Yesterday, our recent open trades totalled +352.
Close to 24 hours later, they are now at +602 :
It just keeps on going! I LOVE trading ......
Tuesday trending
June 23, 2009
Yesterday, our recent open trades totalled +352.
Close to 24 hours later, they are now at +602 :
It just keeps on going! I LOVE trading ......
Yesterday, our recent open trades totalled +352.
Close to 24 hours later, they are now at +602 :
It just keeps on going! I LOVE trading ......
Monday trending
June 22, 2009 - Later
Here's a pic of where things are at 21:10 EST. Apart from the earlier trades which didn't close as I mentioned earlier, you can see that the more recent trades are doing well. These are the results from the trending observation platform:
Here's a pic of where things are at 21:10 EST. Apart from the earlier trades which didn't close as I mentioned earlier, you can see that the more recent trades are doing well. These are the results from the trending observation platform:
Closed trades
June 22, 2009
Well the week has started off slowly and we can see that trending is still in the air. Because of my technical problems of last week (which are now ok), I've got some pairs which didn't close and some trades which weren't taken, so I'll wait for everything to get back in line, probably by tomorrow or Wednesday, to give you actual numbers, but I can still see that generally speaking the trending observation platform is performing better than the ranging one, so that's the direction I went today and here are my most recent closed trades, one from Friday and the other 3 from today:
Not totally spectacular, but I'll take +160 pips anytime. These were manually managed after the EA entered them, by the way. As you know, sometimes I manage the trades once entered, specially at times when we're in a direction which isn't extremely strong, like now. Other times, when I see "mega-trending" for instance, I let the bots do the whole work.
My only current open trade is a sell gbpchf at -15 for the moment and I've still got some pairs' bots turned off. It's a pity in the case of audusd because if you didn't turn your bots off, it should be in the vicinity of a nice and secured trade at +140 right now:
Well the week has started off slowly and we can see that trending is still in the air. Because of my technical problems of last week (which are now ok), I've got some pairs which didn't close and some trades which weren't taken, so I'll wait for everything to get back in line, probably by tomorrow or Wednesday, to give you actual numbers, but I can still see that generally speaking the trending observation platform is performing better than the ranging one, so that's the direction I went today and here are my most recent closed trades, one from Friday and the other 3 from today:
Not totally spectacular, but I'll take +160 pips anytime. These were manually managed after the EA entered them, by the way. As you know, sometimes I manage the trades once entered, specially at times when we're in a direction which isn't extremely strong, like now. Other times, when I see "mega-trending" for instance, I let the bots do the whole work.
My only current open trade is a sell gbpchf at -15 for the moment and I've still got some pairs' bots turned off. It's a pity in the case of audusd because if you didn't turn your bots off, it should be in the vicinity of a nice and secured trade at +140 right now:
Adding sound alerts
June 20, 2009
Here is an interesting article I stumbled upon today about how to implement various types of alerts in to your indicators or EAs. This is for the ones who like to fiddle with programs ;-)
Sound Alerts in Indicators
Introduction
Though automated trading becomes more and more popular, many traders still practice manual trading. So, where an Expert Advisor needs some milliseconds to evaluate the current market situation, a human will spend much time, power and - which is most important - attention.
As a couple of years before, many traders use one or more Technical Indicators. Some strategies consider indicator values on several timeframes simultaneously.
So, how can one "catch" an important signal? There are several choices:
write an Expert Advisor that would analyze the market and alert about important events;
sit in front of the monitor and , switching between tens of charts, try to analyze the information from all of them;
add an alerting system into all indicators used.
The first choice is, in my opinion, the most proper. But it demands either programming skills or money to pay for realization. The second way is very time consuming, tiring, and inefficient. The third choice is a cross between the former two ways. One needs much fewer skills and less time to implement it, but it can really better the lot of the user trading manually.
It is the implementation of the third choice that the article is devoted to. After having read it, every trader will be able to add convenient alerts into indicators.
Types of Alerts
There are many ways to interpret indicators. People can differently understand the meaning of even MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal indicators, not to say about various custom indicators...
Somebody buys when the main line of MACD touches the signal line, another trader waits until it intersects the zero line, and somebody opens a long position when MACD is below 0 and starts moving up. I don't feel myself able to count all possible interpreting variations, so I will just describe the principles of how an alerting block can be added into an indicator. Then you will be able to add any kind of alerts into practically all indicators according to your taste.
The most possible alerts are listed below:
intersection of two lines of an indicator (lie in the example above - the main and the signal line of MACD);
intersection of the indicator line and a certain level (for example, the main line of MACD and zero line, Stoсhastic and levels of 70 and 30, CCI and levels of -100 and 100);
reversed moving of the indicator (for example, AC and AO, normal MA);
changed location towards price (Parabolic SAR);
appearing arrow above or below the price value (Fractals).
There are probably some other interpretations that are forgotten or even not known to me, so we will describe the five ones listed above.
