Hey, very interesting strat man, i m intrested on trying something similar (regarding the small lots and martingale, can you point the direction from where to get the free software packages? and were dod you bought your bot?
Thanks for sharing!
I canāt link to them in babypips (see babypips posting regulations). If you just do a google search for how to build an EA for MT4 youāll see a slew of options. I can tell you that one of the EAs I use is called the Kingfisher (that is the RSI-based one) and if you search for that as well you will find the place where I got it.
Well thanks for sharing, i found the pod cast you talked about before, very interesting, looks too good to be truth and i allways suspect when someone offers their holy grial for 300$ after the talk eheh; but the thing about concentrating on the lots sizes and the general idea of the strategy is still interesting, im programing now with that in mind, i ll let you know how it went after i test it for some time on a demo account.
Thanks again for sharing!
As im going trough the idea back and foward it came to my mind that once you got into a losing trade on a certain currency, after you open the x3 position, if that goes wrong too, you have to stay out of that currency until the trades comes back to your favour, wouldnt this eventually leave you with a lot of ālockedā currencies and make the strategy unprofitable on the long run?
That equity line looks terrible though
Yeah he took a beating today, 32% equity right now, not sure what happened
I sure did! The market tried its best to hang me. I dropped out of a few trades I had open to ensure my margin was healthier. I was up $150 or so for the week with about 19K margin free and clear. The GBP cross and the EUR spike ate up a ton of margin. I still have a bit left but thought it would be wise to clean house a bit. Nothing drastic, I dropped out of about $100 worth of negative positions and it freeād up a good bit of margin. Iām trying to make sure my margin % is back up as well.
Looking back at my accounts and the market in general I did see there are a couple of weeks in the Spring and then the last two weeks in August as poor performance weeks. Iām just glad that my lot sizes and TP targets were small (again, a percentage relative to total account size) so that I could take the margin beating. My pain tolerance levels are pretty low, so even though I had margin left I was white knuckling it 
I do plan on backing down even further my lot sizes and take profit targets just to make sure no close calls occur. On a few of the message boards I followā¦a few people who were using larger lots than they should have got burned yesterday.
This has been working great since last September. Iām not tossing in the towel based on a market hiccup. Moving lot sizes down a hair and will keep on cruising.
~knotthead
Eventually, yes. As the account keeps growing though, closing out some of those positions to let them trade another day isnāt that painful because the lot sizes and negative balance for those trades wonāt necessarily be that large. I just did some spring cleaning yesterday (mostly to free up a bit more margin since the market decided to burp). I closed out 6 positions I believe, freeād up a ton of margin, and only took a hit for about $150. Granted my open positions are still at -$13k and my total profit is only at $7200 or so. That wasnāt the case a couple of days ago. Those numbers will re-align over the next week or two. Not worried.
But to answer your questionā¦yeah, you may have to evaluate your positions every once in a while. It took me 8 months to get as many pairs locked up as I had. With a little loss they are back open and free to trade!
Thanks for the question(s)!
~knotthead
Great results till now, congratulations! I hope you can maintain it like that.
And Iām agree with you that the risk management is the key.
Thanks for sharing!
Did you raise the lots during thease days or was just the market responsable of the high DD?
Both. I raised my lots up to .17 and .51 with a take profit of $19. It was aggressive for the account size and then the market decided to burp. Iām pairing back to .12 and .36 and moving the TP target back as well. I also turned some EAs off at the moment and will most likely turn them back on Sunday night just to regroup.
Thanks for the post Charlangas!
Most interesting turn of events. Those that warned that the market will test this was correct. Iām pairing back my lot sizes a bit more to ensure real capital isnāt burned in order to āweather the stormāā¦i.e. the market turn as of late. I do have a ton of open positions and I may have to close a few out to take a small hit to free them up in order to trade another day. I knew there would come a time when I may need to do a little house cleaning. Well, that time is here. For 8 months this plan seemed to be rolling right along. Perhaps my lot sizes were a hair too large for the account. Perhaps .01 and .03 lots for every $2k in the account (running 20 pairs) was a bit too ambitious. I will close a couple of positions, take a small hit, and slowly as positions close move my lots and TPs back to less-ambitious settings. Maybe the magic number is .01 and .03 for every $5k, $10k even. I have to figure that out. Still there is something to be said about lot sizes and take profits sizes in relation to the overall account size. Hindsight for me is that I didnāt watch the Margin account % number as closely as I should have. Mine was hovering around 100-200 when it probably should have been more around the 500 range. Moving my lots back, closing a few positions, and moving lot sizes back a bit should help to get my margin account % back up to a healthier level. It may take time, but as long as I can maintain my capital (both initial deposits as well as money earned) Iāll live to trade another day.
Just an update. Iām not one to report only good news. The market turned and Iām still hereā¦just not making the same amount I was on a daily basis (until some positions come back).
~knotthead
Salam,
Your trade journey seems to be similar to mine, My problem in trading was emotional attachment to a specific trade and its setup , i researched my strategy over years invented many strategies disposed them at-last found one which fits my needs , my trading is fully automated and supervised by me ,so far i am satisfied with results.Have a look at my results.
https://www.myfxbook.com/members/XharpScalper/elitescalper-ea-signal/1914616
@knotthead - Awesome thread. Would love to learn more about the EAs youāre using as Iād love to test them out on a demo. Tried to Google but came up empty handed.
