I had a simple EA created that is manual to choose the position but then goes auto. I will explain the setup. The EA is based on drawing a trend line. This was the safest design I could think of to maximize profits while keeping a very tight reign on losses.
Find a spot where you think a trend is forming. Draw a trend line. Nothing will fire until you name the trendline BBB for a buy position or SSS for a sell position.
There are 4 basic settings:(explanation based on a buy situation)
Entry offset: number of points above the line required before the EA will fire. ( make sure you don’t jump the gun! Only name the line when you are ready for it to fire. If you name the line when it is already 10 points above, yes it will fire ( probably immediately, as it meets the firing criteria) but you can get caught in a retrace. Wait until it is very close to the line.
Stop Offset: number of points the trade can continue past a break of the trend line. If set to 3, then it will automatically exit the trade if/when price violates the line by more than 3 points. This takes your emotions out of the loop.
I think I had it programmed for a server side hard stop upon entering a trade.
Lots: default 0.1
Slippage default: 3
DO not forget to delete a trend line after it closes. You cannot have 2 lines named the same thing. If you forget, Metatrader will give you an error stating that.
If you choose, you can have both a buy and a sell trend line on the chart at the same time but that can be rather risky.
I have thought about a safeguard that would not allow it to fire if it is too far away from the line when you try to enter but didn’t see the issue until later.
I have had some success with it but have run into an issue. This may be a case of “can’t see the forest for the trees” but… I keep choosing the wrong place to start the line.
As long as one is good at trendline placement, it’s as good as any. I modified the EA above so it just gives me an alert when it’s near the trendlines. Then I can check the conditions…volatiltiy, news schedule etc…before committing to a trade. I find “alerts” really useful in general.