Ways of Alerting
MetaTrader 4 and MQL4 allow implementation of several ways of both visual and audio alerting:
a usual screen message (function Comment);
a records in the log (function Print);
a message window plus a sound (function Alert);
a special sound, a file to be selected and played (function PlaySound).
Besides, there are functions for sending a file to the FTP server (function SendFTP()), displaying a message/dialog box (MessageBox()), and sending mails (SendMail()). Function SendFTP() will hardly be demanded by a regular user, function MessageBox() does not suit for being used in an indicator since it stops its operation until the message box is closed, function SendMail(), though it is good for sending SMS, is rather "dangerous" in use - having drawn a number of indicators in a chart, you will provide yourselves with an endless and uncontrolled stream of messages. The function may be used, but it would be better to use if from an EA, for instance, by sending a message when an alert occurs on several indicators simultaneously, paying much attention to it.
In this article, we will consider only audio and visual ways of alerting in the MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal.
Go here for the rest of the article:
http://articles.mql4.com/374/
Here is an interesting article I stumbled upon today about how to implement various types of alerts in to your indicators or EAs. This is for the ones who like to fiddle with programs ;-)
Sound Alerts in Indicators
Introduction
Though automated trading becomes more and more popular, many traders still practice manual trading. So, where an Expert Advisor needs some milliseconds to evaluate the current market situation, a human will spend much time, power and - which is most important - attention.
As a couple of years before, many traders use one or more Technical Indicators. Some strategies consider indicator values on several timeframes simultaneously.
So, how can one "catch" an important signal? There are several choices:
write an Expert Advisor that would analyze the market and alert about important events;
sit in front of the monitor and , switching between tens of charts, try to analyze the information from all of them;
add an alerting system into all indicators used.
The first choice is, in my opinion, the most proper. But it demands either programming skills or money to pay for realization. The second way is very time consuming, tiring, and inefficient. The third choice is a cross between the former two ways. One needs much fewer skills and less time to implement it, but it can really better the lot of the user trading manually.
It is the implementation of the third choice that the article is devoted to. After having read it, every trader will be able to add convenient alerts into indicators.
Types of Alerts
There are many ways to interpret indicators. People can differently understand the meaning of even MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal indicators, not to say about various custom indicators...
Somebody buys when the main line of MACD touches the signal line, another trader waits until it intersects the zero line, and somebody opens a long position when MACD is below 0 and starts moving up. I don't feel myself able to count all possible interpreting variations, so I will just describe the principles of how an alerting block can be added into an indicator. Then you will be able to add any kind of alerts into practically all indicators according to your taste.
The most possible alerts are listed below:
intersection of two lines of an indicator (lie in the example above - the main and the signal line of MACD);
intersection of the indicator line and a certain level (for example, the main line of MACD and zero line, Stoсhastic and levels of 70 and 30, CCI and levels of -100 and 100);
reversed moving of the indicator (for example, AC and AO, normal MA);
changed location towards price (Parabolic SAR);
appearing arrow above or below the price value (Fractals).
There are probably some other interpretations that are forgotten or even not known to me, so we will describe the five ones listed above.
Ways of Alerting
MetaTrader 4 and MQL4 allow implementation of several ways of both visual and audio alerting:
a usual screen message (function Comment);
a records in the log (function Print);
a message window plus a sound (function Alert);
a special sound, a file to be selected and played (function PlaySound).
Besides, there are functions for sending a file to the FTP server (function SendFTP()), displaying a message/dialog box (MessageBox()), and sending mails (SendMail()). Function SendFTP() will hardly be demanded by a regular user, function MessageBox() does not suit for being used in an indicator since it stops its operation until the message box is closed, function SendMail(), though it is good for sending SMS, is rather "dangerous" in use - having drawn a number of indicators in a chart, you will provide yourselves with an endless and uncontrolled stream of messages. The function may be used, but it would be better to use if from an EA, for instance, by sending a message when an alert occurs on several indicators simultaneously, paying much attention to it.
In this article, we will consider only audio and visual ways of alerting in the MetaTrader 4 Client Terminal.
Go here for the rest of the article:
http://articles.mql4.com/374/
Friday Close
June 15, 2009
Another trading week is behind us! The last 2 days were rather quiet and I've had some problems with both my broker disconnecting at crucial times and for much longer periods than usual, and with my internet provider disconnecting me from the WORLD on a regular basis this week in the evenings. I hope they get their act together because I don't appreciate this at all (I phoned them but they said I had some "noise" on my line and needed to have a tech come by (visit costs 50$)) but this is impossible according to a friend because noise tends to be random, and the disconnects were pretty much "on time" every night... Anyway, I'll see what happens.
In the meantime, I took a pic of my very last trade for the week, eurgbp. This one has been good since the beginning of June with a long, a short, a long and now a baby short (there's even 1 good for about +100 before that but my screen isn't wide enough to include it).
If you took these trades and managed them wisely, you raked in between 400 and 500 pips, which in reality you need to multiply by 1.65 because eurgbp's pips are worth that, so between 660 and 825 and this is one of the least volatile pairs !
