loss with the trade, say at twice the stop you actually want; you

do this in case your platform and your broker serve lose contact just at the time the

market moves massively against you. Then you tell mptm what your 'real' stop is.

This setting works only on the stop you send with the trade and is not affected by

hidden stops in other functions such as Jumping Stop; these have their own 'hide'

settings.

 

.

HideStopLossEnabled: set this to 'true' to turn on this feature.

.

HiddenStopLossPips: the number of pips you want for your actual stop.

6) Tightening Stop Loss: if set to true, this feature increases the jumping\trailing stop

pips when the market reaches 50% and 80% of your take profit. Please note, there

is no 'idiot proofing' in the code, so daft entries will render this feature useless.

 

.

UseTigheningStop: set to true to use this feature.

.

TrailAt50Percent: the pips to trail when the market gets to within 50% of your

profit target.

.

TrailAt80Percent: the pips to trail when the market gets to within 80% of your

profit target.

7) Add a missing Stop Loss: these settings allow you to enter manual trades without

having to calculate the stop loss for yourself. This is a bit of a blunt instrument and

the SL's entered are not totally correct. Better than nothing, though, and you can do

the fine-tuning for yourself.

 

.

AddMissingStopLoss: set this to 'true' to use this function.

.

MissingStopLossPips: the Stop Loss in pips.

 

8) Add a missing Take Profit: these settings allow you to enter manual trades

without having to calculate the take profit for yourself. This is a bit of a blunt

instrument and the TP's entered are not totally correct. Better than nothing, though,

and you can do the fine-tuning for yourself.

 

.

AddMissingTakeProfit: set this to 'true' to use this function.

.

MissingTakeProfitPips: the Take Profit in pips.

9) Hidden Take Profit: this allows you to hide your take profit from the broker. You

send a distant take profit with the trade, say at twice the tp you actually want; you

do this in case your platform and your broker serve lose contact just at the time the

market moves massively in your favour. Then you tell mptm what your 'real' tp is.

 

.

HideTakeProfitEnabled: set this to 'true' to turn on this feature.

.

HiddenTakeProfitPips: the number of pips you want for your actual stop.

Basket trade management

 

This is used to help manage a basket of trades, for traders using systems such as those

described at FF by ES and trader101.

 

Remember to set either ManageByMagicNumber or ManageByTradeComment to

'true'; also set ManageThisPairOnly and ManageAllTrades to 'false'.

 

Remember to place the ea on a volatile chart – mine goes on gbpjpy.

 

1.

ManageBasketTrades: set this to 'true' to manage a basket of trades. Setting this

to 'false' turns off all the features in this section.

2.

Basket take profit settings

.

BasketClosureTP: set this to true to tell the ea to set a whole-basket take

profit.

.

BasketTPinDollars: set to 'true' to TP at your chosen dollars' profit.

.

BasketDollarTP=100000;

.

BasketTPasPercent: set to 'true' to TP at your chosen percentage of the

account balance.

.

BasketTpPercentage=1;

.

AutoCalcBasketTPasPercent: when set to 'true', the ea calculates the

basket tp based on your percentages in:

.

FourToSevenTradesPercent: basket of up to 7 trades.

.

EightToTwelveTradesPercent: basket of 8 to 12 trades.

.

ThirteenPlusTradesPercent: 13+ trades.

3.

Basket stop loss settings: works in the same way at the take profit settings. Just

remember that this is not a 'hard' sl. It is stored in a variable that will be lost to the

basket if the ea becomes disconnected from the trades for any reason.

4.

Basket jumping stop settings: these settings allow you to operate a jumping stop

loss on the entire basket of trades. Again, this is not a 'hard' sl.

.

BasketJumpingStop: set this to 'true' to enable this feature.

.

BasketJumpingStopProfit: the Dollar amount at which you want the jump

to start. For example, you want a jumping stop at every $1 of profit:

Profit = $1 sets jumping stop to $0.

Profit = $2 sets jumping stop to $1.

Profit = $3 sets jumping stop to $2.

.

BasketAddBEP: Set this to 'true' to lock in the profit you set in

BasketBreakEvenProfit.

 

.

BasketBreakEvenProfit: profit, in Dollars, that you want to lock in when the

ea sets the jumping stop at breakeven.

.

DisableBasketJumpStopAfterBE: set this to 'true' to disable the jumping

stop once break even has been set. This is how you can use the jumping

stop routine simply as a break even function.

5.

Basket trailing stop settings: works just like any trailing stop, but on the whole

basket of trades.

.

BasketTrailingStop: set this to 'true' to set up a trailing stop.

.

BasketTsAtProfit: set this to the profit in dollars at which you want the ea to

start trailing. For example, you want to start trailing at $10 profit, so you

would enter 10 in this box.

.

BasketTrailPercent: this is the percentage of the profit that you want to lock

in. The default is 75%; this would lock in $7.50 of the example in the previous

paragraph.

5.

Immediate closure of all basket trades: use this with great care.

.

BasketCloseImmediately: set this to true to close all trades straight away.

