LeRoadRunner's Trading journal

2020-04-15 Learning phase

This has been going on for about 3 weeks. So far accomplished:

  • Installed MetaTrader4 with a 30day Demo account from Forex,com (I dont think 30 days will be enough)
  • Babypips Education (progress 109 of 337)
  • Finished reading book (also played with code): Expert Advisor Programming by Andrew R Young (2010)

ACTIONS ITEMS:

  • Find an unlimited Demo provider
  • Continue BabyPips education
1 Like

2020-04-16 Learning Phase

Continuing the above.

ACTION ITEMS

  • WIP: Babypips now at 115/337. Busy work day yesterday.
  • COMPLETED: Unlimited Demo account provider. As I am Canadian, I found https://www.oanda.com.
  • NEW: Investigate long term real provider for a Canadian. I am not sure that oanda is the best yet.

TRADES:

None

1 Like

2020-04-20 Learning Phase

Continuing the above.

ACTION ITEMS

  • WIP: Babypips now at 140/337.
  • WIP: Programming a few Advisors to learn and for fun
  • WIP: Investigate long term real provider for a Canadian. I am not sure that oanda is the best yet.

COMMENTS

Altho, I know a lot of the indicators, I am learning quite a lot of new ones as well. I always preferred the Technicals anyways. The Learning Phase will be long, which is fine.

TRADES:

None

1 Like

2020-05-01 Learning Phase

Continuing the above.

ACTION ITEMS

  • WIP: Babypips now at 202/337.

  • COMPLETED: Investigate long term real provider for a Canadian. From reviews, I think Oanda will work for me.

  • Developed one strategy in MT4, early backtesting appear worth further backtesting.

TRADES:

None

1 Like

2020-05-08 Learning Phase

Continuing the above.

ACTION ITEMS

  • WIP: Babypips now at 299/346.
  • WIP: Developed one strategy in MT4, early backtesting appear worth further backtesting.
  • WIP: practicing strategy on Live demo account, for adjustments.
  • COMPLETED: High level plan of Strategy development, attached.

TRADES:

None

2 Likes

2020-05-15 Early Strategy development

ACTION ITEMS

  • COMPLETED: Yay, for me, graduated Babypips. Really well done, I learnt a lot, and will still refer to many parts of course. Namely Risk Management, I will abide by max 2% commitment on each trade.

Strategies:

3MA+2MA:

  • Description: Using 3 MA on targeted timeframe, plus another 2 other MA on above timeframe for trend.
  • Status: Developed strategy in MT4, early backtesting appeared worth further investigation, however, when put into my UAT (yes, I’m a computer developer) and run on its own, numbers are not supporting moving it further. Refine/review in DEV.

Engulfing Pattern

  • Description: a simple variation with some rules on Englufing pattern.
  • Status: backtesting appears promising, promoted to UAT for at least a week of Live Demo trades.

TRADES:

None. Opened a real account, will start with small amount ($500), so you could call it Demo Live with real $.

PS: Not sure if anyone is reading this, but I like that it keeps me honest and helps me document my progression.

3 Likes

Awesome trading journal, love the accountability! What does WIP stand for? :slight_smile:

1 Like

This is the best way to learn, as long as you stick to your rules. You can tweak your strategy as you go, but remember, money management is the key to keeping your account.

1 Like

Oh, thank you. Really didn’t know if anyone paid attention.

WIP is Work In Progress.

2 Likes

Correct, I am only risking 1% per trade.

2020-05-22 Early Strategy development

This week, I spent a lot of time fixing / improving my EAs as re-usable libraries, as I was finding that I was cut’n’pasting too much. None of my EA were successful yet in unattended demo mode. Next week I’ll spend more time on reviewing them.
So unfortunately not a lot of progress per say.

ACTION ITEMS

Strategies:

3MA+2MA:

  • Description: Using 3 MA on targeted timeframe, plus another 2 other MA on above timeframe for trend.
  • Status: Developed strategy in MT4, early backtesting appeared worth further investigation, however, when put into my UAT. Still being reviewed in DEV .

