I trade a grid system on my live account, so I am very open to the idea, but it looks like his system crashed on the 24th/25th?
Well. It didn’t really crash. It took a few steps back due to the unforeseen announcement after closing markets Friday. However most of the loss was countered with the huge gains just thursday before, so I am still in the positive overall for the last month - with some 15% growth - despite that setback. But as the trader noticed: thats the good thing about long-term strategies. They are resilient and don’t break just because of a minor setback.
Hello Viking1961,
Your system is very interesting. I have read through your FB page and etoro page. I have the following doubts:
- What about Swap and rollovers? As you might be carrying a lot of opposite trades (unclosed) there would be considerable loss with swaps and rollovers if for eg sell trades are unclosed on GBPUSD?
- Is there an EA prepared for this strategy yet which can be backtested?
- Could you let us know how we can see a list of your previous trades based on this system for the last 6 months. Would appreciate if you can send us a link of your ex-trade positions.
Please excuse me as i am not familiar with etoro completely.
Many thanks.
I might not be the best to answer this, but I will try if I understand your questions correctly:
- AFAIK there is only a weekend fee. No swaps/rollovers.
- Not that I am aware of, but I would very much like to see one / program one with assistance of others
- You can have a look at his etoro profile at openbook. Should give you all the trades in the ‘history’ section. You will notice from his closed trades that there was a setback after the GBP downgrade, so some trades hit SL; but overall the system is still up for the month, and its just a few steps back. The channel is still alive and banking hundreds of pips per week.
Hi Frawan,
I saw the open book trades. they seem very haphazard to me, not following the 50 pip TP and setting pending orders at TP levels. Maybe he is using primers. can you explain what are the rules being followed by you.
I will attempt at creating an EA for this strategy, simple first and then we can move on to make it complicated :59:
This doesn’t seem feasible. The big alarm on this should be where he says opening both buy and sell orders. AS I’m reading I’m gathering that he means opening market price orders, full-fledged trades, not pending orders, otherwise it would have been specified as pending . The problem this presents particularly for American accounts is a hedging situation. No doable on US accounts (unless the gov is just keeping me from doing it , however they keep telling me there’s some pretty convincing laws behind it.) If I’m wrong then specify please otherwise I’m throwing my hat in the scam ring.
Not sure about US laws, but hedging is allowed with various brokers who are based in other countries. this strategy is genuine.
Yes there isn’t any scam in ‘hedging’. Its allowed by the broker; I believe they have a US division as well, but they might have different rules for that one.
can you explain what are the rules being followed by you.
I will attempt at creating an EA for this strategy, simple first and then we can move on to make it complicated
I asked him specifically about this with the 50 pip rule. Most of the other traders that are doing channel trading are only doing that. To increase the speed viking1961 is also doing discretionary trading to get extra pips when the market makes smaller moves up or down. The key here being that if suddenly the market goes against him he can hedge the trades.
Overall that seems to be the strategy - to always have an almost equal amount of sell and buy lots.
As for his use of primers: yes he is currently using primers as the market is in break-out mode. So far it has worked quite well. You can read about the technicalities of primers and hourglass-formations on his facebook-page.
Would be cool to see an EA for this. And would be very interesting to back-test as well. Let me know of your progress.
I’ll drop my 2 cents here, again…you may want to investigate (I think backtesting would be the best way to do this) having variable grid size, include a variable SL, and variable TP. Then, see if something like 100 pip grid with 50 SL, but 100 pip TP works, and change the variables from there. What you have to be able to do is not have the margin get eaten up into a margin call from so many opened positions. Here’s a pic for a visual idea. The pic has 100 PIP grid, 200 pip TP, and 100 pip SL.
chart d.bmp (791 KB)
Hi im new in trading and im try etoro app is looke nice but to hy loose procentage on it and looks like a etoro traiding against you or if you looking to widraft your money they asking your pasport copy bills and more proofe of you what is looke too me more suspection is any 1 trayding on etoro from ther im see viking ther was but somthing hapen with him ther sorry for speling .
