Something I dont understand - find a working EA

That’s the exact opposite of what most of the world’s financial institutions believe.

They’re all increasing their automated and algorithmic trading and employing only a fraction of the number of manual traders that they used to.

Their success rates are far higher than those of retail traders, so maybe they’re right and you’re wrong?

It inspires me to try to automate. But not with an EA!

If you mean automating your own strategies, it’s a great option, but it requires mql programming. I thought to get to it someday, but don’t have time for it at the moment.
Maybe, it’s really comfortable

So, what do you prefer? Copy trading or PAMM or anything else?

Not at all.

That would only be true if you used MetaTrader (which 99% of profitable traders don’t, and wouldn’t!).

Automation and MetaTrader don’t go together at all. That would put you in the land of EA’s. And they put you in the land of being a loser.

Hello, I’m trying to quote the post just above but I’m failing. This new forum layout is not very intuitive, at least for me :stuck_out_tongue:

My question for the post just above is then what is that platform that 99% of profitable traders use to do automated trading?

Nor for me. Most people here seem to dislike it.

If you highlight text in the post you want to reply to, a pop-up gives you the option to quote it.

I don’t know if there are just one or two that 99% of profitable traders use.

There are loads.

Very few people using MT4 become profitable, though.

Partly because people attracted to the kind of brokers who offer mostly MT4 are likely to lose anyway, for loads of reasons including the kind of broker they’re using, and partly also because MT4 is horrible.

It’s the worst platform I’ve ever seen, by a long way, and I’ve seen a lot.

Many successful traders use Sierra Chart.

Some use Ninja Trader.

Those two are both light years ahead of MT4, anyway.

Tx! Know I know how to quote :smiley:

Well, I consider MT4 the entry point for amateur retail traders. It is the only platform I’ve used with real money. As far as I know for Ninjatrader you need to purchase a license or subscribe to some service (not sure). I’ve tried the demo from Interactive Brokers which is really not stable, and not intuitive to use. The real money one is stable but I still don’t have the 10K to open an account with them.

Metatrader might have bad fame because the broker at the other side have (or at least had) the tools to manipulate the quotes (I think this is only when the broker takes the other side of your trade, not when provides access to the real market - ECN). But the solution is to find a trusted broker, don’t go with dodgy ones that offer promotions or are not under regulations.

Anyway, I think the point is that profitability comes with the strategy, not with the platform. I don’t have EA experience outside of MT4.

For me for the moment MT4 is a nice platform to use: easy to use, easy to code and as far as I know I have good execution times and tight spreads.

But I couldn’t count me as a solid profitable trader yet. A year ago I made 40% in profits trading manual. This year I’m barely breaking even and it’s driving my a bit nuts. What I’m trying to do know is to automate my strategy so that I get rid of some mistakes that I make from time to time (even when I’m really disciplined).

Aaaarg, I spent 10 minutes replying you and my text is gone! I reassert myself, this layout is rubbish. At least I think I know now how to quote.

I think that profitability comes with the strategy, not the platform, provided that you have nice executions, nice spreads and the broker doesnt scam you.

I’ve only used MT4 with real money. I think that to use NinjaTrader you need to buy a license or buy a feed service to have fresh data. I’ve used Interactive Brokers paper trading TWS which is completely not stable, and the usability is rubbish. The real money TWS at least is stable. IB has very nice pricing.

MT4 is the entry level platform to amateur retail trading, and it is easy to learn and easy to code for EAs (come on guys, MQL is basically C). I’m pleased with my broker which is ECN and provides nice execution times and nice spreads.

In a nutshell, a great platform won’t make up for a bad strategy. In the future, just to get great pricing for stocks (while keeping great pricing for Forex) I want to move to IB provided that I can code my strategies easily.

Yes, at the moment I am also using MT4. I will have a look at the other platforms mentioned like Ninjatrader. Will see if youtube has a nice review about them. I do have a problem in MT4, it does not let me put a stopless less than 8 pips. This is annoying, cause Im trying to scalp the market. Maybe one of you knows how come, well good luck pippin’ anyways :slight_smile:

Greetz

On a real money account (even in a demo one)? That is not right. You can place the stop wherever you want provided is below the Bid (when you buy) or above the Ask (when you sell). Is this using an EA? What is the error code that you get after the failure?

