Boulder's Grind

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Boulder
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Boulder's Grind

Post by Boulder »

Dear people of SHF,

Recently I've been working on a strategy (insipired by la poule aux oefs d'or, goosey and a strategy provided by Almo on FF (http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=565127)). I found it remarkably effective once my eye caught the pattern and have been trading it successfully for a few days now. The actual method is very straightforward and mechanical. Therefore it is perfectly suited for automation and could reach its full potential that way. Today I traded NFP with it successfully as well which I consider a powerful test for any strategy. Passing it prompted me to share it here.

It goes as follows:

1. Only tested it on GBPJPY due to the pair's volatility.
2. Only indicator needed for this is Wilder's DMI, which would be familiar to most of you I suspect. The timeframe which is used for this indicator is set to M30.
3. The two screenshots below will clarify the simple method. These are how I traded GBPJPY today and yesterday. To clarify: the histogram plots the wedge/distance between the DMI values. Given this, I declare Diff as the difference between 2 subsequent histogram values (the current bar and the previous one). Do note that it doesn't matter whether the histograms are red or green. The only thing that matters is that the wedge between the DMI sufficiently shrinks or expands, which we observe in the relative sizes of the histogram values. Green lines represent the moment of long-entry on the open and orange lines the moment of a short-entry on the open.

Thursday -- (I've accidentally put 2 vertical lines on the first bar where the Diff occur. The entries are on the close of those candles of course)
Screen Shot 2016-06-03 at 22.29.40.png
Friday -- (I've put a red cross at a trade where the Diff was too small but only realised it after I entered the trade :mrgreen: )
Screen Shot 2016-06-03 at 22.29.51.png
Entry:
1. Diff > 0.8 at the minimum
2. Wait for the first candle to close in order to confirm the Diff
3. Go in immediately on the open of the 2nd candle. The green lines represent longs and orange lines represent shorts.

Exit:
1. TP (specified below)
2. We'll never stay in a trade for longer than 15 minutes. So if a trade hasn't reached the TP or SL, it shall be closed on the open of the 2nd candle following the entry.
3. SL rather distant (I've used 30 pips)

TP:
1. If 0.8 < Diff < 1.5 then TP = 10 pips
2. If 1.5 < Diff < 2.5 then TP = 20 pips
3. If 2.5 < Diff then TP = 30 pips

Naturally these values can be experimented with in order to find an optimal setup. Perhaps it may even be possible at a later stage to hold on to trades longer utilising jumping stops or so, given the fulfilment of certain conditions that is. A positive and most appealing point of this strategy is that any one trade won't be held for longer than 15 minutes (3 bars on M5), thus keeping market exposure at its minimum. Another is its simplicity. No bombardment and clutter of a dozen indicators to wait for perfect confluence in order to take a decision. A slight downside involves slightly raising the lot size to, say, 0.01 per 500 Dollop. Occasionally I suspect a SL will get hit, though I've yet to see one actually getting hit since we keep our market exposure tight. BE is more likely than a hit SL no doubt. The odds seem to be in our favour in any case. An unemotional and disciplined EA would do a much better job than a mere human here and could literally exploit all the opportunities, day and night. In combination with the power of compounding, this could prove to be of great value - that is, over time - to anybody wishing to use it. In attachment you can find the required indicator and the template I'm using. In any case, I'd be greatly honoured and grateful should anyone be willing to have a go at it (in the midst of fantastic advances here on SHF :party:). Have a great weekend!

PS: since I've done this manually and by mere sight, I might have slightly broken the Diff rules by a few decimals.

Edit by Steve on 4th June 2016
The EA is in post 3.

Update 5/06/2016
Since the inherent nature of the use of the M30 Wildler's DMI may pose difficulties as Jal points out here, a more robust and better alternative is to be found in this post. Here you can set Wilder's DMI on M5 and use the values given in aforementioned post as reference points. By using M5 there as well we completely eliminate the possibilities of dynamic histograms since here the histogram values will become static once the candle closes. To clarify, I did have 3 days of positive results trading the M30 manually and merely on sight with tiny lots. Of course I did not take all the trades as I couldn't be behind my computer the entire time. In any case 3 days are absolutely insufficient to utter this method profitable over the long run. Therefore would like to thank Steve once more for giving it a shot anyway and spending time on it. The above and first few posts of this thread can be used as visual material and examples as to how this method works. I'll keep you posted :)! Do feel free to share your settings, particular patterns you may notice, etc. Much appreciated!
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Last edited by Boulder on Sun Jun 05, 2016 5:48 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Boulder
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A M5-strategy

Post by Boulder »

Screen Shot 2016-06-04 at 01.37.03.png
In the screenshot above I marked up the chart for GBPJPY on May 25th. Green being longs (8 trades) and orange for shorts (7 trades). Again using a minimum Diff of 0.8 to stay out of less favourable trades. Now one important factor to take into account is the spread. Depending on the size of the spread, the short trade depicted with a purple thumbs up was either successful or resulted in a loss due to just missing it's 10 pip target (for 0.8 Diff 1.5). In any case, the winners vastly outnumber the losers here.

