does anyone know how to edit an earlier post? there seems to be a time limit so my post 1 doesn’t show the “edit post” option. but, i’m sure i’ve seen other posts where they go back and add indis or other info. as rptor progresses on his order entry ea, i would like to get that available on post 1 as well as the results info for e/j. how?
Im also live very small. Im running g/j a/u and tomorrow either e/u or e/j as well. G/j is doing well as I hit TP and stops are up plus a few. I guess sleeping favored me not waking up earlier move stops as I would have been stopped out. Now, I have two positions to gain on.
would you rather be good or lucky? maybe a little of both, huh? good job to you and bj. thanks to both for letting us know how you’re doing.
ah. read where the administrator can set up a thread in different ways, sometimes with a time limit on editing posts. would certainly have preferred to be able to go back, but, if it turns out i can’t, i may try setting up a “collecting point” post where i put together important new information.
Today’s pending orders for me (as per the rules, I set the targets 11 pips above / below Friday’s high / low)
Broker is Alpari UK, daily candle started at 21:00 GMT
EURUSD High 1.23892 Low 1.22416
BUY 1.24002 -> SL 1.2375 -> TP 1.2425 (strictly speaking it should be 1.2450 because of the 5th decimal, but I kind of judgment called it to 1.2425 instead)
GBPJPY High 123.749 Low 122.432
BUY 123.859 -> SL 123.50 -> TP 124.25
SELL 122.322 -> SL 122.75 -> TP 122.00
GBPUSD High 1.57669 Low 1.56655
BUY 1.57779 -> SL 1.5750 -> TP 1.5825
SELL 1.56545 -> SL 1.5700 -> TP 1.5625
AUDUSD High 1.04854 Low 1.03832
SELL 1.03722 -> SL 1.0400 -> TP 1.0325
Running trades:
EURUSD
SELL 1.22306 -> SL 1.2275 -> TP 1.2200
Currently at -27 / -27 / -27
AUDUSD
BUY 1.04964 -> SL 1.0450 -> TP 1.0525
Currently at -13 / -13 / -13
Unfortunately none of the running trades are near TP so no chance to test whether the Stop Loss setting part of the EA works correctly.
update:
g/j short 123.25, trades to judgment stop, be, be, be.
g/j flat.
g/u short 1.5714, trades to judgment stop, -10, -10, -10.
g/u flat.
a/u long 1.0493, all open, sl at 1.0475 risking -20, -20, -20.
e/u, short 1.2285, trades below 1.2225. tp +35, air and retrace stops moved to 1.2250, reverses and takes out air and retrace at 1.2250, +35, +35.
e/u flat.
total closed: -10, -10, -10, +35, +35, +35 = +75.
total still at risk: -60.
fyi, i did choose to trade the a/u and e/j live this morning:
a/u long 1.0493, sl placed at 1.0475, risking -20 X 3 = -60.
e/j sell 96.40, tp hit at 96.00, +40. currently printing around 95.85, have elected to move both remaining stops to 96.00, locks +40, +40.
Okay, I know this is completely off-topic, but I’m curious what you guys think of this.
NFA issues $200,000 fine against New York forex firm Alpari US LLC
In short - if someone is reluctant to just click every random link someone posts to a forum topic - the NFA, which is the regulatory authority of Forex brokers in the USA, has issued a 200.000 USD fine against the broker Alpari US for manipulating price data. Now, I’m currently running a demo account on Alpari UK (please note the difference, I’m on Alpari [B]U[/B]nited [B]K[/B]ingdom, not on Alpari [B]U[/B]nited [B]S[/B]tates which the above mentioned news story is about), but I’m kind of nervous a bit after reading the above news. I never opened a live Forex account, but on my Alpari UK demo account, I’m quite satisfied with Alpari UK, and I was considering opening a live account with them in the near future and everywhere on the net I’ve read that they are trustworthy and not cheaters. So I’d like to ask your opinion, which is obviously based on more experience than I have: what do you think? Should we be “afraid” of all Alpari brokers in the light of the above mentioned news? Should we not be afraid and just accept the fact that all brokers would play funny games now and then? What are your experiences? Which would be the best Forex broker you’d recommend?
