Jeff, what are you entering in the SMTP server field? If it’s a Yahoo server, I’m under the impression that that is a ‘premium’ service of webmails like Yahoo and Hotmail (premium as opposed to the free service most people sign up for). Do you have an email address with your ISP?
I don’t really have an ISP. I have a laptop, and I travel, and so wherever the hot spot is, that’s who my current ISP is.
Jeff
Here’s how to set it up:
In your software, under Outgoing mail, set the SMTP server to smtp.gmail.com.
Set the your username is <[email protected]> and make sure “Use username and password” is checked.
Also check off “TLS” under “Use secure connection.” , if the field is visible.
And voila! You can send mail for any email address from any network (that lets you connect to an outside SMTP server) using your Gmail account - be sure to enter your Gmail password when prompted.
Is this how you have it set up?
The problem most likely lies with MT4’s lack of SSL handling.
You may want to try a free email account at bluebottle.com as it doesn’t have the SSL requirement for sending email. Look under their HELP tab for settings…which are pretty straight forward.
I tried the gmail settings myself on MT4 and it doesn’t work.
I think muddbuddha’s right. Gmail would work IF mt4 had the option to select a secure connection, but it does not. Not that I could see, anyway.
So, you (and I, actually) need to find a free email provider that allows smtp access and does not require the security option that gmail does. So, I’m going to try bluebottle on muddbuddha’s recommendation. (thx muddbuddha)
Ok, so I signed up with bluebottle and all is well.
My settings, in mt4 options->email:
SMTP Server: mail.bluebottle.com:587
SMTP Login: <[email protected]>
SMTP Password: my password
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Hope this helps!
1 Like
Thanks muddbuddha. I also narrowed it down to an SSL problem. I started to go about things in a complicated fashion and actually started to write a program to help MT4 out with a secure connection. 
Didn’t even think of searching for a non-secure e-mail server.
Dear, friends…
can anyone here help me about, how to set the ema5 and ema10 in the trading platform as shown in cowabunga system…
i’m a newbie in forex and looking for help !!!
Thanks…
Select your chart, in this case GBP/USD.
Then click “Insert”, then hover over “Indicators”, then over “Trend” then click on “Moving Averages”.
In the box that pops up, select the “Period” and make it to be “5”, select the “MA method” to be “Exponential”, select the “Apply to” to be “Close” and for the “Style” pick a color, blue is the one I think PipSurfer uses if you want yours to look as much as possible like his.
Then repeat the same steps to make another one, but when you select the “Period” make it to be “10” and the “Style” to be the color red.
And then you will have the two EMAs for Cowabunga.
MT4, like most things, is a learning curve, and some of it takes a TON of frustration before you get it.
Hopefully helpful.
Jeff
Thanks, JeffNlisa…
Finally, i can draw the exact lines
No prob!
Jeff
What broker/trading software are you all using? I see a lot of MT4 talk in the thread, but people are having so much trouble with it sometimes, so I’d like to use xtick just like the surfer.
When I go to xtick’s site, they recommend FXCM as a broker, as that’s where their data feed comes from. I am guessing this is what the surfer uses too, but I’ve seen him respond to questions before saying that he won’t tell which broker he’s using because of bias/etc. The reason I’m reluctant to just go with FXCM is the horror stories out there on the web about them.
Is anyone out there using FXCM/xtick, and if so, are you making the same trades as the surfer? If you’re just using FXCM, how has your experience been?
If the trading platform is not built-in to the charting package, then you may as well use any broker. At any moment, the exact price will vary from broker to broker, but you don’t need it to match identically at each moment for trading purposes.
For charting purposes, even the slightest variations in price can make a difference in when you get a good signal. And so if you use Xtick for charting, you should get the exact same picture PipSurfer gets.
Now the best reason for not using FXCM is that they are a MM broker. MM brokers will do things like hunting your stops, and I have heard it first hand from someone I trust that FXCM too does this to everyone. They will not do it to you individually, from what I’ve heard, but they do it to all groups of traders in certain price areas at certain times. If you get an ECN broker, this cannot happen. EFX Group is an example if an ECN broker.
If you do get a MM broker (almost all brokers are MM brokers, and any brokers that use MT4 will be MM brokers), the way to avoid them catching you on a stop-hunt is to don’t place a real stop at your target stop point. Place an alarm a few pips away from your stop, and when the alarm goes off, check your trade. If price pops just below your stop for an instant or two, and then back within your parameters, you know you just beat a stop-hunt. If price falls to your stop point and it doesn’t look like a stop-hunt, you can get out of it manually.
You do want to set a real stop about 30-50% or so farther away than your intended stop. That way, if you are away from your computer, or for any reason you couldn’t get to it when you needed, the real stop a little farther away will protect you from a catastrophe. As long as you do these things, it should be safe to use a MM broker, FXCM included.
Of course there are other things, like requotes, but you can get that with any broker, ECNs included.