Additionally I was thinking of making a distinction in whether to use different TPs when e.g. shorting an uptrend which is the case here. An uptrend could potentially be defined as a succession of green DMI histograms or the histograms being above a certain level. E.g. when the histogram value (i.e. the wedge between positive and negative DMI) rises above level 4 for an uptrend, TPs for longs woud remain as stated in the first post:
  • TP[Long_in_UT]:
    1. If 0.8 < Diff < 1.5 then TP = 10 pips
    2. If 1.5 < Diff < 2.5 then TP = 20 pips
    3. If 2.5 < Diff then TP = 30 pips
Shorts in an uptrend would then be something among the lines of:
  • TP[Short_in_UT]:
    1. If 0.8 < Diff < 1.5 then TP = 8 pips
    2. If 1.5 < Diff < 2.5 then TP = 16 pips
    3. If 2.5 < Diff then TP = 24 pips
Analogous for the reverse scenario:
Downtrend defined as the histogram value having values less than -4.
  • TP[Long_in_DT]:
    1. If 0.8 < Diff < 1.5 then TP = 8 pips
    2. If 1.5 < Diff < 2.5 then TP = 16 pips
    3. If 2.5 < Diff then TP = 24 pips
  • TP[Short_in_DT]:
    1. If 0.8 < Diff < 1.5 then TP = 10 pips
    2. If 1.5 < Diff < 2.5 then TP = 20 pips
    3. If 2.5 < Diff then TP = 30 pips
Whether it will make any difference I'm not quite sure. Only sufficient and truthful testing will tell :)
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SteveHopwood
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A M5-strategy

Post by SteveHopwood »

SERIOUS WARNING
  • Most Forex traders lose all their money.
  • Using the robot posted here in trading Forex does not guarantee success.
  • Trading this robot could lead to serious financial loss.
  • Trading this robot without understanding its underlying trading strategies guarantees traders will lose their money.
  • This is not a set-and-forget ea; there is no such thing and anyone who tries to claim there is, is either stupid or lying. This ea requires frequent manual intervention.
  • At best, a trading robot is only 90% as good as the manual strategy it trades. At best. At worst, it can be much less effective. If the strategy is rubbish, so is the robot.
  • To trade this robot, you have to understand:
    • How to use EA's.
MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS POST http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3 ... 41#p111241 There was a Forex bloodbath on Jan 15th 2015 that you need to know about.


The Boulder's Grind EA's are an attempted automation of Boulder's scalping method, as described in post 1 and this post: http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3 ... 47#p141847.

Boulder's Grind Primary
There are inputs for Diff1 and 2 and a maximum allowable ratio between the two.

EnforceNewSequence tells the bot only to take a trade when the signal is a new one. For example, the 4th histo back had to be higher than the 3rd one back.

EnforceAlternateTradeTypes tells the bot to take alternate buy and sell trades.

Boulder's Grind Momentum
Inputs:
  • Make sure that TradingTimeFrame is set to your chosen time frame - it defaults to M5.
  • DMILength and DMILevel: these need to be the same as the DMILength and Level values you have in the indi. Make sure you have the version attached here in your indi folder. You do not need it on your charts. The only difference between it and the one Boulder has in post 1 is that there are only two inputs - much easier to deal with when coding an EA.
  • Trade levels: these are used to increment the take profit:
    • BasisTakeProfitPips is the TP when the Diff >= 0.8 and < 1.5.
    • TakeProfitIncrementPips raises the TP as the Diff gets stronger. By default:
      • Diff >= 0.8 and < 1.5: TP = 10 pips.
      • Diff >= 1.5 and < 2.5: TP = 20 pips.
      • Diff >= 2.5: TP = 30 pips.
  • TradeCandleLife: close an open trade when this many candles have passed.
I have left all the usual stuff in and hidden from view so it is easily enabled should any of the features become desirable. Guys might want to experiment with stacking and hedging on higher time frames, so it will be the work of seconds to restore those features.

I have left Bob's moving average filter and CSS visible for anyone who wants to experiment with giving the trades a directional bias.

I have not coded using the indi to define an overall trend. Let's see how this goes first.

:xm:

Matters of general interest
Go here to download and run the script that will fill your platform's missing chart history: http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3 ... f=15&t=254
Read this post:
http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3 ... p?f=6&t=78 Newbie traders, read this for inspiration and warning. Those of you who have suffered losses, read it for inspiration.

Masterly summary of hedging: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread. ... ost4977179

EA coding
I receive may requests to code EA's. Traders, if I code your EA for free, then I will share it here. If you want me to code your EA without sharing, then my fee is $100 payable into my paypal account. I explain why at http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3 ... ?f=15&t=79, at the bottom of the post.