1 Like
No worries jckbt! Bring on your questions!
I was running 21 pairs and after 8 months I had about 12 locked up. Some were smaller lots sizes and TP targets than others since some were open since September and October when my lot sizes (and acct size) was much smaller. So after about 8 months I needed to do some spring cleaning for two reasons. 1) because I had a few pairs locked up and 2) because the market turned just as I upād my lot sizes to the next level. When that happened my margin level went way down and I had a ton of pairs open. SO I ended up taking a couple of losses in the month of May (very small compared to my previous months gains - see: MT4 System by knotthead | Myfxbook at the very bottom). I freed up those pairs to start trading again. I also shut the EA off for a few weeks to let the market finish itās correction. Hence you can see I took a small negative total in May. Also, you can view my trade history and see just how much loss I took. Iām actively running 13 pairs right now and will continue to do so. Free margin levels are way back up (over $20k). I donāt know what the average trade amount per pair is before it gets locked up. I should look into that. The EA does the triple position automatically. So, for instance, a pair hits the 30 line on the RSI and puts in a buy. If the trade continues to go southā¦after a set number of candles if it is still below or hits the 30 line again, it opens a triple to A) average down, and B) so I only need a couple of pips in the right direction to trump the other position.
I have a 2K account. I am running 9 pairs using .01 and .03 lot sizes with a TP of $0.50. I am averaging about 500 trades in there a month. Check it out here: 1M-EA System by sbknott | Myfxbook
I have been running this 2k account since April 1. I have 3 pairs locked up at this point but they are getting closer to becoming TP winners. Meanwhile, the other 6 pairs are trading like crazy. If they all become locked then you can do a 3-4 pair spring cleaning and keep rolling.
Good luck and let me know if you have any additional Qs. Glad to answer as best I can!
~knotthead
Its ups and downs as always, Iāve been almost killed myself when I lost so much of money.
But after some consultation , Iām still here back stronger and earning living out of it.
See u at the other side ! Good Luck
Thanks for the reply/comment H2T!
Yeah, thankfully I only took a small hit when the market burped. Some others took a pretty good beating. I think that stems from the fact that my numbers and lot sizes were much more conservative than others. Even still, I have backed my numbers back even further. It is working and, given another market test, it should continue to keep chugging along. I am quickly approaching 100% gain in my big account and am over 30% now in the small one I started April 1. Pretty happy with the results. No more āwhite-knucklingā it if I can help itā¦hence the even more conservative (less greedy) lot sizes and TP targets.
Good luck with your trading and thanks again for your post!
~knotthead
For those interested in my lot size and TP targetsā¦ itās quite simple. With this ratio your risk is minimalā¦not saying there isnāt risk mind you. Obviously, the smaller the lot size the less risk.
Iām running 12 pairs (either on 1M or 5M - mostly 1M for me). Here are my current settings.
Acct size: $2k
Lot sizes are .01 for the initial position, .03 for the martingale.
Take profit target is $0.50 - this averages out (depending on the pair) to be about 5-7 pips needed for a TP on the initial position. If a martingale fires off I usually only need about 2 pips in the positive to TP and close both.
Averaging 150 trades a week (currently) that equals about $75 per week, roughly $300 per month
Acct size: $4k
Lot sizes are .01 for the initial position, .03 for the martingale.
Take profit target is $0.50
Averaging 150 trades a week (currently) that equals about $75 per week, roughly $300 per month
Acct size: $8k
Lot sizes are .02 for the initial position, .06 for the martingale.
Take profit target is $1.00
Averaging 150 trades a week (currently) that equals about $150 per week, roughly $600 per month
Acct size: $12k
Lot sizes are .03 for the initial position, .09 for the martingale.
Take profit target is $1.50
Averaging 150 trades a week (currently) that equals about $225 per week, roughly $900 per month
Acct size: $16k
Lot sizes are .04 for the initial position, .12 for the martingale.
Take profit target is $2.00
Averaging 150 trades a week (currently) that equals about $300 per week, roughly $1200 per month
Acct size: $24k
Lot sizes are .05 for the initial position, .15 for the martingale.
Take profit target is $2.50
Averaging 150 trades a week (currently) that equals about $375 per week, roughly $1500 per month
You get the idea. As the account increases to the next ālevelā you raise your lot sizes and TP targets. That way you risk ratio remains about the same as the account grows. Note: These are my numbers and this results in meeting my comfort level. Prior to these numbers I was running .01 and .03 for every $2K in the accountā¦and though it was churning and burning making me over 10% per month, when the market decided to get testy I white-knuckled it for a month. I have moved my numbers back to a more comfortable level. If I only make 5-7% in a monthā¦Iām perfectly happy with that.
Anyways, just thought Iād share since several folks have asked about the lot size/TP āscheduleā.
As always, happy trading and good luck out there!
~knotthead
Robots may be successful in Forex Trading, but I prefer to trade manually. As like that you cannot have control over your trades. Thus I like to have the control on our trades and thus I like to trade manually.
Me too. Trade manually is the best