8 pips is a world if you are scalping. Are you sure you are not talking about 8 pippetes (1 pippete = 0.1pip)? It not right, unless you:

  • a) are talking by mistake about 8 pippetes (0.8 pips). Remember, if you have a 5 digits broker (99% sure) the smallest digit is not a pip, it is a pippete: 0.00001
  • b) you have a humongous spread (exotic pair or your broker is robbing you).

Any of those reasons might cause that your SL is falling between the Bid and the Ask, therefore the SL cant be placed.

Anyway speak with your broker. If you have a real money account (and maybe also with a demo one) they should investigate the issue and provide you with an answer.

That’s why I asked what do you mean by saying ‘automating’ trading, as I haven’t understood what do you mean exactly. :slight_smile:

Hi, thanks for the reply.

It is very strange, when I place the stoploss too close (say 5 pips) to the current price, it says ‘Invalid S/L T/P’ and gives me an error sound. I am really talking about pips here, not pippetes. Only around 8 pips stoploss is allowed.

Also when I try to put the stoploss closer to the current price afterwards, it gives me an error sound.

I will contact my broker about it.

Greetz

I contacted my broker about it, and what they say is, there are limits to stoplosses and take profit.
There is a table on their website showing you how much stoploss you are allowed to set. For Eur/usd for example it says 4 pips (spread not included). Is this normal? Or should i change broker?
I really want to get good at scalping the 1 minute timeframe, and small stoploss levels are important for me.

I think your broker doesn’t like scalpers. It looks to me that your broker takes the other side of your order matching it with other user’s orders if they can, like an internal book keeping.

If you want to scalp go get a better broker mate, a ECN one.

Oke, thank you, I think you are right, they probably dont like scalpers that much. I will search for another broker, an ECN one.

It is, unfortunately.

Because it’s what the people betting against them want them to use, and have promoted accordingly.

One would think so, looking at it superficially.

I think it’s more complicated than that.

Using MT4 doesn’t help new traders at all, I think. Some of the indicators are unreliabIe, and it attracts them to EA;s, which the people betting against them love them to use, of course.

It’s your broker that’s disallowing that, not the platform.

I think it’s commonly a pip better than normal, actually: a 5-pip minimum is very common for EUR/USD.

This is all more or less a myth. Whoever you use will be a counterparty unless you open an account at IB, and however good you can become at scalping, they’ll find a way to stop you because it’ll be their money you’re taking, not the market’s money.

This is one of the reasons why scalping M1 charts is an unsuitable approach.

Alright, thanks, good to know. I am still a beginner,maybe scalping is not the way to go indeed. I will stick with my broker then and maybe try some other strategies. I did see some youtube clips where they say 1 minute scalping is possible, so I wanted to give it a try.

But back to the topin (Something I dont understand - find a working EA), sometimes I read and analyze a system on the net. It all seems very nice explained and the author is very confident it will make profit. Then I think be myself, it must be possible to convert this strategy into an EA. Why is it then impossible to find an EA that makes profit 24/5?

I heard some answers, and probably you are right, manual trading is the key to success. A lot of factors to consider before entering a trade. Probably no EA can do this.

You are not fair here. You count those who just drag a bunch of indicators on the chart as people with a solid strategy.

When I say that winning is about the strategy, not the platform I mean a sound strategy. 95% (or whatever the percentage you want) of people lose money because they don’t have an solid strategy. Is a MA crossover a solid strategy? Oh please… Most of the indies available is the same info presented in a different way.

If you have a solid strategy you’ll win independently of the platform provided that the broker plays fair.

You affirm that all MT4 brokers are market makers. I don’t believe in universal truths so I assume that some of the brokers that promote themselves as ECN brokers with access to liquidity providers are real ECN brokers. ECN brokers just get a commission from your operations, they don’t take the other part, therefore they want you to trade as much as possible and to stay in business as long as possible. If you crash your account they don’t profit anymore from you.

Why it’s not possible to find a 25/5 winning EA? Because market conditions change and most EAs only work well on certain conditions. To write an EA that reacts properly to any kind of situations you would need to code ALL scenarios. Mate that is impossible. There is no way you can foresee any kind of event. It would be close to AI.

My advice: don’t scalp. It is way too complex if you are new to Fx. Even if you are not new it is too complex. Learn the ropes on bigger timeframes and give scalp a go after a while. Otherwise I think you could become frustrated too soon. But if you think you have a bright genuine idea for scalping try it. Please any kind of martingale strategy is not really bright nor genuine, I’ll save you time on this.

You misunderstood what I said. The word “which” referred to EA’s, not to indicators.