MT4 updates

Trading Systems Expert Advisors and Automated Trading
1

Hi there,

Please shed some light on the matter. I have found many EAs that don’t work anymore, then I see on the forum where I found it, it was created in2006 or 2007. It seems with updates and different builds, they are now useless. If I have some that work now, will they become useless say in 5 years time or so? Is there a way not to update the terminal?

Thanks a lot…

2

Some of the known problems with old code is no 5 digit support, and no ECN/STP support. The world evolves in ways that no one could foresee and will continue to do so. The answer to your question is yes, I suspect that your code will be useless in 5 years time unless you can find someone to support it by keeping it up to date. Keep in mind that this problem is not specific to MT4 and trading. It is common to most software.

3

5 digit problem again? Thats simple to resolve, use: Point * PIP amount for SL and TP levels and use the constant “Digits” ,which will return the number of digits.This way you can easily reprogram any EA.

Like this in a sell order (ECN compatible):

          ticket=OrderSend(Symbol(),OP_SELL,lot,NormalizeDouble(Bid,Digits),MAX_SLIPPAGE,0,0,"",magic,0,Red);
OrderModify(ticket,OrderOpenPrice(),NormalizeDouble(Bid+(STOPLOSSPIPS*Point),Digits),NormalizeDouble(Bid-(TAKEPROFITPIPS*Point),Digits),0,White);

But if this were the case only, i`d be a billionaire.The problem is that that EA was never profitable in the first place.It was finely tuned for 1-2 years or so, but when the market changed, it just could not keep up with it anymore.

So the problem was with the structure of the market not the EA nor the version of MT4 nor changes in MQL4 language.

4

I have no idea what you are talking about. Either you or myself is off topic of the OP. He wasn’t asking an opinion about the markets 5 years ago, rather he was complaining about the short duration of MT4 software.

5

I responded to your post, where you said that the 5 digit support is missing in some EA’s so i give there a solution to fix that, also for ECN/STP fixing.It is easy to fix that problem if you know a bit of programming, so the changing code accompanied by new releases of MT4 should not affect any EA right?

And also i agree with you where you say that the market is the changing factor and that causes the problems not the software part.

6

Thanks for the replies people. Appreciate them. I downloaded some EAs that were created in 2005/2006, the developers mention that they are compatible with 5 digit brokers however they do nothing after weeks of demoing. It can’t be changing market conditions either as they are trademanagers, supposed to manage other trades. I suspect it has something to do with updates and builds and so on. I searched all over the internet, it seems nobody bothered to update/optimise, as I cannot find anything. Looking at the variables, it offers a lot of things I want to use, but it is useless now. Care to have a look under the hood?

ManageTPv2-4.zip (1.82 KB)

7

As I mentioned in my first post, software has a very short shelf life. Even after 30 years as a developer, I am still amazed at how fragile software is.

It requires continuing support to keep working. Thats why “free” software is worthless. Like yourself, many others struggle to try it out and make it work wasting a lot of time. With commercial grade software, you get high quality and assurance that it still works plus ongoing support. The initial expense is covered many times over by savings in wasted time and confidence in the results.

8

I agree with you, there are “paid” trademanagers out there. Perhaps that is the way forward.

9

Probably it has a spread filter, aka. it doesnt trade if the spread is too high.
Or a slippage filter, it doesnt trade if the slippage is too high.
That may cause problems at yen pairs since they have 2 digits less than other pairs.And if the code was done by a novice, i`m sure he forgot to fix the “yen” problem.

I`ll check the file u put there to see if there is any problem with the code ok?

10

Thank you Proximus.I will really appreciate that. It is a trademanager, so it manages trades specified by magic number. I searched high and low for a trademanager that would have all the functions I require, when I finally found it, it wouldn’t work.

I wish there was a way one could stop your terminal from updating so that everything that works now will in 5 years or so. Trademanagers, not EAs that need optimization every now and again, to adapt to market conditions.

11

Try now, i fixed a few things:

ManageTP v2013.zip (1.83 KB)

12

Thanks a lot. I am really thankful. Will give feedback during the week.

13

Nope, there was a few trades, it did not manage them (add stop losses and takeprofits)

14

Please specify the problem, i dont understant, did it showed any errors or?
Maybe put a screenshot to see it better.

15

No errors in the journal, it just did not add a tp sl to any orders, had to close trades manually. I double checked, there is a smiley face, it is attached properly with “allow live trading” on.

It just does nothing… It is because MT4 is not the same as 7 years ago.

Perhaps the easiest way to see, is to run a demo and just let it manage manual trades.

16

That is just a stupid statement.There is a bug in that program i can feel it.I wish i could correct it but i cannot use my MT4 now since it is backtesting for 3 days, so i have to rely on your findings.
I feel it is the spread or the slippage that is causing problems.I will check it on my demo when i`ll have more time ok?

17

Thanks Proximus. I had a chat with my broker, they say MT4 updates periodically, so what worked 5 years ago will not necessarily work now - because of updates and builds and so on…

Do you think spread or slippage will have an effect, considering it manages other trades?

I appreciate all your help.

18

Man you clearly dont understand.They mean by “work” the fact that some strategy will lose it’s accuracy of good trade, not that it will stop taking trades.

If that EA is not taking trades is not because it’s strategy is less good or got weakened by the years of market change, it means that either there is a bug in the code or it has a special filter which will not allow trades because of some reason.

It is either a spread/slippage filter, or your broker is not compatible with that code wrote there.I will check it more detailed but right now all my 2 computers are busy running backtests so i cant really test it now.But you can, try different pairs and/or different settings.If your broker has 5 digits, then put one more 0 to every setting in the EA,since many old EAs were designed for 4 digit brokers.And so on…

19

Thank you Proximus.