Cowabunga EA addons

Trading Systems Expert Advisors and Automated Trading
1

Hello. I’m newly registered on the forum and this is my first post. :slight_smile:

First, a special thank you to babypips.com and to PipSurfer for the babypips.com/blogs/pip-my-system/so_youve_finished_the_school_o.html - Cowabunga trading system.

I’m a UK based forex trader and programmer. I’m newer to Forex than I am to programming and computers. :cool:

I’m currently testing and perhaps looking to improve the free CowabungaEA

You can view the live MT4 stats for the first of my many tests. ** Update: N.B. the first test has now finished, it did not end in profit, but was profitable in some stages of the testing. **

It is trading GBP/USD , GBP/JPY , GBP/CHF on a $5000 AlpariUK-Demo account starting from 08:00 GMT on the 7th Jan. 2010.

** Updated Settings: Due to issues with some of the 1st weeks automated trades some changes have been made to the ‘default’ testing settings - see a post below for details. **

All of the ‘default’ settings are being tested except that the trading window is from 08:00 GMT to 22:00 GMT. This ‘window’ has been selected to include only the London and New York sessions, as well as an attempt to incorporate some sort of ‘cool down’ period towards the end of day trading.

I’m also monitoring the standard forums.babypips.com/free-forex-trading-systems/572-cowabunga-system-mt4-indicator.html - Cowabunga Indicator outputs for other functions and development.

Basically, I have an opportunity in my ‘live’ trading accounts for the GBP/USD and GBP/JPY currency pairs and I’m looking to improve on the free CowabungaEA for my personal use and to share with the community.

Initially, I don’t intend or need to alter the EA, but just to improve on it’s settings and automated trades.

My first proposal is to create a custom .dll which can handle, as well as, automatically and appropriately edit the AvoidNews functions on a daily basis.

I plan to do this using a similar method to the codebase.mql4.com/4543 Fundamental Trader DailyFX CSV MQL4 Of course it will only input and remove the relevant news events for the currency pair at ‘medium’ to ‘high’ settings. It should include a free news data source and free custom downloader. The addition of some Neural Network functionality will also be considered in the future.

I am a big supporter of open source and free software. This will hopefully be an improvement on the free system. I would like nothing better than to produce a freely available set of addons for the current EA that will out perform most other EA’s and certainly the ‘scam’ systems. Anything I produce will be gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html - GNU GPL and / or creativecommons.org/ - Creative Commons.

Any forum and community members who have tested or who have established settings, tricks or suggested improvements to both Cowabunga and the CowabungaEA I would be glad to receive a PM from. Any source code from the authors would also be a big help.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thank you.

XeroFX

2

GBP/JPY , GBP/CHF have now been included for the start of the test. All 3 currency pairs will trade 08:00 to 22:00 GMT on the ‘default’ settings.

Active Currency Pairs - Avg. Pip Range

London Session (3am to 12pm ET) 8am to 5pm GMT (8 hrs)

* GBP/CHF - average range 145 pips
* GBP/JPY - average range 140 pips
* GBP/USD - average range 110 pips

New York Session (9am to 5pm ET) 2pm to 10pm GMT (9 hrs)

* GBP/CHF - average range 130 pips
* GBP/JPY - average range 120 pips
* GBP/USD - average range 90  pips

Tokyo Session (7pm to 4am ET) 12am to 9am (9 hrs) crossover - depends on BST etc.

* GBP/JPY - average range 110 pips / 4.5 (approx)
* GBP/CHF - average range 90  pips / 4.5 (approx)
* GBP/USD - average range 60  pips / 4.5 (approx)
3

Hi XeroFX,

I’ll be watching your experiment with interest. Forex and the EA world is plagued by constant scams and arguments about who copied who’s code. It will be refreshing to see a publicly available system evolve down the EA route.

Z

4

:slight_smile:

I don’t actually expect that the 1st test will show much profit. I’m forcing trades in the most active periods to establish settings and hopefully fix some sort of end of day requirements.

The force close ‘end of day’ open trades is currently a problem, however letting the EA run 00:00 to 00:00 would probably be worse. Some sort of weighting model is required…

The currency pairs have been selected so that there is a variable constant for a Neural Net addition.

Thank you for your interest in the test. Nothing much to report at the moment, need more data and results, but I’m busy working on automating the AvoidNews function and establishing a quality free data source.

5

[B][/B] 1st Test Updated Settings - [I]Now Finished[/I] [B][/B]

The first weeks test highlighted some obvious issues with the ‘default’, as well as, our chosen settings.

N.B. The most successful pair was the GBP/JPY and the least successful was the GBP/CHF.

[B]StartTimeGMT[/B] 00:00 (default 04:00)

[B]EndTimeGMT[/B] 22:00 (default 20:00)

[B]AutoCloseOrdersAtEndTimeGMT[/B] false (default true)

[B]LotSize[/B] 0.1 (default)

[B]MagicNumber[/B] (user defined)

[B]MinTP[/B] 10 (default)

[B]MinStop[/B] 15 (default)

[B]MaxStop[/B] 50 (default)

[B]TradeIfStopIsGreaterThanMaxStop[/B] true (default true)

[B]TPMustBeGreaterOrEqualToStop[/B] true (default false)

[B]EMA4HrFastPeriod[/B] 5 (default)

[B]EMA4HrSlowPeriod[/B] 10 (default)

[B]EMA15MFastPeriod[/B] 5 (default)

[B]EMA15MSlowPeriod[/B] 10 (default)

The EA did recouped it’s losses from the 1st weeks test and also made some profits, but the above settings were chosen to test [U]maximum risk[/U] ! and it did finish at a loss.

[B]StartTimeGMT[/B] 00:00 (default 04:00) - We noticed some trades were entered into ‘late’ with the original start time set at 08:00. The new 00:00 is also more conducive to PipSurfer’s ‘signal’ recognition recommendations. The entire Tokyo session ‘pip range’ is also now included and traded as above.

[B]EndTimeGMT[/B] 22:00 (default 20:00) - This allows for an added 2hr ‘cool down’ trading period towards the end of the New York Session. It’s a further opportunity for any open trades to be closed before the ‘end of day’. New trades are [B]less[/B] likely to be opened in this 2hr slot due to decreased activity. The EA now only stops trading for 2hrs during the quietest period when just Sydney is trading.

[B]AutoCloseOrdersAtEndTimeGMT[/B] false (default true) - We noticed that some trades were forced to close at a loss. Now that the StartTime and EndTime cross over periods are less it should make much more sense to deactivate this feature. N.B. This input setting will be switched to true for Friday close and will be automated in the new EA addon.

[B]TradeIfStopIsGreaterThanMaxStop[/B] true (default true) - This is the main input feature still under review. It is a risk/reward setting and according to PipSurfer’s Cowabunga System it may be more conducive and prudent to switch this to false. However, this will lead to the EA making much fewer, but safer trades (in theory). This setting has been left at true to see if it can work well with the other settings i.e. it may be better to make more ‘risky’ trades if a high percentage of these are made profitable.

[B]TPMustBeGreaterOrEqualToStop[/B] true (default false) - This was set to test the wider spread, due to some lots and initial trades being close to the 00 or 50 levels. The relatively large stop loss was both beneficial and problematic here! :confused:

N.B. All other settings are currently still being reviewed. The automated AvoidNews addon is very much in production and should be added for testing within a few weeks.

The [B]free[/B] - [B]Open Source[/B] addon, .dll, downloader with news source and the new EA will then be posted up in the > Free Forex Trading Systems for community review and testing.

It will be a newly revised [B]Open Code[/B] version of the v1.3 Cowabunga System EA (currently available on this forum) and [B]NOT[/B] the v1.1 Trade Machine version. © Grrrrrrrrrr. :smiley:

It will also implement the forum version of MACD-Combine ! :slight_smile:

Thank you.

XeroFX

6

i noticed your ea results arent going too well rescently… any ideas why this may have happened?, i dont know how much this will help but looking at other EAs i noticed alot of them making concecutive profits and then concecutive losses, is there any reason the ea dosent go into standby after making 2 or 3 losses, and then wait till it can predict wins again, not sure how well it would help this system but just thout id give my input

7

Thank you for you interest. However, the first test has now finished.

Maximum risk settings were being tested, not fully in-line with the Cowabunga Mechanical system and this achieved big swings in profit/loss.

The 2nd test will commence this following week and will be a much more controlled test for only GBP/USD.

The AvoidNews functions will be added daily from babypips.com /blogs/pip-my-system/ and we will be checking to see how close we can get the automatic trades to the excellent mechanical (manual) system.

The main problems with the EA are issues with incorrect market entry points and of course failure to recognise a swing in the opposite direction (once a trade has been entered into) and to therefore exit the trade, which atm it does not do.

These are ‘human’ factors which are difficult to determine with an EA. This will be the main focus of a Neural Network style addition to the EA.

The 1st test highlighted these incorrect entry points and testing a wider spread with TPMustBeGreaterOrEqualToStop (true), further highlights this when the TP 50 is not met when the 00 to 50 levels were to close.

New test settings to follow …

Thank you.

XeroFX.

8

hi bros,
how about the Ea is it ready? pls let me know
Thanks.
chrisglobal.

9

Hi. Could you post the free ea? I cant seem to det it to work in MT4.
Thanks,
Jeff

10

Our 2nd Cowabunga EA test has started and information can be found in > Free Forex Trading Systems.

Sorry I cannot post the new EA, add-on or any ‘testing’ version at the moment. It’s not finished and is still being tested. However, the free Cowabunga EA’s are available elsewhere on the internet. The Custom Indicators can be found on this forum.

You can find a version for yourself. ‘Cowabunga Trade Machine’ - Google is your friend :slight_smile:

The add-on will automate the ‘AvoidNews’ function for this EA and other functions to try and make the EA consistently profitable. None of the EA will actually be altered !

However, a new EA will also be built with open source code to return Pip Surfer’s Cowabunga EA System to this community. :cool:

From our test results you should realize that none of the currently available EA’s are consistently profitable and you are more likely to have loosing trades with any ‘default’ settings.

My best advice is that you should first learn to trade the Cowabunga Mechanical System from this forum (which is profitable) and then use the EA to assist you in your trading activities. Paying particular attention that the entry / exit points are valid. Also, remember to try and exit trades in profit if their is an obvious Swing in the other direction and your TP is missed.

Try to make good usage of the EA by first setting MT4’s auto alert facilities for trades and then monitoring the automated trading yourself. Perhaps try trading the manual system on one set of charts together with the EA on another set of charts to make a comparison :slight_smile:

Always learn and understand the system you are trading with. Especially if it is an EA !

XeroFX.

11

Thanks for the info. I am new to this also. I finished the ‘baby-pips’ course now and moving on to demo trading.

Jeff

12

Would the addition of an optional trailing stop be a temporary solution to the swings that would otherwise result in hitting a hard stop loss point?