You will get a message box asking for confirmation. Remember to turn this

option off as soon as the trades are deleted. Forgetting will do no harm, but

the repeated confirmation requests will drive you nuts.

6.

Trade expiry settings: this is intended for use with ES 4h relative strength basket

trading. Note that the ea takes no notice of the upl; if you tell it to close trades after

a set period of time, that is what it will do, so the position is likely to close at a loss.

.

TradesWillExpire: set this to 'true' to tell the ea to close the basket of trades

after the period in TradesWillExpireMins.

.

TradesWillExpireMins: the period of time, in minutes, the ea will allow to

pass before closing the basket – default is 210 minutes, as three and a half

hours seems like a suitable time but experiment for yourself.

Global order closure settings

 

This offers the facility to close all open positions when the trading profit reaches your

target. By default, the settings are all either false or ridiculous profit targets for safety. The

settings are:

 

1) GlobalOrderClosureEnabled: set this to 'true' to enable this feature, 'false' to

disable.

2) IncludePendingOrdersInClosure: will close pending orders if 'true' but will ignore

them if 'false'.

 

3) ProfitInDollars: set this to 'true' if you want the ea to close all orders at a set USD

profit, then set DollarProfit to the figure you want. The default of 100,000 is for

safety.

 

4) ProfitAsPercentageOfBalance: set this to 'true' if you want the ea to close all

orders when your trading profit reaches your chosen percentage of the account

balance, then set PercentageProfit to the percentage you want. The default of

10,000 is for safety.

 

 

Hedge Trade Settings

 

The idea behind this is to allow you to 'hedge' a losing trade by opening an opposite-

direction trade, instead of using a conventional stop loss. You set the robot to send hedge

trades with a take profit, of your chosen percentage lot size of the original, at your chosen

pips steps. For example, the original trade is 1 lot. My hedge trade might be 50% of that, to

kick in at -50(0) pips (HedgeAtLossPips), with a tp of 30(0) pips, to be sent every -10(0)

pips (HedgingIncrementPips). This part-hedge is designed to allow some easing of

drawdown when a trade goes bad, whilst still allowing it breathing space from time to time,

in the hope that it will eventually turn around and head back towards profitability.

 

When a hedge trade is triggered, the EA removes the stop loss and take profit from the

original trade. If the hedge subsequently hits its tp, then the robot moves the tp of the

original trade to breakeven. If the market then resumes in favour of the trade and it

eventually hits this BE tp, then the overall profit is that of the hedge trade.

 

1) HedgeEnabled: set this to 'true' if you want to use this feature. This has to be a

value greater than 0, or this routine will not work.

2) HedgeAtLossPips: this is number of pips you want the first trade to fall before the

ea opens a hedge.

3) HedgeLotsPercent: the percentage of the original trade size that you want to

hedge. The default is 50%.

 

4) HedgingIncrementPips: the step in pips that you want hedging to follow. This

setting tells the ea to prepare a second hedge trade this number of pips away from

the opening price of the first one. The first hedge can hit its tp and the original trade

can have some 'breathing space' in the hope that it will eventually return to profit.

 

5) HedgeTradeStopLoss: stop loss for the hedge trade. Set this to 0 for no sl.

6) HedgeTradeTakeProfit: take profit for the hedge trade.

7) CloseAtBreakEven: if set to 'true', this tells the robot to close both the original

 

 

trade and an open hedge if the combined upl reaches breakeven.

 

The EA makes a basic attempt to avoid hedging when the market is merely retracing

against your trade, rather than the trend changing. I might be able to improve on this in the

future, so leave the "Trend filter choices" defaults in place for now.

 

Note: I am not recommending this as a trading strategy, just making the feature available

because I am experimenting with the strategy. Take a few seconds to imagine the

complications that can arise before using it; even better, demo trade it for a while and find

them for yourself. The position could quickly become quite complicated.

 

 

Shirt Protection Settings

 

"Losing your shirt" is a slang expression to describe losing everything - money,

home etc. Here, it applies to a margin call.

 

1) ShirtProtectionEnabled: set this to 'true' if you wish to enable this feature.

 

2) MaxLoss: set this to the dollars loss at which you want the ea to close all open

trades (it will leave pending orders in place). For example, imagine you have an

account with a balance of $1,000. You can stand up to 80% upl but no more. You

would set MaxLoss to -800. MaxLoss must be a negative number.

 

Really important point:

 

This routine should be irrelevant to you. If you think you might need it, they your trades are

over-leveraged and ridiculously risky. Re-examine your trading techniques.

 

 

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As a minor aside Randy1953, you can set attachments on this forum. I'm not sure why you were having issue, maybe it was due to the file extension? I believe that not every file extension can be attached, I think it says which are allowed in the manage attachments dialog.

 

With kind regards,

MK

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It's a shame that order management systems wont manage using price action/market structure. (swing highs swing lows) I have always thought that superior to 'fixed' N point trailing/targets. Failing that using something that takes into account changing volatility (e.g. based on ATR). The thing with vanilla MT4 the order entry is so poor (imho) that some sort of EA helper is pretty much mandatory.

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You make it sound almost like a handicap to use a EA. Reading what you wrote it does seem that you have little Forx experience. I would bet maybe futures are your thing. No disrespect but your talking about things that do not work in spot Forex.

 

I know I said this before but it''s NOT the MT4 at all it's the connection but most of all it's the data feed from the broker. If for example you go and trade with a real ecn broker with raw feed you will see your entry in almost warp speed . I think what happened to you is you used other platforms like Trade station and saw that the entry was much cleaner and fast.

However it only seem that way probably I would bet you did not take in account of the broker that you traded with. So you figure it must be the MT4 because trades station was so much faster when in truth it was the broker raw feed. I don''t lie and when I tell you that there is a big difference with brokers,data feeds etc you can take that to the bank. Any platform can only do as well as the data feed and connections. It's that simple. Go ahead and try a ecn broker with MT4 and see. Once you see that its much faster your platform theory goes out the window.

 

Happy trading

Randy

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That is not what I said at all. MT4 is hugely cumbersome for managing orders with EA helpers it is bearable. The helpers are madatory i.e. the handicap without them is unbearable. Didn't we have this conversation before? The platform is crap for monitoring and managing positions. Scaling in and out on a DOM is so much easier. You need to be able to drag and drop orders,\. You need to be able to split orders. You need to be able to do this with a single click (to place or kill an order) or a click drag and drop to move an order. You can just not do this with MT4 even with EA's.

 

I have an account with Alpari (Currenex or MT4) and with IB (Ideal Pro). You are correct that I seldom trade spot though have on a few occasions pretty much since retail customers could got direct ECN access with MBT.

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OMG you still do not get it. I give up have your little story it's ok..

Maybe sometime in the future when you think your able to listen to someone besides yourself you would do what I suggested. which is to get a broker with fast feeds no latency issues and do everything your saying is the problem and see..when all of a sudden all the things your complaining about have gone away..

 

Now what you may be trying to say here is the actual way you execute a order with the MT4 is slower than other platforms but this is not at all how you began this conversation sometime ago . You got on this thing that entry was so terribly slow and your simply wrong. Once you know the little tricks it's very fast so the only other part of this that could be causing you to say such a thing is latency issues,bad connection and data feeds.

Your just not accustom to a MT4 platform you use it like a beginner and wonder why it's so slow when it's not at all it's the operator.

 

I am not sure why but many traders have this idea that Forex trading is not real trading and therefore have to try to attack it in every possible way.

The truth is if your good enough and smart enough to trade the Forex markets your return will be far greater than stock,futures etc.

It's fairly easy in Forex if you know what your doing to take a $10,000 seed account and keep trading it as it compounds and become a millionaire in less than a year. It's not that hard to do if your good..you do not have this in other markets, just the 24/7 trading makes a world of difference. Forex market is always trading 7 days a week it never stops except on holidays. Your broker may close on Friday but not the trading..

 

But your story is harmless..enjoy your day

randy

 

randy

Edited by randy1953

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Now what you may be trying to say here is the actual way you execute a order with the MT4 is slower than other platforms but this is not at all how you began this conversation sometime ago

 

Actually I think this is what I have always said, I apologise if I have ever given another impression that has never been my intent. Perhaps you would be good enough to quote what I said and I am sure we can get it cleared up? I have always thought MT4 is perfectly OK charting package but weak for order entry. Once you have used a DOM for order entry it is hard to go back.

 

You said get a broker with fast feeds no latency issues

 

What is wrong with Currenex and Interactive broker on IdealPro ? I wish you would take the trouble to read what I have said rather than just flying off into a rage. Is this not good enough? I also have a 20 meg line and am real close to Telehouse London if that is any help?

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Ok my friend I will accept there was a misunderstanding here and it may have been on my part..sorry if I went off on you I just get so tired of listening to loosers(not you) that all they want to do is find problems and then whine.

 

Your correct BF the more I read what you wrote I do see what your saying and also see why I assume something else..

thanks

randy

 

 

 

Actually I think this is what I have always said, I apologise if I have ever given another impression that has never been my intent. Perhaps you would be good enough to quote what I said and I am sure we can get it cleared up? I have always thought MT4 is perfectly OK charting package but weak for order entry. Once you have used a DOM for order entry it is hard to go back.

 

You said get a broker with fast feeds no latency issues

 

What is wrong with Currenex and Interactive broker on IdealPro ? I wish you would take the trouble to read what I have said rather than just flying off into a rage. Is this not good enough? I also have a 20 meg line and am real close to Telehouse London if that is any help?

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I'm just so surprised no one can understand my frustation here... I tried to help my fellow man, and it just got spat back in my face. I'll leave you guys to it, and I won't bother again in future.

 

Admin please delete my posts and account.

 

Many thanks.

 

I love how every time you get a real trader on this forum who's got information to share that is not completely useless, people just chase him away. No wonder, there is so little useful information to find on forums.

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