POOLER/SAN Stunning generosity

[SteveHopwood]

V 1a is in post one with this fix. Nice one, dlewisfl.

A few other changes that can (or should) be made.

- The "BrokerIsECN" user input does nothing, there is no code for it. I deleted it on mine.
- The "Slippage" user input does nothing, there's no code for it. The value of 6 is hard-coded for slippage in all of the OrderSend commands. I changed each 6 to be the Slippage user input.
- The color for the "PivotLine" object is hard-coded as "Black" in the code, doesn't work well for those who use black background. I created a user-input for it on my version.

Hmmmmm. As I glanced through the code, I saw a few bits and bats that looked remarkably like stuff from my ea's.

Looks like A Cowboy decided to pinch my stuff and failed to use it properly. Hey ho. All I can do is provide the original and hope that Cowboys are not too thick to do anything useful with it. Seems like a wasted hope here.

Guys, understand that my interest in what happens here is limited. I do not know what this ea does or how it trades - I have yet to add it to a demo, although I shall do so tomorrow. Let's just say that I am not hopeful of good results. So, it follows as night follows day that I am not going to try to keep up with umpteen revisions contributed haphazerdly.

So, dlewisfl, are you able to adapt the code inthe modified version in post 1 and add the relevant update history and update the version number and post it here? If so, fantastic and thanks; I will make it the post 1 version. When coders add to my code in other ea's or by pm, I add an appreciation of their work to the commentary. This is not my bot, so please add your own, "I did this" sort of thingy. "//Code added/deleted/adapted by dlewisfl who is also doing his best to drag this Abortion of code into the 20th century" sort of thing. 20th century was not a typo.

[atharmian]

Steve,

May I dare suggest that you kindly ask all contributors of code to also include a text/pdf file with Strategy and Implementations options notes?

This way many of us would benefit because it is difficult to read all the thread comments to ascertain what the latest and greatest stuff is all about. Those who update code can also update the notes as well There are some very smart people here, but it can all get lost quickly.

As I read in Punch Magazine a while ago: Marketing without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. Only you know.

So let's be bold.

Athar.

There are other variables defined globally that should be defined locally, as well as other inefficiencies (e.g. not using arrays and copy/pasting code unnecessarily, the number of times he reads through the order pool each tick, using the error message function in the source instead of using an include, needlessly defining variables). The source file for this EA could easily be ~500 lines instead of the 1400+ and be much more efficient.

You are right, for a coder this EA looks like a spaghetti western. Keep in mind though that we are talking to non coders too. It is easier to just intialize the global variables locally. If this EA is any good someone should do a serious rewrite, I'm sure more issues, dare I say bugs, will surface.

Paul

I have started to clean it up - replacing Point with factor, adding CloseEnough etc, as well as removing all those Print() statements that were gumming up the log files. I will put it up later and you guys can have another look.

[monkeh]

Hi Pooler, using your settings on the Euro on a 5min chart from 1/1/2005-5/31/2012:

30k became 58,287, which is about 13%/yr. without money management. I started with 30k because you said you start with 3k. It does just avoid that 9/12/10 trade that would blow about any account.

One idea is that you could scratch the martingale idea, maybe use 1-4 levels but then opt for a stop loss, and see if when incorporating MM compounding the strategy works.

hi Pooler and all,

thanks to everyone for sharing the EA's and ideas.

in no way i want to disregard Poolers generosity, but i just like to point out that there is highly customizable tool for such ideas (including this one) with lots of inputs, safety features and recovery options (including hedging) etc.
its free and comes with source code - http://www.jtatoday.info/wiki/index.php ... ilehistory
ok, maybe it doesnt have trading hours built in, but i think that can be sorted ;]

i had it running quite successfully for some 8-9 months but i got tired of occasionally big DD's. i never risked more than 20% of my account, but its too painful to watch loosing 500 bucks for a profit of 3$.

[tx413]

Steve,

May I dare suggest that you kindly ask all contributors of code to also include a text/pdf file with Strategy and Implementations options notes?

This way many of us would benefit because it is difficult to read all the thread comments to ascertain what the latest and greatest stuff is all about. Those who update code can also update the notes as well There are some very smart people here, but it can all get lost quickly.

As I read in Punch Magazine a while ago: Marketing without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. Only you know.

So let's be bold.

Athar.

Athar, what you ask is known as a "slippery slope" to many. You are asking to put extra work, however small it may be, on the contributors of ideas and code here. That extra tiny little "rule" or "restriction" will make many contributors think that it's just too much effort for their small little idea, so they won't post it.

However, many will follow the new rules and continue to contribute. Then, once we've started adding rules, it will be all too easy to add more. Like maybe we need more comments in the code so "anyone can modify it." Or we might try to impose some sort of structured coding standard.

Little by little, the contributions will fall off. Before you know it, the free flow of ideas is stifled because as lazy as us humans are, nobody wants to do all that extra work.

If you are thinking "but I'm only asking for this one little thing -- some documentation!" Believe me, I've seen this many times. Once it starts, it's a "slippery slope" that you will have trouble not falling into.

Just my two pips.

[atharmian]

TX413,


I understand your concerns. But all I am saying is that at least there ought to be some initial doc, and which need not be updated after every page of postings, just 'occasionally' depending on the main contributors.

The slippery slope is what we see today- lots of good discussions, but it all will be lost as soon as someone starts a new thread, next week.

Just look at Bob's 10.2 > 10.2A > 10.3 transitions. And now lots of people want to know the basics behind 10.2 in the first place- most comments are really about a lack of knowledge about the basic methodology. Just think about Steve shutting down his GYH thread in frustration because most commentators were confused. Ironically those included Steve himself with his first EA iteration, now corrected.

Lack of documentation is a great burden on the overall productivity of this otherwise wonderful forum (some think the best one in Empty4 forex nowadays.)

Ideation is great, but discipline is even better. Think of why open source is still an orphan and why crappy systems like Windows and Empty4 (having liberally benefitted from the labors of open source volunteers without even acknowledgement) have market share- in one phrase, ease of use. At the end of the day we all want to trade live profitably.

Regards,
Athar.

Steve,

May I dare suggest that you kindly ask all contributors of code to also include a text/pdf file with Strategy and Implementations options notes?

This way many of us would benefit because it is difficult to read all the thread comments to ascertain what the latest and greatest stuff is all about. Those who update code can also update the notes as well There are some very smart people here, but it can all get lost quickly.

As I read in Punch Magazine a while ago: Marketing without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. Only you know.

So let's be bold.

Athar.

Athar, what you ask is known as a "slippery slope" to many. You are asking to put extra work, however small it may be, on the contributors of ideas and code here. That extra tiny little "rule" or "restriction" will make many contributors think that it's just too much effort for their small little idea, so they won't post it.

However, many will follow the new rules and continue to contribute. Then, once we've started adding rules, it will be all too easy to add more. Like maybe we need more comments in the code so "anyone can modify it." Or we might try to impose some sort of structured coding standard.

Little by little, the contributions will fall off. Before you know it, the free flow of ideas is stifled because as lazy as us humans are, nobody wants to do all that extra work.

If you are thinking "but I'm only asking for this one little thing -- some documentation!" Believe me, I've seen this many times. Once it starts, it's a "slippery slope" that you will have trouble not falling into.

Just my two pips.

[Pooler]

For those still interested.

Here's that GU trade from last Thursday night.

At the moment I'm trading all the Jpy pairs, AudUsd, EurAud, EurNzd, EurUsd, GbpAud, GbpNzd, GbpUsd. There are often days like today (23h00 last night) when the Asian session is comatose and no trades are taken.

[cosmo]

I don't understand your spreadsheet in regards a set file for the Euro, but if you post your settings I'll backtest them for the Euro.

I have found so far using the OTB settings but changing the lot structure to 1 2 4 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 avoids the blow up of 9/12/10 and survives the 7.5 years. However during my backtest on 9/7/2009 if there was just 20k in the account it would have blown up, 22k works, so to be "safe" I would say a starting 25k balance trading .1 lots is necessary on a 50:1 criminal. My test started with 20k and it turned into 52,500 from 1/1/2005-5/31/2012, 7.5 years.

Since this worked I then tried to extend the pivot times to 24 hours to get more trades and perhaps increase profit, but this blew up on 9/5/2007.

I also tried changing the profit structure from OTB to 90 75 70 60 50 50 50 50 50, but didn't see a real increase.

Personally I will not be trading this live until I have $2500 I can easily kiss goodbye. The settings that work seem too fickle and when the pivots are extended to the full day there is a blow up. I know of other Ea's that statistically produce the same or better profit without the blow up risk.

This method seems to be high risk with small return, if you want to earn 10-13% pa invest in the share market.

[Pooler]

Hi,

I agree. But you will earn 2% per currency pair per month. If you do the maths then you'll agree this adds up to a lot of pips in a fairly short while. With no losses. But with the laws of forex that means there is some down side which is draw down.

Thanks for all the answers and participation but (as per post 1) I already stated this was the EA 's weakness so no need to point it out. What I'm looking for is something to offset the danger of dd while not having to compromise the strong points that allows this EA to spit out the pips like a machine.

If we could crack that then we'll all have a fearsome automated system with very little down side. I'm sure the brains trust on this forum can crack this conundrum...i've seen far more thornier problems solved here in the past.

Or am I being unrealistic?

Thanks

Apologies. That GU trade still open--chart att.

[peterke]

Hi,

If we could crack that then we'll all have a fearsome automated system with very little down side. I'm sure the brains trust on this forum can crack this conundrum...i've seen far more thornier problems solved here in the past.

Or am I being unrealistic?

Thanks

Apologies. That GU trade still open--chart att.

Pooler, hi, here are some thoughts on how to solve the problem. I have limited experience with grid trading but are playing around with a version of pipstrider that is a martingale style grid trader.

First thought is that we need to make a distinction between the regular trade which retraces and makes a profit as expected and the rogue trade that goes in the opposite direction. From reading the thread it may only be 5% of trades that cause the pain.

For regular trades all is fine so what can we do to solve the problem of rogue trades.

An observation is that most grid traders have too many levels which means that they keep doubling up to the point of destroying the account. I think you are not strictly doubling but the point is the same. If we limit the levels to say 7 rather than 10 or more your regular trades will still close but the draw down per pip for the rogue trade that goes in the wrong direction is considerably less. I think this approach may also allow you to increase your initial lot size and increase trade profits.

When your rogue trade goes beyond your level ( say 7) and reaches level 8 I think hedging all of the accumulated open trades is key. It takes the fear of further drawdown away and allows you to assess the situation. Your EA could be set up to do this automatically.

Trading out of the situation could be done using the existing strategy but waiting for the eventual pullback and timing it (hopefully), just taking the loss, or another hedge exit approach. I think the whole question is about the best strategy for hedge exit.

One of the things I would consider per pair is previous behaviour - eg Average Daily range is good but some pairs have periods where they go in one direction with no retracement ( say EURAUD) while others with a similiar ADR don't. You may need to have a Hedge recovery approach that allows you to trade out either way.

rgds

Peter

[That Trader]

For what it's worth, this is my results from yesterday. I changed setting to the original stated settings to change. Tomorrow/today I will change the settings of the different markets as per latest pooler supplied spread sheet. Lot sizes where starting at 0.1 . After taking this gif, last trade closed out with a win, total for the day was no loss and account up $424.09. I know that this systems has issues, but it does seem to generate pips, and therefore maybe the system can be modified to stop the big pain from killing an account, and see if it can recover to new levels of profit. Yesterday worst it went was 4 levels before profit.