I’m sorry for going off-topic here and please tell me if this is absolutely not okay and I’ll edit this post by deleting everything except for example a link to a rickrolling video or something.
rpotor, thanks for providing the information. we are seeing some definite differences in results depending on platform times.
my reporting data, ibfx, triggered these entries:
g/j short 123.25
a/u long 1.0493
e/u short 1.2285
g/u short 1.5714
oanda would have these entries, though a/u has not yet triggered:
g/j sell 122.29
a/u buy 1.0505
e/u sell 1.2272
g/u sell 1.5699
rpotor reports these directionally comparable entries from alpari uk:
GBPJPY sell 122.32
AUDUSD buy 1.0496
EURUSD sell 1.2230
GBPUSD sell 1.5654
without getting too far out on a limb, it does seem that we have a couple of platforms that are not only entering late time-wise, but price-wise as well. i can’t say for sure, but that could end up being a disadvantage. one of the reasons i can’t say for sure is that ibfx is gmt. bijoymj has reported using Hot Forex data, GMT+3, his e/u for june was +264 (i really appreciate the way he says, “only +264.” joking, right?), but he got +1,200 on that pair in july. my results for e/u are +480 for june, but “only” +385 so far in july. it’s really relative, isn’t it?
but, the conclusion to make here is that you absolute must do some looking back and demo trading on your platform to see how it does. it would not be good for our mental health for some of us to be losing while others were winning and the only difference was when we’re entering.
Whoa, those are some big differences on G/J, E/U and G/U. I’d place my bet on the explanation which designates Sunday candles as the culprit. I know for a fact (since I’m demoing it) that Alpari UK does not have Sunday candles, but I think IBFX and OANDA does have, am I right? I think the high/low and thereby the entry prices will not differ this much on the other days of the week. I’ll post all high/low values from Alpari UK this week, so we can compare the various platforms. Unfortunately the “Sunday candle problem” has no solution. You can’t even code a workaround in an EA, because on some platforms, Sunday data is just not there, it doesn’t exist. To achieve consistently matching results among differing broker platforms you must remove Monday from the equation, that is there should absolutely be no trades on Monday. On the other days you can simulate “pipwoof’s day” on any MT4 platform, you just have to code an EA and tell it to take the highest and lowest price from within a certain time period (and that time period can be set to match pipwoof’s day open and close times on any MT4 platform -> obviously one should use their brains for this, because you still have to tell the EA your broker’s exact timezone). Anyway obviously this might not be a good solution because if pipwoof or anyone else finds that they have stellar results on Mondays, then not trading on Mondays is a no go.
pipwoof can you modify your excel sheet where you calculated profitability of this method to ignore trade results on Monday? That way we could see, how the strategy fares Tuesday to Friday and if it still shows profit then we don’t have that big of a problem, you can say that trading the strategy on Monday is up to each individual trader’s risk tolerance.
skip the rickrolling video, you’ve earned the right to ask pretty much whatever you want here. as a merchant account, i once had an experience with paypal where they froze my funds, some pretty serious money, offered no explanation and no opportunity to contact, and sent obscure emails that had nothing to do with me or my business. after lengthy efforts, i gave up and, almost three years later, they finally released the money. no notification, no explanation, i just happened to look in on the old account and there it was. of course, by then i was a destitute alcoholic living in a refrigerator box (kidding, don’t send money). but, it left me with a fear of having money “out there” even when those holding it seem legit. now, i have that fear about brokers. are they going to find some reason to freeze my funds? can i get money out when i need to? after all the years and hard work to finally become profitable, can someone take it away?
my personal experience is that i have withdrawn up to $30,000 from ibfx. no such comparable with oanda, i am fairly new with them. i have no personal experience with alpari, but i do know that each location is a separate legal entity with independent protections for their clients. whatever happened at alpari us for the nfa to get an erection about is not necessarily a reflection on alpari uk. finally, alpari uk has a thread on this website with an alpari uk representative. i think his name is alexander chadwick. i would certainly take time to contact him through this thread or directly and express your concerns.
ummm, one last thing. as one who has had some experience with nfa and cftc (not unpleasant, honestly), i do understand the role of regulators and that they justify their existence by finding trouble. i do wonder sometimes why they seem to find more trouble in the $50,000 range than they do in those scoundrels who bilk people out of billions. where were you when that was going on?