Frawan, Pipcompounder, viking1961 et al,
Attached is the first version of the EA for this strategy.
external inputs required are
Lots = lotsize
TP = Take profit value in pips (please take care of your broker digits)
UseSL = default is false, which means no SL is used
SL = If UseSL is set to true then the value of SL will be used in the pending orders.
I cannot really see how equity can be balanced if trade goes continuously in one direction. The use of primers seems discretionary. I have not implemented using primers in this version. I need to understand it more in order to implement in the EA. Go ahead, backtest it and help me understand how to make it similar to Viking1961’s method.
I hope viking1961 tests this EA and gives his comments.
Greenland strategy REV0.zip (1.8 KB)
Fantastic Crisscross.
Actually primers are not used discretionary - or at least not in theory. I will get back to you on how these work so you can add them as well.
I’ve been running an EA for this strategy for a few weeks now, but you’re clearly a much better programmer than me 
May I suggest that the OpenFirstTrade function be updated so that it checks existing trades. Currently it will start up a new set of orders if the EA is reconnected.
Also the alarms are “a bit much”.
According to the FB docs, primers are only additional trades set every 30 pips in the same direction as a large movement with TP of 100, and a Trailing SL of 25. Not sure about what indicators could be trusted to trigger it in autotrading though. Also the docs are rather vague on the sizing of primers.
Please keep up the good work!
Re
Dennis
Thanks Dennis,
Attached modified version which will check existing open orders before opening a new buy/sell.
Also reduced the alarms. I was using it for troubleshooting purposes.
Can this EA be used as it is. Currently I see the AUD/USD at a good location around 1.03-1.035. it can be expected to trade around a range of 1.01 to 1.06 over the next few months. Might be a good place to start.
What is the opinion on this?
Greenland strategy REV0-1.zip (1.58 KB)
Frawan et al,
What happened? Have you lost hope because this strategy did not win the Best system of the month award?
I need some help with the primers. I have been asking questions at etoro but nobody seems to answer.
I believe this system has all there is to profit consistently.
Primers are used (to balance equity and avoid margin level calls) when balance is reduced by 0.006% per pip. You can find the formula for this in “Greenland - Do You need primers yet calculator v.1.0.1b.xlsx” (available on Michael’s Facebook page, which BabyPips won’t let me post the link to as I’m too new here, but you can search FB for “guru.viking1961” if you don’t have it already).
This can happen if you f.ex. have a large amount of longs and the upward momentum you’ve been looking for turns into a massive dive instead. (Don’t look at Michael’s trades as he does so many additional trades based on technicals in the same account that it distorts the system and you won’t see the forest for the trees).
The closest thing to an explanation I’ve found is in “Hour-glass formation - The basics of using primers in Greenland.docx” (also at FB page). I can’t see how the math can possibly be right in the Account column, but the basics are to set an additional trade in the same direction as a current large movement, every 30 pips. Set the TP to 100, and update the SL as the movement continues (Trailing SL at 25). If you do it right, the equity will be better balanced, and you can make a lot of extra money on a large movement.
Example - I have open buys from 1.6400 (now eating up my margin) and only a single short when the rate starts falling rapidly from 1.5850 (which we’ll say is the center of my channel):
Step 1: Place a short primer (P1) at 1.5850.
Step 2: When we hit 1.5820, set another short primer (P2) and update the SL of P1 to 1.5845 (5 pips profit guaranteed on P1 if the movement turns).
Step 3: At 1.5790, set another primer (P3), and update SL on P1 and P2 to 1.5815 (35+5 profit guaranteed).
Step 4: At 1.5760, set another primer (P4), and update SL on P1, P2 and P3 to 1.5785 (65+35+5 profit guaranteed).
Etc. etc. for as long as the movement (or your nerves) last.
The point here is that as long as the movement lasts more than 30 pips your SL will be green for all but the last trade placed (which should be closed as quickly as possible). The extra profit will cover the margin increase for your now extended longs and the margin improvements (50-30=20pips extra improvement per primer) will help balance your channel as your regular trades are set every 50 pips.
The Greenlander dox often exaggerate profits by increasing lot size dramatically towards the end of the tables (see increase from 20K to 50k to 100k in the “Hour-glass” doc). Personally I would just keep to the lot size I’m currently trading (or maybe double it if I feel sure about the movement) and be happy with the extra pips for each step. All movements turn at some point and being stuck with a massive primer without a profitable SL, can quickly eat up your gains.
There may be some extra math that I’m not getting yet involved, but this is how I understand primers. They’re just additional trades placed more frequently than normal in the direction where you channel is currently “light”.
Re
Dennis
So has anyone tested this, I’ll try it on demo but frawan I read you were trading live, how is it going so far?
I did check viking’s journal, but I’d like to know if anyone else has already tried it live, with positive results?
[QUOTE=PippinTook;466683]So has anyone tested this, I’ll try it on demo but frawan I read you were trading live, how is it going so far?
I did check viking’s journal, but I’d like to know if anyone else has already tried it live, with positive results?[/QUOTE]
Hi. Well - I am only copying viking at the moment (with a live account though) until a proper EA gets developed. I will not live trade myself it before I have gotten a hang of it.
You can see more traders trading the channel here:
@Stendec - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@SeaCat - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@jojimjohn - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@Macmandk - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@Pacht75 - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@joefckvivi- eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@martienus - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@Shiloh505-1 - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@iMeule - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@Shakeit - http://openbook.etoro.com/Shakeit/
@muji3009 - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
Haven’t looked at them all - some of them might be copying, but some are also trading it live.
[QUOTE=PippinTook;466683]So has anyone tested this, I’ll try it on demo but frawan I read you were trading live, how is it going so far?
I did check viking’s journal, but I’d like to know if anyone else has already tried it live, with positive results?[/QUOTE]
Hi. Well - I am only copying viking at the moment (with a live account though) until a proper EA gets developed. I will not live trade myself it before I have gotten a hang of it.
You can see more traders trading the channel here:
@Stendec - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@SeaCat - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@jojimjohn - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@Macmandk - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@Pacht75 - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@joefckvivi- eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@martienus - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@Shiloh505-1 - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@iMeule - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@Shakeit - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
@muji3009 - eToro - The World’s Leading Social Trading and Investing Platform
Haven’t looked at them all - some of them might be copying, but some are also trading it live.
I have read all the docs and I agree that Viking is trading discretionarily now and hence is difficult to follow.
I see. If I understand correctly, as per your steps
Step1: Place Buy and sell at 1.5850 like normal. But the TP of Sell should be 100 pips not 50.
So the next Buylimit order is placed at the TP of above Sell i.e at 1.5750
Step 2: Place additional sell at 1.5820 with 100 pip TP and modify SL of above Sell to +5pip profit.
Step 3: Place additional sell at 1.5790 and modify above two sells with +35,+5 SL.
Step 4: Place next primer at 1.5760 and modify above SL of above three Sells to +65, +35, +5
If price goes to lets say 1.5720 then we have made more profit than our margin requirements because only one Buy is opened but we have hit atleast two Sells and other two sells are also on guaranteed profits.
Help confirm if my understanding above is correct. If yes, then I will set forth trying to program this idea.
Second question:
If primer is placed at 1.5820 and then price moves upwards to hit the +5 TP of sell at 1.5850 and then continues going up, then we will have a running loss of 25 pips. So we have to be very careful placing primers. This i mention because an idea crept into my mind of using primers normally rather than wait for equity drop of 0.06% per pip. Let me know your opinion.
i agree that I am also a bit confused with the hourglass doc and the primer excel sheet.
I think primers should be set at either the top or bottom of the channel where your nerves are already low :8:
