MT-4 EA needed for back-testing

MT-4 has some sample EAs, but they seem to be "always in" type Stop and Reverse ones.
I need something more involved, in that there will be conditions when the system is flat, ie, not in a trade.

Could someone point me in best direction for:

1: A Stochastics based EA where trade triggers when Signal line crosses a user-inputted variable. (eg, 80/20, or 61.8/38.2 :cheesy

2: Conditions for stop-losses. (user-variable) eg, max pips move against opening price.

2a: moving stop-loss to break-even if price moves x pips in favour.

3: Time component. EG, trades only to be valid within given time-parameters, eg, key trading sessions (eg, 6am-4pm), and no opening of trades in dead-times, but ok to close existing open ones.

4: Secondary time component where trades must close on Friday. (user variable time, eg, 8pm. This is because I find sometimes a gap in real-time can be seen as smaller stopped-loss in tests, since the program doesnt recognise the price gapped through stop-loss rather than "stepped" through it, giving the illusion I took a smaller loss than I would have in real life)

5: Option to add a second indicator to identify alternative exit strategy. (eg, MACD)

6: Built-in user-variable skewing (adding x pips to opening price), to test robustness for continuous slippage on entries.

7: equity graph to show continuous open exposure. (I hate those MT-4 equity curve graphs that only show closed trades, and not show the running exposure of open trades)

thats about it. too involved for me. and too much hassle for me to learn this.

thanks.

EDIT:
3a: recognition of Daylight Savings Time.

Trendie

You want it for free?Anything else like guaranteed profitable ?

O D T

oildaytrader said:

Trendie

You want it for free?Anything else like guaranteed profitable ?

O D T

Click to expand...

free of course not!
need to get a feel of who can do it, time needed to achieve it, and fees applicable.
*like a proper project. Analysis, flowchart, time/costs, milestones, testing, work done, acceptance procedure, sign off.

PMs acceptable.

however, if the sub-components already exist out there, and all I need is to "lego" the pieces together, then a pint or two would be more a realistic fee. :cheers:

would prefer a "lego" solution, as then the code is already available, and debugging easier, even by me.

The biggest problem I am having is the "being flat" bit. have looked at a couple of other readable (unencrypted) EAs, but its too complex for me to deconstruct.

Actually, any "easy" EA that anyone can recommend that allows flat condition would be good.

doing my head in to the extent I am willing to pay to get it.

guaranteed profit: no chance, nobody can give that assurance.
I admit I am deliberately being vague about settings and how I want it to connect together. I want the structure to be there, but I want to be able to connect my add-ons (eg, I want a sub-loop which says "check for exit rules" and I can add in my own rules, whether its MACD or ADX or RSI) so I dont give too much away.

I will be using MT4s own "iMACD" or "iStochastics", or "iMA" or whatever to keep it simple. Also, it gives it a flexibility that goes beyond any specific style.

if I can provide some context:

I have been trading off 5-mins (representing a 30-60 min bars).
Recently, I started testing 15-min bars (representing the equivalent of 3-4hrs), and the trades seem to be better. Less chop. More room to trend.

The results I am getting are: (over 1 years worth of data: this is an issue in itself, as is it enough??)
EJ-15mins - 10,400 pips, with drawdown of 1000 pips during test.
EU-15mins - 6200 pips, with drawdown of 400 pips.
GU-15mins - 9,400 pips, with drawdown of 400 pips.

Something is wrong here! It cant be that good. Even if the total pips made was half, and the drawdown was doubled, I think its a "small-lot, back-burner" project worth investigating.

Thats why I am trying to "break it". I have contemplated manually going through each trade, bar by bar from Jan-09 to today, but thats mind-numbing.
I am trying to eliminate reasons why I am getting reasonable results, by thinking of over-week gaps, etc. I suspect my stop-loss strategy is at fault, and maybe more trades get "spiked out" than the results show.
Another thing I need is the equity curve, as the minimal drawdown could be a fluke. I would like to see the max peak-to-trough as well. Maybe I was lucky on the starting dates, hence the apparent low overall drawdowns. (maybe the devil is in horrendous peak-to-trough swings that I am not seeing, because my graphs are basic and are not up to scratch. )

lots of thinking going on. need the tools to prove/disprove it all.

trendie said:

free of course not!
need to get a feel of who can do it, time needed to achieve it, and fees applicable.
*like a proper project. Analysis, flowchart, time/costs, milestones, testing, work done, acceptance procedure, sign off.

PMs acceptable.

however, if the sub-components already exist out there, and all I need is to "lego" the pieces together, then a pint or two would be more a realistic fee. :cheers:

would prefer a "lego" solution, as then the code is already available, and debugging easier, even by me.

The biggest problem I am having is the "being flat" bit. have looked at a couple of other readable (unencrypted) EAs, but its too complex for me to deconstruct.