The regulators find trouble in that price range because that’s where retail clients are. The regs don’t apply to institutional accounts trading forex (don’t you love Washington). Same ol’ political money game between the financiers and politicians that’s been around forever.
I was starting to study for my series 3 license to get into the professional side of things and learned exactly what happened with the frank/dodd act.
I’ve been debating if jumping through all of the hoops in the US is worth it or if I should just go elsewhere.
I am live on oanda set to GMT +0 and have entries in the a/u and g/j. Entry was early on both as I didn’t implement the 11 pip rule.
Aud : 1.04968 long entry, still open
G/j : 123.109 short entry, 122.75 TP, 122.75 air, retrace still open @ 123.00
lately, ibfx has been providing two hourly bars, 22 and 23 platform time, to base monday trades on. at one time, it was less predictable, varying between one and three sunday bars. i concluded that it just started whenever that guy with the key got to work and turned the lights on. i think they must have told him if he was going to keep the key, he better get out two data bars. heh. the last time i had only one was mar 4. oanda starts shipping data on saturday. they usually send bars on saturday from 00 to 16 and on sunday from 15 to 23. in fact, you can trade if you want to pay spreads as wide as the oklahoma turnpikes.
yeah, i will continue posting entries as i have lately so we can have time to compare a few numbers. i can’t do anything with a spreadsheet to segregate mondays. the spreadsheet was used only to get estimates for the original daybreak method and used daily data only to look only at entries versus closes, a gross check for profitability, and no capacity to estimate variable exits. i collected all the triple threat data by hand. slow, tedious, boring, labor-intensive hand. i can, however, give you a general idea of what happens on monday from my experience documenting those trades.
let’s just take e/j mondays in jan and feb '11. -30, +120, -45, +100, be, +40, -45, -90, total +50. nothing spectacular, right? something we could live without, right? then, on mar 18, '11, +505. see, it can happen on monday like any other day. the latest good run of mondays was just recently, 6-4 +120, 6-11 +160, 6-18 +140, and 6-25 +275.
we have a thread follower, i believe adam ashley, from australia who doesn’t get sunday data either. all i could suggest is basing off friday or using the open monday +/- some number of pips. test it first, 'cause, ullike the nfa, i have no hard data.
Very good points here, I think it alleviated my fears that came up when I read this news this morning (my time, morning, I think you all were still fast asleep then :-)) I think the best approach is to just accept that sh*t might happen anywhere, anytime and you can’t really have protect yourself from everything.
Thanks again for sharing this pipwoof, it was a good read!
if rules aren’t made to be broken, we can at least question and bend them. good job on your trades. yeah, my a/u is hangin’ like a teenager at the mall. if it gets back to be, may get bored and pull the plug. we’re about to go into sleepy afternoon.
don’t know how far you are on your series 3, but i have to think the hurdles might be worth it. not that you would go this way, but another thread suggests barclay’s traders make 1.3 plus bonuses. that’s not lifetime earnings, either. my experience with regulators was when i considered opening a managed fund. finally got the approvals, but decided not to do it. the only thing about credentials, they make you visible to the regulators.
Got that. Seems to me, that on “normal” Mondays the net profit or loss might differ depending on the exact platform used, so it might be that on some Mondays you might lose -40 pips while I make +150 or vice versa, but added together, I think the aggregated result should be the same. However, the “unnatural” Mondays will make everyone across all platforms happy, since I think that +505 move would have been a big one for anyone, regardless if someone entered the trade like 50 pips earlier or later.
