Hi Kris,
great to see you are doing that well.
Eliminating some false signals with MACD5 35 seems quite good, although Oct 2008 was as you said really horrible (sideways) and even this additional signal would not help really much.
Anyhow, you mentioned you have a fully automated system (EA) would you mid explaining a little bit more your settings:
1. you trade as per original rules?
2. you use trend a and/or b?
3. you trade from 6am to 22pm GMT?
4. what Dollar close value you use?
5. do you already use H4 HMA in your EA or this is something you are adding just now?
6. what is your TP? 30pips?
7. SL at sniper stop+-10pips?
You said, you can give us pointers how to achieve a fully automated system - could you?
Great posts you are making, really adding a lot of value to this thread!
Thanks!
Jerry
Hello pircj and All,
I will try my best to answer all your questions.
Yes Oct2008 was really bad, but I went back to check after your post. If I would have traded it, just by quickly scanning through not Spread adj. I came up with 1657pips. I am surprised, but very similar to Gary's 1781pips he has on his site. The only problem trading Oct2008 is that the draw downs probably would have scared to crap out of most. Psychologically most would have suspended trading during that month. Maybe not, I probably would have gotten pissed.
Alright, I do have a fully automated system; I just can't deal with sniper manually. I don't think I have the mental stamina to do it long term. That was always my struggle. You know when you have something great (Sniper) and then realize to make it work you really have to do something you may not be prepared to do in the long run. That is sacrifice your time with family, other activities, etc. you name it.
Here is how I do it:
Once you start the EA it waits for the next valid signal.
Valid signal is: (Long trade) Sniper lines turn blue and arrow paints. Trend B or Psar is broken afterwards or it was already broken. If broken previously EA will enter on arrow, if not it will wait for the moment it breaks Psar. Then enter a long trade.
Next, it will remain in the trade until 2 things happen. It hits a blue Sniper stop dot. Or, a new arrow paints. The long trade is over and the EA searches for a short trade. If during the long trade my equity balance goes from 5000 to 6000, and I set my Dollar Close Value to 5900, the EA will shutdown at 5900 and not take any new signals until I restart Sniper. At that point it sends an email informing me it has shutdown. The reason behind that is that you can capture a percentage of your starting Balance safely. Or if Sniper doesn't reach the Eq.Bal. it will continue to trade until it does. Key is not to be greedy. That is why I set it up every week to get me a certain percentage. I don't specify percentages in the EA settings because if you have a loosing trade and your balance drops, a percentage value of your new balance will be less than what you initially expected. So, if the EA knows that it needs to reach a certain $ value that is better.
I don't have the EA stop trading the Asian hours. The reason is that the EA may not be in a trade that extends from Asian into London opening. But this is the only time I may look at the system. Just to make sure it doesn't whipsaw like crazy, which it doesn't. But most of the time my Dollar Value has been reached and trading is off for me anyways.
The EA trades according to original Sniper rules.
Only difference are the following:
I added the Dollar value. I set it to 5% of previous balance for the week.
Uses a HMA Trend indicator to initiate re-entry. Gary has Trend A. HMA Value is adjustable.
It trades through the Asian hours. Not ideal, but it is ok. If Gary makes 500pips I make 300pips. But I don't waste my time. And honestly, doesn't bother me. Because Asian hours will not be the determining factor as much as is a lost long trade during the London hours.
T/P is really the Dollar Close Value. It can be 30pips or less for the week. Depends also on the pip value I use.
My Sniper Stop is just that. If it is touched and broken, it is game over. No +/-values.
It could be added, but never cared about it. I guess the question would be how many times does it touch stop out and then continue making money. Or if you give up 10pips every time and you have 10 of those, well. Sniper Stop is ATR based. Perhaps it is good just to get out.
The MACD dot and MT_SHMA addition I am in the process to add into the current system. But I will allow the SHMA line to be turned off and on. Because I like the flexibility. MACD 5/35 certainly filters that stays. SHMA based on H4 is really to let me trade with the prevailing trend. It works. Is it ideal, to me it is good enough. Because I may be trading differently than most here. I look for set percentages not all of it.
Don't forget, and I keep saying this over and over and over again, 6% per month return is doubling your account annually. Did you know that if your account is $5000 and you profit 15pips per week but increase your pip value based on the first 2digits of your monthly starting balance i.e. 5000 = $5pip, 5500 = $5.5pip etc. you end up based on 52weeks with a gain of about 113% or $10643.00 for the year. But can you do more than 15pips per week? Hmm, let me guess.
My thing with the addition of MACD dot and SHMA H4 is that I can probably safely go for 40-50 or more per week. Because as I have described above Sniper will trade, filter, and capture. When done, and Dollar Value was reached, it sends me an email. Ahh, it always feels good to know the goal is reached.
I hope my description as you have requested is good. It would be great if people realize that trading has to be accompanied with goal settings. On Wall Street it is easier because 9:30 to 4pm is a good gig. Forex is tough, it is 24 hours and very violent and volatile. You have to compensate for this huge, I call it disadvantage. Because you need multiple humans to do your job. Not easy. That is why decided to spend money to get this done. Hopefully within the next 2 weeks I will add these 2 indicators and life should be god willing even less stressful.
Regards to All,
Kris