Engulfing Pattern

  • Description: a simple variation with some rules on Englufing pattern.
  • Status: backtesting appears promising, promoted to UAT for at least a week of Live Demo trades. It did not work well unattended in demo mode. I have gone back and reviewed my backtesting, and my error is that my backtesting was not on a long enough period. Back to DEV.

TRADES:

None.

1 Like

This sounds like a lot of work! How much time in a week would you say are you spending on working on your EAs? :open_mouth:

1 Like

Yes, it is a lot of work. I’m probably spending about 20hours right on and off. I am hoping once my Ea stabilizes a bit it will get simpler. It is already getting simpler.

1 Like

2020-05-29 Expert Advisor development

Maybe this phase will take longer than I had expected. Spending quite a bit of time, cleaning up bugs, in reusable libraries, which hopefully will allow me to have some winners faster.

I do not mind as I am learning a lot about Forex as well. This week for example I learned something that I should have taken into considerations. A BUY STOP gets filled at the ASK. Probably pretty basic for everyone, but I kept noticing my EA getting tripped earlier than anticipated, now I have reworked it into the my BUY STOP process. PS: I knew about ASK for a SELL transaction to take into account the distance of the STOPLOSS, It just didnt dawn on me on the BUY side. Duh!

Strategies:

3MA+2MA: still reviewing, have not had much chance this week, real work kept me busy!

Engulfing: made some adjustments, now testing in UAT.

TRADES:

None

Interesting, I also didn’t know this! :open_mouth:

1 Like

2020-06-05 Expert Advisor Development (continued)

Continuing to develop and test advisors. Its been a busy week at work too.

I also worked on developing and automating some reporting to better review the results of my EAs. I believe it is really important to review all fake trades to see if acceptable or not.
This helps me by aggregating the results and review successes or failures. Maybe I am too geeky in this, oh well I am learning and having fun.

Strategies :

3MA+2MA: did not progress on review (lack of time).

Engulfing: Testing in PreProd (basically live Demo). Does not create many signals, 5 or so this week alone, will review results this weekend.

TRADES:

None

2020-06-19 Expert Advisor Development and Testing

I did take a week off, so the reason why I have not posted any updates.

Progress still slow, I learned and developed my own indicator (more below).

Strategies

3MA+2MA: on back burner for now, may revisit later

Engulfing: Testing continuing well, may promote to Prod soon (with real money).

Box Breakout: I developed an indicator and an EA with it, to help me identify breakouts, so far when it works, it does really well. It does have many false breakout however, so I need to see what I can use to weed them out.

TRADES

None, Engulfing may be promoted soon.

Thoughts: it appears really difficult to develop successful completely automated EAs. Are people successful at it? I like the idea, as it takes my emotions out. I guess that is the Holy Grail!

2020-06-26 Expert Advisor Dev and Testing (continued)

This week, I had to rewrite my indicator. I had issues that calculations of new bars were not being reflected properly. So, so now its much better, and much more efficient.

Strategies

Engufing: good demo testing this week. Will try it with real money soon.

Box Breakout: as mentioned above, indicator, which is the base, had to be completely rewritten and simplified, but now the indicator is reliable vs complete redraw and new ticks.

TRADES

None.

Comment: its a real balance between using wide stops to make sure your profit runs, and get out of bad trades early. In Demo, I have been stopped a couple times for a stop too tight, and where the direction ultimately was correct and would have yielded good results.

As I was reading your journal you sounded like someone who would develop a product. With the way you have kept your journal I am sure you will be successful. I have not found one that really works yet to my satisfaction so I continue to do manual trading.

Wish You Well
TabiusLee

1 Like

That’s funny, no, I am not developing a product. I just have an IT background and Im trying to apply some of the practices in this MT4 programming.

I am afraid that my emotions will seep in if I do manual trading, I am willing to settle halfway with live monitoring of EAs, only take the reins when I see it not going the wanted direction.