Useful utilities/EA's/scripts -

-
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Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. pianodoodler@hotmail.com is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Boulder
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A M5-strategy

Post by Boulder »

Trading day for June 1st 2016:
Screen Shot 2016-06-04 at 13.40.33.png
All 12 trades were successful ones. Got lucky with the purple long-trade though. Took 8 of them since I was inhibited of sitting before my screen to catch the opportunities. Uncanny if you ask me..
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Wavegarrick
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A M5-strategy

Post by Wavegarrick »

Hi Boulder,

Looks interesting and cant wait to see this in live action...

Well done on your status upgrade...you deserve it ;)

Tc
Leon
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SteveHopwood
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Location: Misterton - an insignificant village in England. Very pleasant to live in.

A M5-strategy

Post by SteveHopwood »

V1 of the EA is in post 3.

:xm:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. pianodoodler@hotmail.com is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
windorz
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A M5-strategy

Post by windorz »

Thank you Steve :!!:
You are fast
jal811
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A M5-strategy

Post by jal811 »

Boulder » Sat Jun 04, 2016 11:54 am wrote:Trading day for June 1st 2016:



All 12 trades were successful ones. Got lucky with the purple long-trade though. Took 8 of them since I was inhibited of sitting before my screen to catch the opportunities. Uncanny if you ask me..

Dear Boulder, I am not sure if you have articulated that your DMI is using a higher TF (m30) , it appears to be the essential piece to obtaining the delta(diff) in the dmi gap to determine the type of trade and t/p to take.
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Boulder
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A M5-strategy

Post by Boulder »

Utterly amazing and swift work :clap: :clap: :clap:
Many, many thanks! Can't wait to see what this thing can do!
jal811 wrote: Dear Boulder, I am not sure if you have articulated that your DMI is using a higher TF (m30) , it appears to be the essential piece to obtaining the delta(diff) in the dmi gap to determine the type of trade and t/p to take.
Yes Jal you are absolutely right, I'll be mentioning it right away in the first post!
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Boulder
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A M5-strategy

Post by Boulder »

Wavegarrick wrote:Hi Boulder,

Looks interesting and cant wait to see this in live action...

Well done on your status upgrade...you deserve it ;)

Tc
Leon
Gracias Wavegarrick, it is well appreciated :hi:


In continuous bursts of excitement I noticed an option to squeeze out even more pips. Have a look at this:
Screen Shot 2016-06-04 at 17.38.01.png
The idea is to let a trade run when Diff > 5.5 with jumping stops of 20 pips per 35 pip intervals and hope to stack a 2nd trade on top of it - according to the main method described above - before we get stopped out. If the trade doesn't get to its first 30 pip base within 15 minutes (and thus a jump of the stop doesn't occur) then we just close out 15 minutes at the latest.

The screenshot above is the trading day on the 31st of may 2016, just a few days ago. Represented are 8 shorts by a vertical line, entered right at the open. Just to reiterate; the intention is for trades with Diff < 3.5 to be open no longer than 15 minutes. First let me start off with displaying the 8 Diff-values here:

Diff_1 = 5.72
Diff_2 = 1
Diff_3 = 2.7
Diff_4 = 4.07
Diff_5 = 8.24
Diff_6 = 1.98
Diff_7 = 2.97
Diff_8 = 2.5

Trade 1, whereby Diff_1 > 5.5, would be fired with the intention to be held on to until it either gets stopped out, exits after 15 minutes or the 2nd trade's TP gets hit. The 2nd eligible trade comes soon enough, its Diff_2 being less than 1.5, and therefore is set up with a 10 pip TP. Trade 2 gets stacked on the 1st trade and both trades exit at Trade 2's profit level or after the 15 minutes have passed. Stacking 2 trades seems to me to be robust enough and feasible to achieve. Adding more trades becomes rather messy and the chance of getting stopped out increases the more market exposure we have. Therefore why not go for simplicity and the higher odds? The magenta line indicates where both trades are exited.

Trade 3 is a short with a profit level of 30 pips. TP is hit here.
Trade 4 is a short as well and resulted in an actual small loss I took on my live account.
Diff_4 = 2.7 > 2.5 and thus went for a 30 pip target. That didn't get hit. A 20 pip target however would've been hit. The question then arises whether or not there exists a better boundary than 2.5. This we'll have to find out by experimenting with it. For now I merely consider the loss as one of the costs of trading every trader faces.

Trade 5 in purple represents another trade opened to be left (Diff_5 > 5.5) to run until it gets taken out after 15 minutes, stopped out or reaches the TP of the 2nd added trade. Trade 5 does this beautifully. It enters right at the close of the vertical line, does 2 jumps in the first 15 minutes (remember 2 times 35 with a 20 pip JS) locking in 40 pips, stacks trade 6 on top with a TP set at 20 pips (since Diff_6 = 1.98 > 1.5). Both exited at the magenta line, good for quite a few pips indeed :).

Trade 7 and 8 were also good for 20 pips each.
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