Systems, schmystems

[lbranjord]

I always figured that any trading system ever invented is going to do "the Holy Fail" at some point, no matter how good the rest of the time. There's no way that a piece of code will always always always adhere to your definition of 'what works'.

And if your type of discretionary trading is actually something that can be realistically coded into an EA, then it'll be subject to the same tendency to fail once in a while.

What a system can do that the trader who invented it can't do manually is to be traded simultaneously with 10 or 50 other such systems - whose PnL together will buffer the time when the Holy Fail hits the fan on one of the systems.

My idea of successful discretionary trading is a mix of technical and fundamental that can't be coded.

Right, I agree with you.

I'm just burnt out. Manual trading takes up my whole life. Before I traded forex, I think I had a better day-to-day life.

Now if I had this process automated, I'd be ok with running little tweaks each day and monitoring stuff, but I dont' want to put in more than 1-2hours a day because that is the tipping point where it starts to not be worth it.

 

[Adamus]

Burn-out? Hmm. Doesn't sound good! Where's the emoticon for that?!!

 

[lbranjord]

Can you perhaps suggest some MM features I could add to my EA's to start preserving capital? I'm not convinced that BE stop loss has any positive effect. Perhaps selling off lots at profit targets? All I know about MM is the basic stuff, although I have spent a lot of time studying it. It seems like my entrys are not the issue.

 

[lbranjord]

Can EA's produce log files? Say if I want to run statistics and print to a .txt .xls?

Maybe a script will do this?

 

[wackypete2]

Can EA's produce log files? Say if I want to run statistics and print to a .txt .xls?

Maybe a script will do this?

Yes, you can do this with an ea.

Peter

 

[Adamus]

Can you perhaps suggest some MM features I could add to my EA's to start preserving capital? I'm not convinced that BE stop loss has any positive effect. Perhaps selling off lots at profit targets? All I know about MM is the basic stuff, although I have spent a lot of time studying it. It seems like my entrys are not the issue.

You're asking the wrong person about MM. All I know about is fixed fractional lot sizing. I've heard of all sorts of MM techniques but I don't know whether the claims for them pan out in practice.

 

[wackypete2]

Plenty of things to try depending on what suits your needs. You can code your ea so that it temporarily stops and closes any positions if you go below an account equity level...kind of like an equity stop loss. Example, if you start with a $1000 account then when the value of the account falls 10% or say $100 then your ea shuts off. You can also use the account value as a trailing stop in case your ea is making a real killing. You don't want to risk losing it all on an NFP day where price can move 100 pips at a time.

Peter

 

[lbranjord]

Plenty of things to try depending on what suits your needs. You can code your ea so that it temporarily stops and closes any positions if you go below an account equity level...kind of like an equity stop loss. Example, if you start with a $1000 account then when the value of the account falls 10% or say $100 then your ea shuts off. You can also use the account value as a trailing stop in case your ea is making a real killing. You don't want to risk losing it all on an NFP day where price can move 100 pips at a time.

Peter

Awesome ideas! I like the equity stop loss. Right now I have a simple one similar to that, if I go below 1000, return(0);

I'm seeing some great progress so far, just want to smooth out that equity line. It's a great balancing act of too much/not enough. This is a lot of fun, even if everything goes to hell in the end. I forgot how much I like to program. Work takes all the fun/creativity/passion/life/everything possibly good/ out of it.

 

[wackypete2]

Awesome ideas! I like the equity stop loss. Right now I have a simple one similar to that, if I go below 1000, return(0);

I'm seeing some great progress so far, just want to smooth out that equity line. It's a great balancing act of too much/not enough. This is a lot of fun, even if everything goes to hell in the end. I forgot how much I like to program. Work takes all the fun/creativity/passion/life/everything possibly good/ out of it.

Have fun with the coding and ideas!
Eventually you will find it near-impossible to create an ea that is profitable under all market conditions. However, ea's can do a lot of the legwork and be very useful in ASSISTING you, but they are no substitute for a real human trader.

Peter

 

[lbranjord]

Right, I'm aiming for one EUR/USD only. I have one strategy that gains well on all the data I have for EUR/USD for 1min, 5min, 15min. Over the course of 1200 trades and one year of data, it has less drawdown than I expected and a great return that is fairly smooth. It's the type of thing I'll play with very cautiously.

EUR/USD reacts a certain way, no matter how people try to debunk that philosophy, I think each pair has quirks and major players that consistently create those quirks.

The strategy works on a few other pairs too, but why trade the more expensive ones? As for the ones it doesn't work one, hell with them.

You can't tell me one bra size fits Keeley Hazell, Rupaul, Rosie Odonnel and Nancy Pelosi lol

Every pair is different and I'm fine with that.