I've put a trailing stop there, as you can see of 15 pips.
I turned off some pairs a fews days ago as I mentioned, but if you didn't then your last trade would be usdjpy.
Alright, that's it for now. Wishing you all a happy Friday night!
Another trading week is behind us! The last 2 days were rather quiet and I've had some problems with both my broker disconnecting at crucial times and for much longer periods than usual, and with my internet provider disconnecting me from the WORLD on a regular basis this week in the evenings. I hope they get their act together because I don't appreciate this at all (I phoned them but they said I had some "noise" on my line and needed to have a tech come by (visit costs 50$)) but this is impossible according to a friend because noise tends to be random, and the disconnects were pretty much "on time" every night... Anyway, I'll see what happens.
In the meantime, I took a pic of my very last trade for the week, eurgbp. This one has been good since the beginning of June with a long, a short, a long and now a baby short (there's even 1 good for about +100 before that but my screen isn't wide enough to include it).
If you took these trades and managed them wisely, you raked in between 400 and 500 pips, which in reality you need to multiply by 1.65 because eurgbp's pips are worth that, so between 660 and 825 and this is one of the least volatile pairs !
I've put a trailing stop there, as you can see of 15 pips.
I turned off some pairs a fews days ago as I mentioned, but if you didn't then your last trade would be usdjpy.
Alright, that's it for now. Wishing you all a happy Friday night!
MT4 tip – MQ4 vs EX4
June 18, 2009
What a quiet day… dead, even. Nothing moved. We’re still about the same as I posted yesterday. Total yawn.
So I thought I’d share a small MT4 tip for those of you who wouldn’t know this.
Indicators and Expert Advisors (along with scripts and other things) are programmed using the MQL language (Meta Quotes Language).
Before being compiled, a program will have the extension MQ4. Once compiled (and usable) it will have the extension EX4 (Executable).
Now, let’s say you download an indicator from somewhere and save it in your Experts/indicators folder.
If the file has an MQ4 extension, you will be able to see it in your list of custom indicators but if you try to place it on a chart, it won’t work. Why? Because you need to compile it first. You can do this 2 ways:
1. shut down MT4 and restart. The file will now be compiled as an EX4.
2. if you don’t want to shut down, simply go to Tools, select MetaQuotes Language Editor, then from the right menu, under indicators, locate your file (double-click it). The code will appear in the Editor window. Now, simply click on “compile” (top menu) and you’re done. The file will now be executable (this is also useful if you want to read the code or modify it).
If the file has an EX4 extension, this means it is not readable, nor modifiable (technically). It will show up as “grayed out” in your list of indicators. You can’t do anything in MT4 to get it to work except shut down MT4 and restart. After you do this, the file will be active.
Hope this helps in clearing up some MT4 intricacies.
Now let’s hope tomorrow brings some a c t I o n !
What a quiet day… dead, even. Nothing moved. We’re still about the same as I posted yesterday. Total yawn.
So I thought I’d share a small MT4 tip for those of you who wouldn’t know this.
Indicators and Expert Advisors (along with scripts and other things) are programmed using the MQL language (Meta Quotes Language).
Before being compiled, a program will have the extension MQ4. Once compiled (and usable) it will have the extension EX4 (Executable).
Now, let’s say you download an indicator from somewhere and save it in your Experts/indicators folder.
If the file has an MQ4 extension, you will be able to see it in your list of custom indicators but if you try to place it on a chart, it won’t work. Why? Because you need to compile it first. You can do this 2 ways:
1. shut down MT4 and restart. The file will now be compiled as an EX4.
2. if you don’t want to shut down, simply go to Tools, select MetaQuotes Language Editor, then from the right menu, under indicators, locate your file (double-click it). The code will appear in the Editor window. Now, simply click on “compile” (top menu) and you’re done. The file will now be executable (this is also useful if you want to read the code or modify it).
If the file has an EX4 extension, this means it is not readable, nor modifiable (technically). It will show up as “grayed out” in your list of indicators. You can’t do anything in MT4 to get it to work except shut down MT4 and restart. After you do this, the file will be active.
Hope this helps in clearing up some MT4 intricacies.
Now let’s hope tomorrow brings some a c t I o n !
Should you trade during news?
June 17, 2009
Today we’re seemingly seeing some pairs lose steam trending-wise and gaining ranging-wise. I wouldn’t switch just yet because we need further confirmation on more than just a few pairs. The trending is still strong at +1000 but the ranging is gaining a bit at +120. I did turn some off in my real account earlier though and these movements may not have anything to do with market direction but rather with news announcements. There were some important ones today for CHF, GBP & USD.
I mentioned earlier that I don’t include the news aspect into my trading strategy because I simply don’t clearly see the relationship all the time. Sometimes there will be huge news and no market reaction and sometimes you’ll get this WTF 1H bar like the world is coming to an end, and you search and search the news and find absolutely no justification. And of course, sometimes there are news AND a market reaction. But all this seems so random to me.
I have read articles and books on “how to trade the news” and you’ll find many threads and even whole supra-threads dedicated to all sorts of approaches based on news. A few years back, I got a few indicators that show upcoming news directly on your screen. Here’s one:
I guess this is fine if you’re only trading 1 or 2 pairs, but with 10 pairs up on your screen, things will get a bit crammed. If you’ve got 2 screens, then it might be an option, if you so choose to integrate news and trading.
You can find the calendar indicator and a template in the download link. You can place the calendar directly on a pair, it won’t affect anything. But PULL UP AN ADDITIONAL CHART if you intend to use the template (to get a screen like in my pic) because it will erase your bot and everything else you’ve got on your pair screen.
Calendar indicator: FFCal.mq4 (copy to your Experts/Indicators folder)
Calendar template: FFCal.tpl (copy to your Templates folder)
Today we’re seemingly seeing some pairs lose steam trending-wise and gaining ranging-wise. I wouldn’t switch just yet because we need further confirmation on more than just a few pairs. The trending is still strong at +1000 but the ranging is gaining a bit at +120. I did turn some off in my real account earlier though and these movements may not have anything to do with market direction but rather with news announcements. There were some important ones today for CHF, GBP & USD.
I mentioned earlier that I don’t include the news aspect into my trading strategy because I simply don’t clearly see the relationship all the time. Sometimes there will be huge news and no market reaction and sometimes you’ll get this WTF 1H bar like the world is coming to an end, and you search and search the news and find absolutely no justification. And of course, sometimes there are news AND a market reaction. But all this seems so random to me.
I have read articles and books on “how to trade the news” and you’ll find many threads and even whole supra-threads dedicated to all sorts of approaches based on news. A few years back, I got a few indicators that show upcoming news directly on your screen. Here’s one:
I guess this is fine if you’re only trading 1 or 2 pairs, but with 10 pairs up on your screen, things will get a bit crammed. If you’ve got 2 screens, then it might be an option, if you so choose to integrate news and trading.
You can find the calendar indicator and a template in the download link. You can place the calendar directly on a pair, it won’t affect anything. But PULL UP AN ADDITIONAL CHART if you intend to use the template (to get a screen like in my pic) because it will erase your bot and everything else you’ve got on your pair screen.
Calendar indicator: FFCal.mq4 (copy to your Experts/Indicators folder)
Calendar template: FFCal.tpl (copy to your Templates folder)
Less performing pairs
June 16, 2009
If you're new to this system, I'd advise you to wait a bit before trading the 3 less performing pairs (see post of May 30 for details) which are usdchf, usdjpy, and audusd as they tend to play the recross game more than the others (although when the do re-cross, the losses aren't as significant).
Here's a current pic of audusd. You can see it did a nice short there 3 days ago, which closed out at nice profit, but today there was a buy which re-crossed (at a small loss) and now we're in a sell which is a few pips in the red. I'm not saying not to trade these 3 pairs, just maybe wait in the beginning because it's frustrating to start with re-crosses (even if the losses are small, it's FRUSTRATING).
If you're new to this system, I'd advise you to wait a bit before trading the 3 less performing pairs (see post of May 30 for details) which are usdchf, usdjpy, and audusd as they tend to play the recross game more than the others (although when the do re-cross, the losses aren't as significant).
Here's a current pic of audusd. You can see it did a nice short there 3 days ago, which closed out at nice profit, but today there was a buy which re-crossed (at a small loss) and now we're in a sell which is a few pips in the red. I'm not saying not to trade these 3 pairs, just maybe wait in the beginning because it's frustrating to start with re-crosses (even if the losses are small, it's FRUSTRATING).
Mega trending !
I'm so happy for those who recently joined us. Look at this, this is just a few hours after my last pic:
No comment required ;-)
No comment required ;-)
Beautiful week beginning
June 15, 2009
Beautiful week beginning. We started the week at yesterday’s open at +531 and we’re currently (Monday 1pm) at +1,180 as you can see below. You should add to that eurgbp at +203 and gbpjpy at +154 for a total of a bit over + 1,500.
Happy trading !
Beautiful week beginning. We started the week at yesterday’s open at +531 and we’re currently (Monday 1pm) at +1,180 as you can see below. You should add to that eurgbp at +203 and gbpjpy at +154 for a total of a bit over + 1,500.
Happy trading !
Trading Guidelines
June 14, 2009
I’ve put together what I’ve learned from experience and from others about what I think are important elements which will make your trading experience better. These are:
1. Have fun!
2. Follow a system thoroughly and stick to it if you believe in it.
3. Absolutely trade with money you have already lost in you mind (it’s spent already, ok?)
4. Consider the profits (or losses) as pips or points or whatever, but never as “money” while trading. You’re making “points” here for the moment.
5. When your boyfriend (or girlfriend, of course, or whomever happens to be watching your trades while you’re sleeping) wakes you up at 4am with a totally panicky look and announces in a freaky voice “YOU’RE NOW DOWN XXX PIPS!!!!!!!!”, tell him to breath slowly. Then immediately turn on the side and go back to sleep, pushing him/her out the room with a annoyed gesture of the hand. You’re in control.
6. Never nurse your trades – go to a game site/install a game and go play games or go do something else. Let your trades breath.
7. Enjoy your learning – small seemingly meaningless building blocks will eventually start making a heck of alada sense.
8. Did I mention BE PATIENT?
9. This is my favourite: Believe me there WILL BE another (many, many others in fact) great trading opportunities tomorrow, next week, and the week after that, really!
10. I truly love robots (EAs or Expert Advisors) but you still need your brain to make decisions about market direction. So a good partnership between bots and personal decisions is the way to go.
11. Trust your judgement – don’t hesitate, and be responsible for the consequences.
12. Totally enjoy your gains – you made them happen. You’re the one trading and the markets absolutely don’t care about you. YOU ARE ALONE! So tap yourself on the back for making such great decisions and having a great time.
13. Go slowly. Take the time to analyse the situation. Don’t rush decisions only to regret them afterwards.
14. Be grateful for the fact that you have this great privilege of actually being able to trade.
15. Try to be nice to others as much as possible and don’t forget to give back as much as possible.
I’ve put together what I’ve learned from experience and from others about what I think are important elements which will make your trading experience better. These are:
1. Have fun!
2. Follow a system thoroughly and stick to it if you believe in it.
3. Absolutely trade with money you have already lost in you mind (it’s spent already, ok?)
4. Consider the profits (or losses) as pips or points or whatever, but never as “money” while trading. You’re making “points” here for the moment.
5. When your boyfriend (or girlfriend, of course, or whomever happens to be watching your trades while you’re sleeping) wakes you up at 4am with a totally panicky look and announces in a freaky voice “YOU’RE NOW DOWN XXX PIPS!!!!!!!!”, tell him to breath slowly. Then immediately turn on the side and go back to sleep, pushing him/her out the room with a annoyed gesture of the hand. You’re in control.
6. Never nurse your trades – go to a game site/install a game and go play games or go do something else. Let your trades breath.
7. Enjoy your learning – small seemingly meaningless building blocks will eventually start making a heck of alada sense.
8. Did I mention BE PATIENT?
9. This is my favourite: Believe me there WILL BE another (many, many others in fact) great trading opportunities tomorrow, next week, and the week after that, really!
10. I truly love robots (EAs or Expert Advisors) but you still need your brain to make decisions about market direction. So a good partnership between bots and personal decisions is the way to go.
11. Trust your judgement – don’t hesitate, and be responsible for the consequences.
12. Totally enjoy your gains – you made them happen. You’re the one trading and the markets absolutely don’t care about you. YOU ARE ALONE! So tap yourself on the back for making such great decisions and having a great time.
13. Go slowly. Take the time to analyse the situation. Don’t rush decisions only to regret them afterwards.
14. Be grateful for the fact that you have this great privilege of actually being able to trade.
15. Try to be nice to others as much as possible and don’t forget to give back as much as possible.
Diversification in Forex
June 12, 2009
The week is coming to a close (already!). It started off (mon, tue, wed) with strong trending, then yesterday and today (thu, fri) we had some whipsaws in some pairs, maybe due to some news about the upcoming G8 meeting this week-end ? All in all, here is our winner for the week, GBPJPY at +400 and our loser for the week (in terms of open trades) GBPUSD currently at –115 (but closed at +231 earlier) along with GBPCHF at -29. You can see gbpusd whipsawed.
EURGBP is also still showing good strength at close to +200 and USDCHF which came close to crossing but continued its down-movement, currently at +35. GBPAUD fooled around a bit on Wednesday and Thursday, but seems to be back on track at +58.
Some of you are trading just one pair, others a few pairs and others all pairs. The important thing is to keep all pairs going in your observation platforms. Since you’ve got 10 pairs showing you if they’re biased one way or the other, you’re benefiting from diversification which is as important in forex as elsewhere. This also helps in developing an eye for correlations and influences by some pairs on others and can enlighten your decisions about exits or moving SLs.
I wish all a peaceful week-end and hope to see you back Sunday evening !
The week is coming to a close (already!). It started off (mon, tue, wed) with strong trending, then yesterday and today (thu, fri) we had some whipsaws in some pairs, maybe due to some news about the upcoming G8 meeting this week-end ? All in all, here is our winner for the week, GBPJPY at +400 and our loser for the week (in terms of open trades) GBPUSD currently at –115 (but closed at +231 earlier) along with GBPCHF at -29. You can see gbpusd whipsawed.
EURGBP is also still showing good strength at close to +200 and USDCHF which came close to crossing but continued its down-movement, currently at +35. GBPAUD fooled around a bit on Wednesday and Thursday, but seems to be back on track at +58.
Some of you are trading just one pair, others a few pairs and others all pairs. The important thing is to keep all pairs going in your observation platforms. Since you’ve got 10 pairs showing you if they’re biased one way or the other, you’re benefiting from diversification which is as important in forex as elsewhere. This also helps in developing an eye for correlations and influences by some pairs on others and can enlighten your decisions about exits or moving SLs.
I wish all a peaceful week-end and hope to see you back Sunday evening !
Why are my trades different from yours ?
June 11, 2009
You'll sometimes notice small discrepancies between 2 platforms. These are due to any of several factors for which we can't do much.
You'll notice that some trades are sometimes omitted because of error messages or other technicalities like your broker doing maintenance (and disconnecting you for a short period) at the time a trade should have been taken. Or sometimes, if I hear the alert but no trade is automatically taken (for any reason) I'll enter it manually, so the price might be off a few pips. If I'm not near my computer (sleeping for example), well no trade will be taken (see 2nd screenshot). There are also the broker "requotes" which will make the price a bit off of when the alert went off. Also,depending on your broker, the entry or exit prices might be slightly different.
Here is a screenshot I just took a few minutes ago.
If you count the pairs, you'll see that there are 9 and that EURGBP is missing. I had some technical problem last monday with this one, but I hope you didn't because look at this:
Do you see the red triangle? (this is my real account, by the way). This is where you should have entered. I got out at some point, as you can see, but if you're still in, you're about 150 pips in the green which equals about $262 USD since this pair's pips are worth approx. $1.75.
Variations in spreads from broker to broker may also make a difference, along with which deposit currency you're trading in.
Other possibilities include trades not being taken for various reasons. Go here to read about what to do/check when this happens.
You'll sometimes notice small discrepancies between 2 platforms. These are due to any of several factors for which we can't do much.
You'll notice that some trades are sometimes omitted because of error messages or other technicalities like your broker doing maintenance (and disconnecting you for a short period) at the time a trade should have been taken. Or sometimes, if I hear the alert but no trade is automatically taken (for any reason) I'll enter it manually, so the price might be off a few pips. If I'm not near my computer (sleeping for example), well no trade will be taken (see 2nd screenshot). There are also the broker "requotes" which will make the price a bit off of when the alert went off. Also,depending on your broker, the entry or exit prices might be slightly different.
Here is a screenshot I just took a few minutes ago.
If you count the pairs, you'll see that there are 9 and that EURGBP is missing. I had some technical problem last monday with this one, but I hope you didn't because look at this:
Do you see the red triangle? (this is my real account, by the way). This is where you should have entered. I got out at some point, as you can see, but if you're still in, you're about 150 pips in the green which equals about $262 USD since this pair's pips are worth approx. $1.75.
Variations in spreads from broker to broker may also make a difference, along with which deposit currency you're trading in.
Other possibilities include trades not being taken for various reasons. Go here to read about what to do/check when this happens.
Eurusd and usdchf and Hedging
June 10, 2009 EURSUD & USDCHF
These 2 pairs are inversely correlated at about 97%.
What does that mean exactly? Well it means that if they were inversely correlated at 100%, they'd be like mirrors and every time eurusd went up a pip, usdchf would go down 1 pip. But it’s 97%, so there’s a slight discrepancy there which I investigated in extensive detail last autumn and which might be one day the subject of another blog (you can download a correlation table from the download page, if the subject interests you).
But I want to you to focus on something which happened today, and it’s the first time I see it happen. Look at those 2 pairs in the pic below, taken a few minutes ago:
What you’re basically seeing is a hedge (or a 97% hedge, if you’re picky).
What happened is that a sell eurusd happened at the same time as a buy usdchf earlier today (this was an anti-hedge). Then usdchf recrossed, the trade was closed and retaken as a short. So basically, now it's become a hedge, so we can’t win here with 2 shorts. One of the 2 is going to start going long, but not both because it’s impossible. And at the same time, the other will be losing money. Doesn’t really matter which one wins/looses. But we’re stuck in a hedge. There are worse things. A hedge means you’re not “makin’” and your not “losin'”. At some point, one will hit its SL but the other will be almost exactly the same amount in profit.
It’s the first time this happens because the moving averages for the 2 pairs are quite different. Ok, so we won’t be making money with these 2, but let’s have some fun and take bets. Which one do you think will win, eurusd or usdchf ????
These 2 pairs are inversely correlated at about 97%.
What does that mean exactly? Well it means that if they were inversely correlated at 100%, they'd be like mirrors and every time eurusd went up a pip, usdchf would go down 1 pip. But it’s 97%, so there’s a slight discrepancy there which I investigated in extensive detail last autumn and which might be one day the subject of another blog (you can download a correlation table from the download page, if the subject interests you).
But I want to you to focus on something which happened today, and it’s the first time I see it happen. Look at those 2 pairs in the pic below, taken a few minutes ago:
What you’re basically seeing is a hedge (or a 97% hedge, if you’re picky).
