LIVE - Zig and Zag robot review - real cash account - BUSTED! -$4,975

[PipCop]

Zig and Zag has been running on a demo account for quite some time (click here for that thread) so now it's time to go LIVE. This is running on an IBFX account I have, on the EURUSD 5min, $50 starting balance. Settings file is attached.

Changed settings:
LOT SIZE 0.01 -- Update 12-16-2008 - Changed to 0.001
AUTOLOT = FALSE

Here are the original details:

From http://codebase.mql4.com/4049 - a new EA to test. The author describes it below. Let’s see how it does on the EURUSD 5 minute chart.

A regular release of an EA based on the ZigAndZag indicator . It still needs the indicator , you can find it in the Code Base, on the Forum and also here. The discussion is there, as well. The function of multiple orders is added; the forcible closing is removed, i.e., it works by the reverse system, there is some resemblance of martingale, it takes opening signals from a larger TF.

IMPORTANT NOTE!
The Quick Stats balance (profits/losses) is multiplied by 100 ($50 x 100 = $5000) to simulate a $5000 account, so you can compare the profits to other demo accounts. The values in the frame below are actual.

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Should I buy/use this EA on a live account? - Government Required disclaimer - Earnings disclaimer

live_zigandzag

G3B.NL1

[PipCop]

Please note that this robot started with the WRONG LOT SIZE of 0.1 so the first trade tonight is way larger than it should be. I sure hope it's a winner!

[eatrader]

1) I don't think you can set a fixed lot size as 0.01 since the input "Autolot" is set to true. Thus, the EA will automatically sets the lot sizes.
2) If you set "Autolot" to false, then EA starts acting strange.
3) The magic number is not working. If you run two pairs, EA will open the wrong lot sizes because it cannot tell that another pair is running. For example, if EURUSD opens with 1.0 lot size, and you also run GBPUSD, then EA will open with 1.10 lot size even though you set 1.0 for GBPUSD. EA will mess up badly. Hopefully, there's a MT4 programmer can fix these bugs for us :-)

[PipCop]

Originally Posted by eatrader

1) I don't think you can set a fixed lot size as 0.01 since the input "Autolot" is set to true. Thus, the EA will automatically sets the lot sizes.

I was unaware of that. Let's see what happens after this first trade ends. If it does another 0.1 instead of 0.01 perhaps I can tweak the code.

Originally Posted by eatrader

2) If you set "Autolot" to false, then EA starts acting strange.

Can you define or clarify "strange" please?

Originally Posted by eatrader

3) The magic number is not working. If you run two pairs, EA will open the wrong lot sizes because it cannot tell that another pair is running. For example, if EURUSD opens with 1.0 lot size, and you also run GBPUSD, then EA will open with 1.10 lot size even though you set 1.0 for GBPUSD. EA will mess up badly. Hopefully, there's a MT4 programmer can fix these bugs for us :-)

Someone could probably program in a magic number automatically to include the name of the currency . However, since this test is just going on one pair, I think we'll be okay for now.

Let's just hope it decides to take some of that profit!

[eatrader]

Originally Posted by PipCop

Can you define or clarify "strange" please?

EA would close open trade pre-maturely and cause a loss

[PipCop]

Perhaps we can get a coder to look at that and fix that, because that doesn't make sense to me as to why it would do that - unless it had significant code errors.

Anyway, it looks like the AutoLot setting IS enabled, so this is running way too large lot sizes for the account balance. It'll probably blow the account unless we can tweak this code to allow smaller lot sizes.

[PipCop]

In the meanwhile, I have disabled AutoLots, and updated the settings file.

[1ka]

If Autolot is enabled (true) then the lot size is calculated as follows:

1. Iterate through ALL the open and pending orders and set the lot size to be that orders lot size
2. Now add the value of the parameter Lots to the value from 1.

I don't know how many orders are in the system at any one time, but the iteration in 1. only picks the last one so it's pointless in iterating through the orders . The effect of 2. is to increment the lots by, in PipCops case, 0.01 each time. This will continue to happen until there are no open or closed orders at which point it will revert back to 0.01.

PipCop will need to stop the EA and close the open/pending orders to reset the lot size back to 0.01. I'm not sure why it's coded like this, seems a very simple way of incrementing the lot size based on existing orders. There's no account taken of equity

You can turn off this feature by setting Autolots to false.


I think this is another EA written by an enthusiastic amateur. As a professional developer I'm am shocked that people would entrust their money to code written as slapdash as this is. Mind you, people bought Windows Vista

[PipCop]

Yeah, I went through the code and tried to figure it out. I sort of gathered that it set the lot size the way you said.

I've closed the open order so perhaps that'll will reset things. It was at a profit anyway, so that's always good.

Perhaps as a professional coder you could get under the hood and make this better? And in English?

[1ka]

Originally Posted by PipCop

Perhaps as a professional coder you could get under the hood and make this better? And in English?

Question is, where to start?

I might spend some time tidying this one up to see what we have. I'll post it back to the forum in a day or so you can all see the changes.