If you start with a small account, you will get to know a broker well when the dollars are small.
Hope this helps–
Hi Jeff
Just wondered why it is that any broker using MT4 is automatically a MM ? I guess they have the opportunity to be an MM through the interface software from MT4 to the liquidity provider, but is it not possible that some brokers don’t analyse/interfere with price data ?
There is quite a new broker based in Switzerland that claims to pass through a pure price feed to MT4. Would you be suspicious ?
Thanks
Andy
Let people who have tried this system on eur/usd,to please comfirm its accuracy on this pair.
Thank You.
Prince.
What’s up with this huge movement on a thursday night on the cable? Shame the system doesn’t take moves before midnight. I think the signal at 1930 Eastern would have been valid, no?
EFX tried to adapt MT4 to an ECN platform, and it simply doesn’t do what an ECN broker does. Their old website had a Q&A about it, I haven’t seen it on their new site since they updated it earlier this month. EFX is an introducing broker for MBTrading, and they and Dukascopy are the only ECN brokers I have ever seen.
A broker can always make their prices exact to what the real market is. If they really do, and they never monkey with them (like stop-hunting) then you’d have an effective broker that gave you what an ECN does. But they could change the prices anytime they liked. Whether they are telling the whole or not is a matter of your judgement.
Jeff
I’ve posted on the MQ4 cowabunga forum, but might as well ask here too. Can anybody define a clear set of rules for setting the trend off the 4Hrly chart ? With the 5/10 EMA cross, we are ALWAYS either in an uptrend or downtrend. If we also consider RSI(14) and Stochs there are times we are not in a trend at all - we have conflicting signals. It seems from the blogs that we are always in a trend - I have never seen a blog stating ‘today there was no trend so I didn’t trade’. However, maybe I’ve missed something.
I have altered the latest MQ indicator to include stoch crosses on 15min as it was missing a few signals reported on the blog, it should now catch them all. I’ve altered the 4HR trend condition to just EMA crosses but would like to know whether this is right, or what I need to do to make it right.
If ybop01 and Pipalot (the authors) don’t mind I can repost my updated version.
Jeff
I read your comment on the Monday Blog. Nice trade! I too got that signal, and did exactly the same as you regarding initially going for the same amount of pips, then deciding that I was probably meant to target the round number for less pips. I set this as a hard TP as I couldn’t watch the trade, but well done in sneaking the extra few pips on the other half lot.
The signal from the indicator comes early doesn’t it. I hadn’t realised this. Its good as you have time to see if the trade develops into a valid one or not.
Yes. You also get some fakeout signals too, if during the bar there is a momentary crossover, but by the close of the bar price has retraced to a point where there is no crossover.
I got a signal like that in the 5:45 GMT bar. Just a few minutes into that bar, while price was down near 2.0723, the 5ema was below the 10ema, and stochs, MACD, and RSI were all in line. I got the signal then. But by the close of that bar, price was back up to 2.0729, with the EMAs were NOT crossed. The next bar closed with the 5ema still 1 pip higher than the 10ema, the next two bars closed with the 5 and the 10 equal, and it was the 6:45 bar before the 5ema closed below the 10ema. And of course by then, MACD was already negative, and RSI was already below 50. Having gotten in at the signal would have been a loser.
I’ve gotten into several immediately on the signal, when they turned out to be false signals by the close of the bar. Sometimes you do that a few times before you learn!
I really like having the advance warning. It’s nice to have a few minutes before the close of the bar to look at the chart and see what’s been going on if you’ve been away for a while when the signal comes.
One way to take part and let part ride, if the target is in the 15-20 pip range, is if you open with 1 lot, then set TWO pending orders: One pending order for half a lot with a regular S/L and a T/P, in this case 2.0647 for the S/L, and 2.0700 for the T/P. For the other pending order, just set a trailing stop on the other half lot for a trail of about 15 pips.
Worst case, you get stopped out of the second half, if price goes in your favor a little bit, then turns against you a little bit before ultimately hitting the target. This is more likely with larger targets. So if I have a target much over 20 pips and I can’t be here, I’ll just set a T/P for the whole thing. And in that case, if I can’t logically set a target at least equal to the S/L, and if I can’t be here, then I’ll stay out of that trade because I don’t like to get in trades where I need to risk 37 pips but only have a 17 pip profit possibility. That’s just me.
With EFX, you can set part of your position with a normal S/L and a T/P, and set the other part of the position with an order that allows the full 37 pip S/L until the target is hit, and THEN turns it into a trail of whatever size you set. A NIFTY little feature!
I also don’t like to set a 10 pip stop, because too often that’s not enough wiggle room. That’s because I’ve gotten 60 or 70 from a 100 pip movement by allowing 15 pips of wiggle room on the way up. If I set only 10 pips trail, I’ve frequently gotten only 20 or so out of a 100 pip trend, just because it needed room to retrace 12-14 pips before continuing upward. No perfect formula here, it’s just a matter of preference and feel.
Jeff