What happened is that a sell eurusd happened at the same time as a buy usdchf earlier today (this was an anti-hedge). Then usdchf recrossed, the trade was closed and retaken as a short. So basically, now it's become a hedge, so we can’t win here with 2 shorts. One of the 2 is going to start going long, but not both because it’s impossible. And at the same time, the other will be losing money. Doesn’t really matter which one wins/looses. But we’re stuck in a hedge. There are worse things. A hedge means you’re not “makin’” and your not “losin'”. At some point, one will hit its SL but the other will be almost exactly the same amount in profit.
It’s the first time this happens because the moving averages for the 2 pairs are quite different. Ok, so we won’t be making money with these 2, but let’s have some fun and take bets. Which one do you think will win, eurusd or usdchf ????
We're still A TRENDING !
Well things are still going great at 4am (my time) and I'm off to bed and hoping you're part of this great action. See you tomorrow.
What do I do if the EA doesn't take a trade
June 9, 2009
Let’s say you clearly see that a cross has happened, but your bot doesn’t enter a trade. You need to check for a few things:
1 - Make sure the EA activation button (Expert Advisors)is green (or click on it to make it active):
2 – From the top menu, choose TOOLS then OPTIONS. The Experts tab should look like this:
3 - Right click on any pair, choose Exert Avisor, Properties, Common, and make sure everything is checked like this:
4 - Try shutting down and restarting your MT4 platform. Alternately, do a Clean-Up of your computer using your preferred software, completely close Windows, count 30 seconds (so the memory is completely erased)then restart your computer.
5- When you hear a signal alert (bell) and/or you see the alert pop-up window and no trade is taken, wait a few minutes, then look at the Experts tab, at the bottom.
If you see something like this(Alert: Moving Average Cross Down!), the EA has recognized a valid cross. Then look at the Journal tab next to it. Here is where you will see error messages, if any.
An error which sometimes occurs is "No Error". I don't know of any “cure” for this as of now. Simply enter the trade manually if you wish or wait for the next signal.
Something else which can happen, and is broker-related, is the message "Trade Context Busy". Again, enter the trade manually if you wish, there is nothing any programmer can do about this, it is broker related.
Everyday, a log file is created for all trades/activity and stored on your computer. You can access these files and look for any anomaly. The files are located here:
c:\Program Files\mt4 Ob Trend\logs\*.* and looks like this:
You can see the "trade context busy" in this example about at mid-page.
Finally, try opening a demo with a different broker as (possibly) some brokers are not EA friendly (or so I've heard).
If all else fails, fly me an email, and we'll see what we can do.
Let’s say you clearly see that a cross has happened, but your bot doesn’t enter a trade. You need to check for a few things:
1 - Make sure the EA activation button (Expert Advisors)is green (or click on it to make it active):
2 – From the top menu, choose TOOLS then OPTIONS. The Experts tab should look like this:
3 - Right click on any pair, choose Exert Avisor, Properties, Common, and make sure everything is checked like this:
4 - Try shutting down and restarting your MT4 platform. Alternately, do a Clean-Up of your computer using your preferred software, completely close Windows, count 30 seconds (so the memory is completely erased)then restart your computer.
5- When you hear a signal alert (bell) and/or you see the alert pop-up window and no trade is taken, wait a few minutes, then look at the Experts tab, at the bottom.
If you see something like this(Alert: Moving Average Cross Down!), the EA has recognized a valid cross. Then look at the Journal tab next to it. Here is where you will see error messages, if any.
An error which sometimes occurs is "No Error". I don't know of any “cure” for this as of now. Simply enter the trade manually if you wish or wait for the next signal.
Something else which can happen, and is broker-related, is the message "Trade Context Busy". Again, enter the trade manually if you wish, there is nothing any programmer can do about this, it is broker related.
Everyday, a log file is created for all trades/activity and stored on your computer. You can access these files and look for any anomaly. The files are located here:
c:\Program Files\mt4 Ob Trend\logs\*.* and looks like this:
You can see the "trade context busy" in this example about at mid-page.
Finally, try opening a demo with a different broker as (possibly) some brokers are not EA friendly (or so I've heard).
If all else fails, fly me an email, and we'll see what we can do.
Current open trades
June 9, 2009
It's been a slow day apart from gbpusd and audusd being on a roller coaster but fortunately I came out at a bit over BE. Here are the trades in my live account which I still have open:
usdchf was just recently taken and I upped my SL for audusd to .7999 to make sure I secure some nice pips, should it start losing steam (you can see it came very close to being hit in the last hour). We're still seeing strong trending, so I'm still in for the upcoming days.
Happy trading !
It's been a slow day apart from gbpusd and audusd being on a roller coaster but fortunately I came out at a bit over BE. Here are the trades in my live account which I still have open:
usdchf was just recently taken and I upped my SL for audusd to .7999 to make sure I secure some nice pips, should it start losing steam (you can see it came very close to being hit in the last hour). We're still seeing strong trending, so I'm still in for the upcoming days.
Happy trading !
