MultiCharts Discretionary Trader – Gonzo

I downloaded MultiCharts Discretionary Trader a while back and installed it.  It took me a little while to get around to testing it.  It’s a free version of the platform.
It’s prefect for the way I trade, from the charts.  It connects to many many brokers, including IB’s TWS.  It can place brackets and fades, trailing stops, etc. with ease.  It shows all of this on the chart, very very nice.  What’s the catch?
Well, it was introduced on Feb 1, 2011 and discontinued on March 19, 2012.  Here is the post from them that announces the end of the free-bee.
Quite a marketing scam isn’t it.
Here is a blog post or two that tells you all about the chart trading feature.
Post 1
Post 2
I still have the installation file on my PC, and I’m still testing it with TWS.  Try looking for a torrent if you need the file.  Go to your favourite site, like pirate bay and put this in the search field *multicharts*

Running Multiple Copies of MT4

How do you synch the files (experts, scripts, etc.) between multiple copies of MT4?

Where do you run your line MT4? …and your demo?  How fast does the machine need to be?

Here is my routine and set-up, to give you something to think about.

I have two computers. 

1. One I use on a day to day bases to check email, surf, do MT4 coding and back testing, general stuff.  It’s blazing f’n fast with RAID hard drives.  Windows 7, AMD IIX4 3.2Ghz, 8Gb ram, 64 bit OS.  I don’t need this speed for this PC but I needed a new PC, the price was right.

2. Second PC is an old P4 running XP, 3.0Ghz and 4GB ram.  I hate using it as a day to day, it’s to slow and can’t keep up with me.  But as a trading machine sitting in the corner it’s quite happy.  I also run Winamp on it 24/7 with an FM transmitter PCI card in it so I have tunes all over my house.

3. NAS – Network Area Storage – 1TB of redundant drives.  This is where the MP3’s are that played on the second computer.  This is where I store my MT4 files for back-up and synching.

Here’s the drill:

Saturday – On computer 2 – run cCleaner to get rid of old files, and a registry check, defrag the hard drive, run a virus scan full power down, power up.  Virus scanner doesn’t check my trading directories, I excluded them.  All files to this machine come from computer 1 anyways, and they get checked there.  I use the free Microsoft virus scanner.

Sunday – set-up trades on my live accounts running on computer 2.  Also set up some trades on demo account running on computer 1.  I also run a demo on computer 2 that copies trades from other traders, checking to see if this is worthwhile.

During the Week – might do some coding on computer 1.  Once I’m done, I run Microsoft SyncToy.  It copies all the files in my demo MT4 coding platform to the NAS for storage.  Then it copies those files to computer 2 to all the MT4 platforms running there.  I have to run SynchToy twice for the changes to make.

To format my code before I am finished with it, I do this:

Downloaded AStyle.exe, a free open source formatter.  Put it in experts and scripts directory.  Then I made a batch file and put it in there as well.  To format my code, double click the format.bet file and away you go, takes less than a second.  Here is the batch file called “format.bat”

ECHO OFF

ECHO ...............................................

ECHO THIS WILL FORMAT ALL MQ4 FILES IN THIS DIRECTORY

ECHO ...............................................

pause

AStyle.exe -A2 -s3 --mode=c *.mq4

ECHO ...............................................

ECHO CHECK RESULTS AND PRESS ANY KEY TO EXIT

ECHO ...............................................

pause

Here is the interesting part, how much processor does the MT4 take up?  It depends on how many ticks are coming in, that triggers your EA’s to execute.  Here’s a short video on using a tick simulator while running several MT4’s with EA’s and how the number of ticks per second causes the processor load to increase.

magic stick versus trading sticks

Either way you compare these two they are both not for me.

You can read about them here….

http://www.4xcircle.com/blog/

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/review/www.4xcircle.com – for comments and user reviews, assuming what you read is by real people not affiliated with them. 

and here is the price at http://www.forexmoneytrendline.com/

$500.  Put away your reading glasses, it says five hundred bucks!!!!

Learn to trade with price action and supply and demand, then get the FREE TipsterTrendlines for MT4.

Here is the link for the free stuff.

Trading Mentor…. or not?

I received some email asking about trade mentoring.  As I have never taking a trading course or had a mentor I’m looking for some honest input from readers.

I think the worst part about finding a mentor is trusting if they are actually profitable.  If I was to have someone teach me, let’s say, how to install wiring for my addition to the house, I’m pretty sure I would only take advice from an electrician.  By the same token, if I was to take advice from a trader, I would want to see his statements for the last 3 years, and not some random stuff he might have made up.  Some online, lets log into your account and take a look, and see if your playing with some real money.  If he had 20K I wouldn't be interested.  I think an account of 100K or more and profitable yearly for 3 years would make me comfortable.  Good luck finding this taught.  Good traders are probably to busy making $$ to worry about teaching others to compete with them.

If you want something done right, do it yourself.  Learn price action.  Here is a suggestion.

Open up a chart with a 1hour timeframe or higher.  Zoom in so you can see maybe 50 to 100 bars.  Mark off areas with a box where you think price might turn next time it gets there. Let’s say there was a breakout to the upside, mark the area with a yellow triangle.  Then move along the chart marking off more area, don’t worry yet about seeing if that area was a turning point.  Once your done all the data, zoom out and see what happened.  Make notes.

Do this a few time with different pairs or trading instruments.  Then do the same thing but also mark off a target.  Then zoom out and see what happened.

You will notice that some trading vehicles don't give a rats ass about price action.  Try this first with EURUSD.  Then try some strange pair.  You will then realise that trading these odd pairs isn’t worth it.  I stick to the majors. unless I’m testing some EA.

Once your done this, watch a chart on a 5 minute time frame between 9am EST and 11am EST.  I have also done a 1 minute video screen capture of the NFPA news release to see how it moves.  Watch it a few times.  Watch price when it gets to a supply demand level on a 1 minute timeframe and see how it bounces around. 

My number 1 problem is that I chase price sometime.  I almost always lose money when I pull the trigger on a market order.  When I use limit order and set it and walk away, checking every 30 minutes, I’m usually profitable or breakeven.  I actually prefer to trade off 4 hour charts on forex, sometimes I have to wait more than 1 week for the entry. But in that week, I haven't lost any green, and the right set-up give you a smile on your face when it goes into profit shortly after entry.

So once you’ve done all that stuff above, try this game out.  Hint: switch time frames to drill down, use the pause button.

Click for the trading game Trading Game

By the way, if you’ve read this far, I just watch all Sam Siedens videos and got his odds enhancer list somewhere on line and studied it, to learn price action.  His stuff and Alphatrends helped a lot.

If you have a mentor or use a trading service, post a comment.  Not really interested in the service or who is the mentor, just interested in the result…. is it helping you become consistent and profitable?  Leave a comment.