Cowabunga system MT4 indicator

No, in this missed trigger, the trend was up. It should have caught it, and it didn’t.

[I]EDIT 11-26-07 ==> I originally said MACD and not RSI in this post, my mistake. someone corrected me several posts later, but I wanted to come back and correct it here for those who are reading it later so as not to confuse anyone.[/I]

I also thought that PipSurfer must be using only the 5EMA cross on the 4hr for the trend. So I looked inside the indicator file to see if it was also looking at RSI and Stochs to determine the trend, and it is.

But in looking thru the blog that originally describes the Cowabunga method, BigPippin WAS looking at Stochs and RSI on the 4hr as well. Just that PipSurfer’s feed has both the stochs and the RSI in the correct position at the 5EMA cross on the 4hr.

The problem with this MT4 indicator is that on the bar where the 5EMA cross occurs, if the RSI and the stochs don’t also show the trend change in the SAME BAR, then the indicator won’t pick up the trend reversal. It will then stay in the wrong trend until the next change and the next change back.

I don’t know how to fix this, so I just removed the Stoch and the RSI portions of it, and now mine shows trend ONLY on the 5EMA cross on the 4hr. It’s up to me to check it and be sure I have a true trend, but at least this way I get the intended signal more of the time.

I don’t care about which side the line is on, but I would be curious how that’s done; so if you do post it I would like to look thru it.

Jeff

Thank you, much appreciated.

Jeff

You’re right about the ‘no signal’. I was looking at the wrong chart. I’ll have a look through code and see if I can figure this out. I’ve confused us both vis a vis the 4hr requirements - theres no MACD, but stochs, RSI (14) and EMA 5/10. I still can’t fathom the rule for the trend though. Do we have to wait until EMA cross up + stochs are heading up + RSI >50. If only 2 conditions are met are we still in a downtrend. This might lead to times when we are in no trend, and would also negate the ema cross.

For example,
If EMA’s cross up but RSI<50 we are still in a downtrend ? If RSI then goes above 50 but next candle comes below 50 without EMAs crossing down where are we?

Perhaps we should say, regardless of EMA crosses, if EMA5 > EMA 10, and stochs are heading up, and RSI >50 we’re in uptrend. The converse for downtrend, and if any of the 3 conditions doesn’t match, we have no trend.

Thoughts anybody ?

OK I think I see it now. If we’re talking about a lack of the second BUY signal on 7th November - when I look at the 15min stoch signal line, it is actually fractionally lower on the more recent candle so although stoch has crossed up, the signal is still moving down very slightly.(I get it at 23.6327 followed by 23.1750 on NorthFinance demo).

Maybe we should change the condition to ‘both stochs pointing up, or a stoch cross’ on the assumption that a cross up is just as bullish. I can do this if people want and repost the indicator.

Viso - YW!

andyk - Yes, you’re right in MACD is NOT a req for the trend. My mistake. It’s RSI I forgot.

Perhaps we should say, regardless of EMA crosses, if EMA5 > EMA 10, and stochs are heading up, and RSI >50 we’re in uptrend. The converse for downtrend, and if any of the 3 conditions doesn’t match, we have no trend.

Yes, exactly.

I think the problem with the indicator is that if the RSI and Stoch requirement are not met on the SAME BAR as the 5EMA cross, it misses the trend change altogether. With [U]NO[/U] ill will toward pipalot for making it!

And yes, if it can be made so that ANY TIME that all 3 indicators are in line, it changes the trend, then I think we’ll have exactly what we want. I don’t have a clue how to program that, if you do then yes please.

Stochs I do not fully understand, and don’t know what goes into the two lines that you see. But I do recall someone asking about whether BOTH lines must be trending, or whether BOTH lines must be out of overbought/sold territory. I seem to recall that BigPippin or PipSurfer said that only one of the two stoch lines must agree with all other indicators.

Don’t know if that helps anything.

But yes, if you can make it so it indicates trend ANY TIME the three indicators agree even if they don’t all happen on the same bar, that would be good, I think.

Thanks,

Jeff

Yes. If you remove the requirement in the code for both the stochastic signal within the 15minute block. It captures the buy signal fine. There are quite a few other signals that are missed too but altering the code in this way allows them to be captured as in the Cowabunga blog.


OK

Heres my updated indicator.

  1. By default, the trend is set by whether 4Hr EMA 5 is above or below 4Hr EMA 10. This is the same as simply looking for a cross and the trend is always either up or down - same as the cowabunga blog
  2. Changing ‘Strict_4Hr_Trend’ on the indicator settings to TRUE will mean we are only in an uptrend if EMA 5>EMA10 and RSI(9) > 50 and stoch is above signal line (this generally means stochs are trending up but allows us some ‘wobbles’ on the way which would otherwise cause the indicator to negate the trend and hardly give us any signals). Opposite for downtrend. This means there are times we have NO TREND - no line is drawn on the 15min chart.
  3. Visually, I prefer up trends to be drawn under the price - like support, and downtrends drawn above the price so this is different in this version.
  4. 15minute stochs must be trending up OR stoch has crossed signal line. This captures some trades that were in the blog but that the indicator missed before.