Center of Gravity indicator mq4
June 8, 2009
I just realized I hadn't uploaded the indicator Center of Gravity as I said I would back in April and I completely forgot about it. Sorry about that. It is now on the download link.
If you want more info on how to use it, go to "Articles 22 to 29 "
I just realized I hadn't uploaded the indicator Center of Gravity as I said I would back in April and I completely forgot about it. Sorry about that. It is now on the download link.
If you want more info on how to use it, go to "Articles 22 to 29 "
GBPJPY
June 8, 2009 - Later
GBPJPY has been playing games with us recently as you can see in the pic.
There was a long taken where you see the green arrow (that's Friday afternoon). Then after a few bars there’s a blank followed by my broker finally opening 1.5 hours late (at 17h30 my time). I had put an SL on Friday at 8 pips, and when my broker opened, the SL was hit (a pip is a pip). Later there was a recross (short) where you see the red arrow, but gbpjpy decided it wasn’t feeling short at all. I didn’t move my SL and went to bed and at noon today, upon recross up, the trade was closed at a loss (it happens). There was no re-entry for me in my real account because of “trade context busy” and I didn’t enter manually because I was away from the computer. But as you can see below, it’s currently up 25 pips and here I would put my SL to BE+1 (break-even plus 1 or at 157.72).
Most of the others are doing great at a current total of +2000.
(I’m trying to post smaller images because of space availability, but these are, respectively:
gbpusd, usdjpy, eurusd, gbpchf, audusd, eurjpy, gbpjpy)
Later
I wrote the above around 3 o'clock this afternoon. It's now 17:06 and GBPJPY is up at +35. I'll post a pic a little later.
Update: June 15, 2009
Well, that trade finally closed today at noon at a very nice +300 pips !!!
GBPJPY has been playing games with us recently as you can see in the pic.
There was a long taken where you see the green arrow (that's Friday afternoon). Then after a few bars there’s a blank followed by my broker finally opening 1.5 hours late (at 17h30 my time). I had put an SL on Friday at 8 pips, and when my broker opened, the SL was hit (a pip is a pip). Later there was a recross (short) where you see the red arrow, but gbpjpy decided it wasn’t feeling short at all. I didn’t move my SL and went to bed and at noon today, upon recross up, the trade was closed at a loss (it happens). There was no re-entry for me in my real account because of “trade context busy” and I didn’t enter manually because I was away from the computer. But as you can see below, it’s currently up 25 pips and here I would put my SL to BE+1 (break-even plus 1 or at 157.72).
Most of the others are doing great at a current total of +2000.
(I’m trying to post smaller images because of space availability, but these are, respectively:
gbpusd, usdjpy, eurusd, gbpchf, audusd, eurjpy, gbpjpy)
Later
I wrote the above around 3 o'clock this afternoon. It's now 17:06 and GBPJPY is up at +35. I'll post a pic a little later.
Update: June 15, 2009
Well, that trade finally closed today at noon at a very nice +300 pips !!!
Manually managing trades taken by the EAs
June 8, 2009
I thought I had clearly illustrated that I sometimes let the EAs do everything and sometimes I just let them Enter but I then manage my trades manually. This means you can always manage your trades after they have been entered by the EAs. Some of you thought that once the robot takes a trade, it has “full control” over the rest of the destiny of the trades and you can’t do anything but watch it. It isn’t the case at all.
You can ALWAYS manually modify ALL the trades that the EA has taken. For example, you can modifiy the stop loss, you can put a trailing stop (of x pips, of your choice), you can modify or put a TP (of your choice) or you can simply exit a trade when you want.
To do so, in the TERMINAL WINDOW right-click on the trade you wish to modify:
SL & TP
Choose "Modify or delete order". You will have the choice for SL and TP. You can use the defaut which is suggested or put in your preferred numbers manually.
Trailing stop
Choose "Trailing stop". You can use the suggestions or "custom" and put in your numbers (minimum 15 pips).
Exit trade
Choose "Close order”, then “close” to confirm.
I thought I had clearly illustrated that I sometimes let the EAs do everything and sometimes I just let them Enter but I then manage my trades manually. This means you can always manage your trades after they have been entered by the EAs. Some of you thought that once the robot takes a trade, it has “full control” over the rest of the destiny of the trades and you can’t do anything but watch it. It isn’t the case at all.
You can ALWAYS manually modify ALL the trades that the EA has taken. For example, you can modifiy the stop loss, you can put a trailing stop (of x pips, of your choice), you can modify or put a TP (of your choice) or you can simply exit a trade when you want.
To do so, in the TERMINAL WINDOW right-click on the trade you wish to modify:
SL & TP
Choose "Modify or delete order". You will have the choice for SL and TP. You can use the defaut which is suggested or put in your preferred numbers manually.
Trailing stop
Choose "Trailing stop". You can use the suggestions or "custom" and put in your numbers (minimum 15 pips).
Exit trade
Choose "Close order”, then “close” to confirm.
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