Grid Trading EAs

[knmtech]

I currently use a grid EA and am having success with it. However, a guy who has been trading it for over a year had a crash last week and saw 70% of his account balance wiped out. I looked over a list of the trades and it looked to me like the EA got what I called "greedy" and started raising the lot sizes too fast which caused him to be waaaaay overleveraged and the result was a crash.

I see in forums where people all say grid EAs crash. However, this EA does allow the user to set a beginning lot size. So to me it stands to reason that if I control the beginning lot size and not the EA I can insure it doesn't overleverage. I feel this would result in avoiding a crash but at the same time growth of the account would slow down. Which would be alright because it wouldn't lose half of the account in one trade either.

Does this sound reasonable? What are everyone's thoughts?

[viracoccha]

I have search working grid EA almost a year. I have handle many grid EAs, martingale and without martingale systems ..... I have not find a working system yet but I have one idea what kind should be a working system - almost working system. What is if you share your EA???

[viracoccha]

I currently use a grid EA and am having success with it. However, a guy who has been trading it for over a year had a crash last week and saw 70% of his account balance wiped out. I looked over a list of the trades and it looked to me like the EA got what I called "greedy" and started raising the lot sizes too fast which caused him to be waaaaay overleveraged and the result was a crash.

I see in forums where people all say grid EAs crash. However, this EA does allow the user to set a beginning lot size. So to me it stands to reason that if I control the beginning lot size and not the EA I can insure it doesn't overleverage. I feel this would result in avoiding a crash but at the same time growth of the account would slow down. Which would be alright because it wouldn't lose half of the account in one trade either.

Does this sound reasonable? What are everyone's thoughts?

My two cents: Grids are a flawed idea.

And, I think this is not the right place for the question you are asking.

Khalid

sorry .... about place it was right remark but what is about grid system then I dont know, there are very nice systems and ideas. The question is about trading strategy what you using .....

[Dozer]

Grid trading is a reasonable trading strategy. You just need to fully understand the strategy and accept it's risk to reward factors. Grid strategies are no different than any other strategy. You can risk a small amount to try to make a small amount, or you can risk more to make more.

Can grid strategies blow the account? Of course! Almost any EA can blow an account, especially in extreme or wild market movements. Just take that into account when using these strategies. My approach with grid strategies has been to start with a small account with an amount that I am fully willing to lose, let the grid strategy run and regularly pull out any profits. I've had several accounts get blown out, but I took out way more profits than I lost to the blown account. I expect to lose the account at some point. That's included as part of the strategy. Overall, I've made a decent profit using grid strategies. I believe it's valuable to have it as part of your trading portfolio, but I wouldn't recommend it as the bulk of your trading efforts due to it's inherent unpredictability and erratic cash flow.

And not all of my grid accounts have blown up. I have some accounts that have been running profitable grid trading strategies for almost two years now. They have been close to getting blown out and have had significant drawdown, but they did recover and generate a nice profit. However, I still treat them as if I could lose the whole account at any time and regularly pull out any profits.

I code my own EAs, but they are similar to some free EAs and some commercial EAs as well. I'm not sure about Steve's policy for recommendations for commercial products, so I won't post any here. But if there is an acceptable place for those types of recommendations, I'd be happy to recommend a few grid EAs and strategies that have been successful for me.

Dozer

[DING]

I code my own EAs, but they are similar to some free EAs and some commercial EAs as well. I'm not sure about Steve's policy for recommendations for commercial products, so I won't post any here. But if there is an acceptable place for those types of recommendations, I'd be happy to recommend a few grid EAs and strategies that have been successful for me.

Dozer

I am interesting your recommend a few grid EAs and strategies that have been successful for you ,
please kindly share your experience about grid EA

[Dozer]

I am interesting your recommend a few grid EAs and strategies that have been successful for you , please kindly share your experience about grid EA

I've made some recommendations over in the commercial area: (http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3 ... f=19&t=350)



Dozer

[SteveHopwood]

I'm not sure about Steve's policy for recommendations for commercial products, so I won't post any here. But if there is an acceptable place for those types of recommendations, I'd be happy to recommend a few grid EAs and strategies that have been successful for me.

Dozer

This prompted me to set up a new forum in the Commercial section. There are obvious problems with doing this, but I think I have left enoufh sufficiently blood curdling warnings to deter any but the most monumentally stupid.

Feel free to post your recommendations there. I promise not to ban you unless you turn out to be A Cretin In Disguise.

[shinobi_brian]

Yes, I don't think kmntech was advocating a particular EA, he was just asking a general question?

[SWG123]

I am interesting your recommend a few grid EAs and strategies that have been successful for you , please kindly share your experience about grid EA

I've made some recommendations over in the commercial area: (http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3 ... f=19&t=350)



Dozer

Dozer, I don't know whether you are a member over at FXAW. The Jitterbug Duplex is a grid trading EA which might interest you. If you are familiar with it, I'd be interested to know how you think it compares.

[knmtech]

Right Shinobi...I'm not advocating any EA...just questioning the EA's strategy...the forex market is especially volatile and the idea of a grid strategy seems good. Again, I'm just wondering if your account size is relatively large (No less than $1000USD), but if you start with the smallest lot size possible (1 microlot for instance) can a grid trading EA's drawdown be managed? The trade would have to go much more than 1,000 pips against you with lots that small to wipe your account out. It seems the guy I'm referring to got a margin call because his total lot size was too large. This resulted in all trades being closed at once and he lost 70% of the account. Myself and another trader who use the same EA, manage our starting lot sizes. We were in the same trade and exited with a profit because we didn't get a margin call. I was actually very far away from one even at the worst point of the trade my equity drawdown never even exceeded 10%. To me, this begs the question, when grid EAs crash...did the lot sizes get too large too fast? Will grid EAs perform better when lot sizing and drawdowns are monitored and actively managed? By actively managed I mean controlling lot sizes and even closing the first or second entry before the trade gets out of hand to allow the TP level to get closer to price action.