Enjoy

Andy

Hi Andy,

Many thanks for putting the indicator up for grabs… I have gone through some instructions on how to apply the indicator to my MT4. It is appearing in the expert advisors section (bottom left), but nothing is happening when I ‘attach to a chart’. Do you have any idea why this might be? Any thoughts would be helpful.

Cheers

Jords

Jords

Can’t remember which file I zipped - it may need compiling again. Try opening the metaquotes editor (press the yellow diamond next to new orders in Metatrader and load up the cowabunga V2 file and press compile). You may then need to restart metatrader and reattach it to your chart.

You should then just be able to double click on the V2 file in the expert window (bottom left) after opening a new chart. Try this and let me know what you get…

Andy

PS Anyone interested in an optimised 40-100 pips a day ‘James’ indicator (a different post but I thought I’d ask the cowabunga brotherhood)

Edit… Jords - just re-read your post - is it in the indicators - not expert advisors - directory. It needs to be in indicators. Just a thought.

Hi all, thanks for creating and sharing these great templates and indicators. Just wondered if anyone has managed to use Cowabunga-any-pair and cowabunga-templates on a PC using Windows Vista.
I’ve loaded them on 2 PC’s with Windows XP with no problems but I’m unable to load successfully on a machine using Vista. When I load them on Vista machine RSI and OsMA charts are missing and I don’t know how to manually loadOsMA. any advise would be appreciated

Timebandit

timebandit,

try right click on metatrader and then disable all visual vista options,
I had a similar problem with the saxo bank plataform

Yes, I am. I haven’t followed that system at all, but I spend all day in front of the charts already, couldn’t hurt to test it.

So yea, if you optimised an indicator for it, I’d like to see it–

Thanks,

Jeff

Success!! Cheers for the help Andy… The indicator works great.

I’m really interested. Thanks in advance.

No worries.

I’m still fiddling with the inside bar indicator but will post soon…

Hi, can i ask if the 5EMA and 10 EMA indicators used is the same as EMA and MMA? I’m using FXCM , cant find the 2 indicators used in the system.

I think some of FXCMs charts call them ‘moving average exponential’. Set 2 up, one set to 5, the other set to 10.

Thanks ThE_KiLLeR, even though it didn’t work on my laptop it pointed me in the right direction. If anyone else has this problem try running the compatability wizard, it gives you the option to disable the visuals there.

OK

Heres my updated indicator.

  1. By default, the trend is set by whether 4Hr EMA 5 is above or below 4Hr EMA 10. This is the same as simply looking for a cross and the trend is always either up or down - same as the cowabunga blog
  2. Changing ‘Strict_4Hr_Trend’ on the indicator settings to TRUE will mean we are only in an uptrend if EMA 5>EMA10 and RSI(9) > 50 and stoch is above signal line (this generally means stochs are trending up but allows us some ‘wobbles’ on the way which would otherwise cause the indicator to negate the trend and hardly give us any signals). Opposite for downtrend. This means there are times we have NO TREND - no line is drawn on the 15min chart.
  3. Visually, I prefer up trends to be drawn under the price - like support, and downtrends drawn above the price so this is different in this version.
  4. 15minute stochs must be trending up OR stoch has crossed signal line. This captures some trades that were in the blog but that the indicator missed before.

Enjoy

Andy

Great stuff Andy - many thanks. You clearly know your way round MT4 programing - which I dont :slight_smile: . Something I have inquired about previously on this thread is whether an audio alarm can be set in MT when a trade signal is activated - is this possible?

Also can I just check we are still using EMAs on close? There was a discussion a while ago in whether it was better to set the 10EMA to open.

Thanks for your help.

Houmous

Thanks houmous

There should be an audio alarm in the indicator already - it plays the file email.wav in your metatrader sounds directory. Each time a signal is given it makes a sound, but then you have to re-enable send_email in the indicator properties before it’ll sound again. This avoids multiple alarms of the same signal.

I apply EMA’s to the close but could easily change this - was applying to the open considered better?

Also I’ve noticed on NorthFinance that the 4hr chart is 2 hours out of sync with pipsurfers xtick chart so the main trend will vary slightly. Other brokers my be more in line with xtick.

was able to make 22pips on thursday btw 1.00 and5.00.Is working but a little bit confuse concerning d 4hrs chart as at times there will be crossover in 15mnt chart but 4hrs will still stand still.in this situation what do we do?: