Suggestion for a bot

[marloc]

Hi,

I had an idea for a bot. its realy simple. when you start it it goes long and short at the same time setting both the same t/p. For instance +20 for long and -20 for the short . When eighter is reached a new position long and short is taken. I took as an excample 1-6 from 01:00 till 15:32 with 1 minute interfalls. Ofcourse this is not quite acurate but it show the idea.
Long and Short sell L sell S
14.131 14.131 14.151 14.111
14.111 14.111 14.131 14.091
14.131 14.131 14.151 14.111
14.151 14.151 14.171 14.131
14.131 14.131 14.151 14.111
14.151 14.151 14.171 14.131
14.174 14.174 14.194 14.154
14.195 14.195 14.215 14.175
14.220 14.220 14.240 14.200
14.240 14.240 14.260 14.220
14.220 14.220 14.240 14.200
14.240 14.240 14.260 14.220
14.218 14.218 14.238 14.198
14.200 14.200 14.220 14.180
14.197 14.197 14.217 14.177
14.217 14.217 14.237 14.197
14.220 14.220 14.240 14.200
14.191 14.191 14.211 14.171

Red means that its reached and you got 20 pips profit

In this excample you earned 360 and have due to movement a negative pips outstanding of 418 meaning a negative profit of -58. But of course that includes the still open longs (6) and shorts (9.)

Those can still make a profit of course.

Do any of you know how this simple routine could be build? If it exsists or if someone could help me build and test it I would be really great full. I have a feeling that if this would run for a week there would be a profit, but only a test like you can do with other EA will make the best test case.


Signed,
Marloc

[1ka]

Sound similar to the grid trading method that RoboMiner uses.

[PipCop]

If I understand what you are saying (perhaps not?) here are a few things to think about:

1. You cannot have both a Long and Short position open at the same time with most brokers - it's considered hedging and is against the new NFA rules. However, some non-US brokers will allow it.

2. If you have equal open trades, and close them at the same time, one will cancel out the other, effectively netting zero profit. Worst case scenario one closes after the first, and due to the delay you lose money on the trade.

3. If one closes, and the other is left open, you have drawdown or negative equity in the exact same amount as your profit, or greater, so again zero net gain.

4. You pay per transaction fees and swap fees, so you will likely end up losing money. If you win $10, lose $10, and pay $1 fee for both trades, then you've paid $2 in fees and had zero profit so you're negative $2 for each round.

5. If you leave the "losing" trades open, you will have a lot of drawdown . That can be managed by using smaller lot sizes, however. This is what RoboMiner and GT-Shadow do.

All in all, it sounds like a good system, but I think in practice you will find it might not work as expected.

[marloc]

Originally Posted by PipCop

If I understand what you are saying (perhaps not?) here are a few things to think about:

1. You cannot have both a Long and Short position open at the same time with most brokers - it's considered hedging and is against the new NFA rules. However, some non-US brokers will allow it.

I've read that. Lucky there are more countries Are all US brookers part of NFA or is NFA a goverment rull all must abide?

2. If you have equal open trades, and close them at the same time, one will cancel out the other, effectively netting zero profit. Worst case scenario one closes after the first, and due to the delay you lose money on the trade.

No I want to only close if the t/p of that trade is reached, leaving the oposide direction open. So in an upswing it could well be that youve closed 3 longs in row and have 3 extra shorts open.

3. If one closes, and the other is left open, you have drawdown or negative equity in the exact same amount as your profit, or greater, so again zero net gain.

I thought about that, and figured that if the system was running long enough that in a fe up and down swings all posible positions would be taken and paid for. Thus each t/p reached would pay for the next two that are opened and a small profit. Ofcourse this also means that if the up and down swing is say in a range of 400 pips you need a large sum of cash (henge it probably is only good for a micro acount) to ride those waves out. I estimate 17000 dollar cents would be needed to start such a system, but I need a (free) ea to test and perfect the strategy. I would be more then willing to develope my idea futher if some one who has a bit experiance in writing the basic idea in an EA.

4. You pay per transaction fees and swap fees, so you will likely end up losing money. If you win $10, lose $10, and pay $1 fee for both trades, then you've paid $2 in fees and had zero profit so you're negative $2 for each round.

As I said on point 3, this is something that has to be earned back. In the excample i made there is no consideration for the 3 pips or less that one pays per transaction. Deu to the large swings I have seen in the two months that I'm trading. (yes I was to eager to fist use a pracise acount, but in those two months I've traded with 100 dollars in a micro account. At the time of writng there is still 20,80 free and 212% margin . If I manage to sell all at the prices I bought it I would come to 98,33 meaning a small loss. (voilitile dollar suprised me and I had to cut losses at the high longs I had. Wife only aloud 100 dollars to "Gamble." I rather think of it as learning money, but im an optimist.

5. If you leave the "losing" trades open, you will have a lot of drawdown . That can be managed by using smaller lot sizes, however. This is what RoboMiner and GT-Shadow do.

That means atleast my idea might be a good one Both are paid EA am I right? Has no one attemted to make one for the community?

All in all, it sounds like a good system, but I think in practice you will find it might not work as expected.

Thanks, thats why I want to test it Now lets hope more people think so and we can make our own.

Signed,
Marloc

[PipCop]

Yes, it sounds like you're making a grid robot. There are several out there, and they have been around for years from what I understand. Check out this link for a long discussion on grid trading:

http://www2.oanda.com/cgi-bin/msgboa...6;t=009605;p=1

[marloc]

Thanks!,

At first glance its indeed the same principle. I will read it with great joy. Thanks for sharing it with me.

High regards,
Marloc

[marloc]

I might indeed have found the EA I was looking for. It's indeed a grid system that opens and closes positions as the market moves. From what i can tell it places possible trades to do when certain conditions are met.

I will keep a log of how is goes as im testing it on my account that without a goal is doomed anyway. I was hedging, but then manual with to little time to do it right. Atleast now the EA will do that for me.

The idea at the moment is to use the grid EA for 1 or two weeks and then see if when i sell all open positions I have made a profit or not.

Any comments are always welkom ofcourse.

Marloc

[marloc]

Ok first day with the EA.

As you all can see that it has quiet a legacy from my own trading, but my hope is that this will rectify itself over time into the patern

Im sorry that you have to download the states, but im to tired to figure out an other way (been to a cat show for two days showing and stewarding cats)

[marloc]

Might be a very short test im afreight. only 68% margin left. Hope the eur\usd soon rises again.

[marloc]

Yep,

crashed, but i feared that would happen. First back to the drawlingboard I guess. was hoping to last a bit longer.