Actually, any "easy" EA that anyone can recommend that allows flat condition would be good.

doing my head in to the extent I am willing to pay to get it.

guaranteed profit: no chance, nobody can give that assurance.
I admit I am deliberately being vague about settings and how I want it to connect together. I want the structure to be there, but I want to be able to connect my add-ons (eg, I want a sub-loop which says "check for exit rules" and I can add in my own rules, whether its MACD or ADX or RSI) so I dont give too much away.

I will be using MT4s own "iMACD" or "iStochastics", or "iMA" or whatever to keep it simple. Also, it gives it a flexibility that goes beyond any specific style.

Click to expand...

There are no ready made EAS for sale.It would have to be a custom made EA .

A trading system would normally take care of being flat .Example clos trades daily at 19.00 C E T. Either take profit or sloss hit would keep positions flat , failing which closing every evening.No statistical advantage in running open positions , cause swaps/carry cost will eat profits.Narrow ranging markets will kill off system with huge drawdowns in ranging markets.

I have backtested this strategy or something very similiar to your criteria.No indicator strategy has ever been proven to have a edge .These tests include stochastics indicator systems or any other indicator based systems , tested over 8 years of fx data.

Now do u still want to spend 800 euros on a custom E A?I have given you answer to your search for a profitable system using stochastics.It will take several months to test your EA codes.

I hope this helps you save time and money

O D T

oildaytrader said:

There are no ready made EAS for sale.It would have to be a custom made EA .

A trading system would normally take care of being flat .Example clos trades daily at 19.00 C E T. Either take profit or sloss hit would keep positions flat , failing which closing every evening.No statistical advantage in running open positions , cause swaps/carry cost will eat profits.Narrow ranging markets will kill off system with huge drawdowns in ranging markets.

I have backtested this strategy or something very similiar to your criteria.No indicator strategy has ever been proven to have a edge .These tests include stochastics indicator systems or any other indicator based systems , tested over 8 years of fx data.

Now do u still want to spend 800 euros on a custom E A?I have given you answer to your search for a profitable system using stochastics.It will take several months to test your EA codes.

I hope this helps you save time and money

O D T

Click to expand...

then there is some weird bug or bugs that I am not accounting for. I have even made the stop-loss wider than normal to account for data-quality issues. although that causes other issues about whether the wider stop-loss is helping!
Thats why I want a "skew" to test for continuous slippage, in case its the spread (or not accounting for it) thats the cause of abnormally good results.

have you considered one indicator for entry, and a different indicator for exits?

thanks for your reply and advice and experience on all this. greatly appreciated.

trendie said:

then there is some weird bug or bugs that I am not accounting for. I have even made the stop-loss wider than normal to account for data-quality issues. although that causes other issues about whether the wider stop-loss is helping!
Thats why I want a "skew" to test for continuous slippage, in case its the spread (or not accounting for it) thats the cause of abnormally good results.

have you considered one indicator for entry, and a different indicator for exits?

thanks for your reply and advice and experience on all this. greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

If spread is missed out ,or varies from actual market conditions like variable spread,slippage and broker tactics like bucket shoppping , the testing results will be useless.Hypothetical testing and actual trading results are almost 50 % lower profits on actual.

I have used single indicators,multiple indicators combined with and without moving averages .The same sequence has been tested on exits.I stopped using many of my different exit indicators including CCI, Stochastics and custom indicators on real accounts.

Indicators are useless.Use price and moving averages

O D T

Trendie

Indicators are free on platforms for reason.They are worth nothing.Zulch.If they were worth anything people would ask for a lot of money for them:smart::

They are lagging .Only indicators I use are support and resistance and trend in place
or trend lines

O D T

oildaytrader said:

If spread is missed out ,or varies from actual market conditions like variable spread,slippage and broker tactics like bucket shoppping , the testing results will be useless.Hypothetical testing and actual trading results are almost 50 % lower profits on actual.

I have used single indicators,multiple indicators combined with and without moving averages .The same sequence has been tested on exits.I stopped using many of my different exit indicators including CCI, Stochastics and custom indicators on real accounts.

Indicators are useless.Use price and moving averages

O D T

Click to expand...

ahh. overnight costs maybe. the 4-hr representation is effectively a swing trade.

I have contemplated that real results may only be half of tests. and the drawdowns twice what tests show. I am cognisant enough of real-life trading to factor that in. still seemed weirdly good.

Another strategy I have adopted is to target 500-600 pips per week over 3 charts, and then stop. This is to catch the odd decent trend, bag it, and then not go on to lose gains in the latter part of the week. Targets have helped me.

I should get more sleep and drink less caffeine.
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Back to normal then.
Move along now, there nothing to see. Move along.

Don't see the problem Trendie.

All you do is decide what conditions you want to be flat for, and add the inverse to your conditions for opening a trade. Ask someone to give you my msn or something if you still want a hand, might get some time away from my slave drivers to give you a solution.

Also, can't resist...

"Indicators are useless.Use (...) moving averages"