That’s one of my reservations. Although, 1.3+ is attractive. Then again, if I’m successful as is, I don’t need 1.3+ a year and the headaches to go with it.
i want to believe it balances out, but lack the patience to go through oanda, or other, data like i did ibfx. i think there is something to be gained when each trader backtests (by hand at this point) his own platform, getting a feel for the movements, and determining whether that particular platform satisfies the profit motive.
probably a smart way to look at it. in a former life, i was a psychotherapist in private practice. did some consulting for some dean witter, goldman, pru ba, and a couple other offices. often followed out by brokers, traders, etc., who became individual outpatients, but often ended up in a hospital of one kind or another. did you say headaches? try addictions, ulcers, heart trouble, hair loss, tics, muscle spasms, sleeplessness, nightmares, marital stress, and, yes, headaches. one of my personal favorites was the fund manager who made over a mil/yr, but that wasn’t enough. to maintain his lifestyle, he resorted to falsifying account statements. was all broken up that he had to sell three of his antique harley collection to meet a client’s withdrawal. checked in with me because he was nervous!
Since my trades are not really spectacular today to say the least 
I have no chance to see if the EA would set the “jumping” Stop Loss levels correctly. But I’m really anxious to see whether it works so for the really brave of you out there, I’m linking the current version of the EA, so if you have balls made of iron you just might decide to test it. Please be warned that this is kind of an alfa test here, really anything can happen if one of the trades opened by the EA reaches the first TP. It might blow your account immediately or I don’t know really. So this is really strictly only for the bravest of the braves out there and demo account only.
Okay, so upgrades. EA will now check if it needs to open trades, no need to close it after it placed the orders. You can start it any time during the day, it will check the previous daily candle high/low and place orders accordingly. To ease CPU load, it will only check the market once per minute. It should theoretically modify orders according to the SL rules (both buy and sell order modifications are implemented now) -> this is the thing that needs testing. The EA only considers orders which it itself placed. So if you placed orders manually, then start the EA it will place orders, too. You can identify orders placed by the EA, by the comment field. For example a comment of “DB-S-Air-1343606462” means a sell order, Air position (I decided to introduce Air and Retrace designations in the comments to more closely comply with the rules. The long number at the end is just for the EA to group together orders for a given currency pair and trade direction. When the TP is first reached, the EA currently should check whether the new Retrace SL locks in negative pips, and if it does it should set the Retrace SL equal to Air SL so that both SLs lock in positive pips, but there’s a greater risk that both get stopped out. In future versions I’d like this to be set by the user, but first I’d like to see if modifying the orders works at all. If the EA is unable to place an order (say you fire it up at a time when price is already above the previous daily High and so it can’t set a buy stop) it will keep trying and if price goes below previous daily high, it will set the order. However it should be more intelligent now, and if it finds that it has already placed orders for today for a given currency pair in a given trade direction (buy or sell) it won’t open new positions again. If you set up the EA on a chart, then exit MT4 for a few hours and come back, the EA should have no trouble “picking up where you left off”, that is, it should check the current market conditions and open orders and set the required SL levels where needed.
Anyway the gist of it is that the EA should be much more sophisticated now all we need to see, if it can modify the SL levels according to our rules.
Any EA coders here on the thread I’d also appreciate - even if you don’t want to test it - if you could double check my code, maybe there are blatant bugs in it that a trained eye could easily spot. Obviously this EA is absolutely free, and I absolutely take no offense whatsoever if someone more knowledgeable than me, just takes it for a spin and makes it better, or points out obvious coding mistakes, after all, I’m here to learn.
So without further ado…
http://www.rpotor.com/forex/TTE/Daybreak-TT-OrderEntry-v3.14.mq4
Of course seconds after posting this, I thought up a possible bug, checked the code and yep, it was buggy. I’m sorry, I think that’s the way a coding mind works, until a code is proven to be perfect, it just keeps running in my head as a “background process” and if something jumps out I check the code and tweak it.
Anyway, previous version is no go, the order checking functions in the EA would never execute, corrected version below:
http://www.rpotor.com/forex/TTE/Daybreak-TT-OrderEntry-v3.15.mq4