The Spread in Forex (MT4)

I’m testing an EA called Crossfader (CF), this post discussed the spread as it impacts that EA.

Spreads are more on the exotics, less on the majors.  This gets amplified in low liquidity  So, my thoughts on exotics and the spread.....

Firstly, the CF biotch works great with EURUSD, the most proven and reliable pair.  Hooking her up to an exotic?  Why would you do this (other than a demo as an experiment), are you looking for a hidden treasure, are you subconsciously trying to ruin your account?  That's purposely making your growth task much harder. 

Slapping this EA on exotics and trying to then fix it with filters is a waste of time and increases your risk, not to mention work load and stress level (if live, not sure anyone is doing this yet...)

If you're trading live or planning to trade live at some time,
I recommend slapping it on the 6 majors, on a demo account.  For analysing pairs.
Here's what I do, and consider I have a small nugget on a live test account with CF running;
Have 1 demo running 6 majors on all the time;

• Risk 10
• 100% DD
• check each week and month for each pairs performance.  This will tell you what pairs to run live.  [*]On MyFxBook you can analyse by pair.
  Even put some additional pairs on it as you wish
• The only purpose of this is to track pairs, not to see if the EA works or test DD or risk level, although you can glean some of this info from this demo

Spead Filters

• Let's say you are running biotch CF on EURUSD only. 
  Do you need a spread filter?
  What number should it be set for?
  Should it stop entries or entries AND exits?
  Should it stop trading when spread is over or under your number (strange question right?)

When price is moving fast, like after a news event, is spread big or small?  small, sometime there is no spread as there are so many trades going on.

When it's off hours and price is standing still, no bidders want to hit the ask, no sellers want to pay the bid, what happens?  Large spread, price doesn't move, stalemate. 

How about just before a news release?  Wide spread, nobody wants to trade, they are waiting for the news.  The market is open, lots of participants right?  Nobody wants to trade. 

wide spread = nobody wants to trade

What happens during market hours when price runs into daily support / resistance level?  I bet most of you never watched a chart real time to see this....  As price approaches the level, you see many ticks, it slows as you arrive at the level, then you see nothing.... you check your internet connection, wtf?  I lost my feed... then you see TICK....  the spread widens.  This is where you want to enter or exit, a turning point possibly, or a breakout. 
Don't believe me? 
Run a spread recorder, install the market pace indicator so you can "hear" the market, and watch price on a 1 minute chart.  Mark off area where price stalls. 

Market pace is a nice piece - when price is moving slowly you hear a low volume tick pop sound.  when price is at a level and stall, let's say price is rising, hits a level and stops.  After about 30 seconds price will go down by the value of the wide spread, this larger movement makes a louder sound POP!!!  It really is neat to watch this, it may help you understand the auction process.

Back to the questions above -

• Do you need a spread filter?  entries, probably not if you turn the EA on for liquid session and use one of the majors. 
  What number should it be set for?  use the spread recorder to find the right number.
  Should it stop entries or entries AND exits? Probably both - apart from off market hours increasing spread, there are S/R areas and news events that increase spreads and I don't want to trade at that time, BUT - to get out of a trade at  the profit level and worry about another pip, that doesn't concern me.
  Should it stop trading when spread is over or under your number (strange question right?)  This was the point of this post, now your thinking maybe I should enter when the spread is big during market hours?  You must figure this one out on your own. 

What am I doing?  I'm adding a spread filter that just takes out the really stupid spreads, for example, EURUSD would not allow entry or exit on a spread of more than 4 pips.  (that's actual pips, not fractional pips).  Exotics, not trading them, those pairs are there for companies that do business in other countries, not for traders.)

MT4 to Amibroker data feed and becktesting

We all know MT4 is a piece of shit for back testing (as well as some other things but lets stay focused!)

I want to test a system in Amibroker that has been written in MT4.  First thing I’ll do it convert the code.

Then run it live in Amibroker with a data feed from MT4, to see if the same trades are opened and closed.  This tell sme the code has been converted OK.

Next, I can back test it in Amibroker which has a robust back tester.

Here’s the plug-in to connect the two platforms.

http://www.marketcalls.in/amibroker/mt4-plugin-for-amibroker.html

MT4 and tick charts

I found this tick chart

 

http://www.marketcalls.in/metatrader/how-to-setup-tick-charts-in-metatrader-4.html

Questrade offer MetaTrader (MT4)

Next step - What Canadian broker has MT4 and is covered under CIPF, and accepts USA or other countries?

I know that Questrade is going to be introducing MT4 in August some time.

UPDATE - They have MT4 now, here is the link



FXCM uses a company called Friedburg Direct, and the web site claims to offer MT4. I've sent an email to clarify, since I checked 3 months ago they did not have MT4 accounts in Canada (went to UK for MT4). I have a small FXCM account in UK. Here is the MT4 FXCM page.

I've looked at a bunch of brokers over the past week, I always look to see what country they are in. I found one in Mauritius (HotForex). I've been there. I wouldn't go with that broker with your money!! The broker would have to be in one of the large stable countries (with a half decent auditor!!!)

Alternatively, I'm looking at TradingStation II and Strategy Trader both offered by FXCM. I'm not using EA's except for TipsterTrendlines to place pending order. It's not an auto trading strategy, it's atool that does all the grunt work for my manual trades. So depending on what the next 2 months holds, I might go to that platform. After being hit by both MF Global AND PFG, I'm ONLY going with CIPF firms. There are to many f'n crooks in the finance world. The Canadian finance sector including banks are well regulated and offer a solid foundation, the credit crises really never screwed up our banks and real estate in Canada, not sure if anyone outside of Canada realises that. 

So, I'm not saying that anyone should jump to Canadian firms, just that from my experience, any firm covered under IIROC and CIPF is well worth looking at in your comparison.

IIROC and CIPF

Here is some information that might help out the person wishing to open an investment account in Canada. 

Protection and regulation are really two different things, depending on what you mean when you say “protection”. I define protection (for the purposes of this post) to be protection of my personnel funds in the case of another MF Global or PFG Best.  Even if the regulator does not do their job (put your hand up American regulators!!!!) you will still get your funds returned to you. 

I was part of the MF Global non-sense, got every penny back, and it didn’t take very long either. I had an MF Global account that was registered in Canada.

Definitions

IIROC - Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada.

CIPF - Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

IIROC is the Canadian Regulator.  CIPF Members are Dealer Members of IIROC.

Mission Statement: To contribute to the security and confidence of customers of Canadian investment dealers by maintaining adequate resources to return assets to eligible customers in cases where a Member becomes insolvent.

In the unlikely event that the Member you are dealing with becomes insolvent, CIPF will ensure the securities, cash and other property that are held in your account are returned to you in accordance with our Coverage Policy. 
Investment dealer insolvency doesn’t happen very often.  In fact, since CIPF’s inception in 1969 there have been only 18 Member insolvencies. CIPF has made payments of $36 million, net of recoveries, and no eligible customers have suffered a loss of property.

So, for anyone outside of Canada (except AUSA residents), take a look at this page.... it tells you what and who is covered under CIPF.

http://www.cipf.ca/Public/CIPFCoverage/ ... olicy.aspx

Does it matter if I do not live in Canada, or if I am not a Canadian citizen or a Canadian resident?

No. CIPF coverage does not depend upon residency or citizenship. CIPF coverage is available to you when you open an account with a CIPF Member.

If you are living in the USA, forget it.  The U.S regulators are soooo terrible that they demand your money stays inside the U.S.  Imagine if this rule didn't exist, there would be a whole lot of American funds being transfer outside the country.  Other countries respect the regulator so they don't open accounts for Americans.  I have money sitting in the bankruptcy case with PFG – so I don’t have anything good to say about the US financial system. 

Free Online Charting

Here is a list of online charting applications.  They all run on your browser, chartingstation can also run on your desktop.  I use the first one listed since it was the first one online and I’m used to it now.  If I was to start fresh, I think I would go with chartingstation as they have less advertising on the screen real estate.

Take a few minutes and explore each of them. They are all free, free data from the BATSA exchange, meaning I wouldn’t trade intraday off those quotes but it gives you a great idea of where the market is. I mostly use it for my long term holding check, and to look at the US dollar index on the weekends.

In the end, pick one and stay with it. 

http://www.freestockcharts.com/

by Worden brother.  Although I like this, its heavy advertising and a push to upgrade or go with there platform TC 2000.  I stay with the free version as it does what I need.

https://www.tradingview.com

Community based, tons of features. 

http://www.chartingstation.com

• Multi-screen end-of-day stock charting software
  7 chart types (Candle, Point & Figure, Renko, Kagi, Heikin-Ashi, Line, High-Low)
  16 drawing tools (Fibonacci tools, Gann tools, Channels, Andrew's Pitchfork, Text, Basic Shapes)
  70+ indicators and chart transformations
  Access 3 free stock data providers (Yahoo!, Google, MSN Money)
  Load custom Comma Separated Value (CSV) files
  Multi-platform: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
  Use from your desktop or web browser

The end of the world

Do you think the world will end on December 21, 2012?

With the impending date of Dec. 21, we wonder if this will really be the year that the world comes to an end, but looking back, we see that the end of the world was supposed to come about 17 times already.

Is the world really going to end, though? According to the Mayans, some say, yes. Others feel it may just be a myth, or that the Mayans simply ran out of rock.

Why the 21st of December of this particular year? What calculations did the Mayans, who were incredibly advanced in math and science, have to come up this exact date? How valid are their calculations? Many doubt that the Mayans could have predicted the end, as it was several thousands of years away.

Some wonder if the few days before the 21st will become a sort of Black Friday shopping spree. 

I don't think it will end on the 21st.  Maybe a few weeks after that :)

ProSLTP

There is a tool out there called ProSLTP.  It costs money, really? The functionality is OK but this guy is charging for it.

ProSLTP Review

If your here you were probably searching for reviews of this tool, or the tool itself.

If you want a real free tool, go here and get TT2P.

The latest version is always on the first post.

MT4 Signal Service

This last weekend I updated my platform to build 445.  I'm running a FXCM platform on my smaller account.  The update included a signal service from the MT5 / MT5 community.  Here's the look of the new options tabs. Any comments on the new service?  Here is the link to MT4 Signals.

 

The sound of the market

Ever wondered what the market would "sound" like?

Even if you don't find this Indicator useful for your day-to-day trading, it's interesting to listen to it for a while.

On Forex Factory, under the thread called "Scalping With Sound", I found this gem.  (You'll have to sign up to get these files).

I installed this on the MT4 platform, on a Windows 7 machine.  A little crazy to get it to work but I finally manage it.  The trick was to select the new sound files, right click properties, and "Unblock" the files.

This is an indicator, so you put the "rooicol - Market Pace.ex4" file in the MT4/experts/indicators directory.  Put the sound files in MT4/sounds.  Then you re-start MT4.

Here is what I mean by "unblock".  You need to do it for each file.  It might work doing it once for the zip file after download.

Listen to the ticks as price reaches support, resistance, supply, demand, or whatever you call it in your world.  The ticks will stop, silence..... If price breaks this area (rising for example) and shoots up, the ticks go crazy.  If price backs off, you hear price getting smacked down, then slowly rising again.

Listen when the market is busy, I bet it sounds busy on a news release!