Tipster Trendlines for Amibroker - new price!

The price for Tipster Trendlines for Amibroker has been reduced!!
It's now ON SALE

Now $30 - grab it while it's on sale!

What is Tipster Trendlines for Amibroker?  Read all about it here.

Here is the FAQ

Crossfader EA - Gold - Safety Lines

There have been many ideas tabled on saving the mighty trading account from CF when she turns against you. 

I have been using two charts with one set for buys and one set for sells.  The idea was that the sell trades could start even if the buys trades were active.  I was hoping to see the drawdown controlled.  Not sure why it doesn't work so well, I haven't spent much time examining that though.  Most likely because CF holds losers and take profits quick (no runners).

I had another brain fart the other day.  How can I manually control DD, and not sit and ‘hope’ price returns.  As I was looking through the sub-forums at SHF to decide where to post I ran across varso using a 45 pip stop (MPTM).  It seems to work for him.  My idea is almost the same!  We all know that trading with the trend is the way to go, but there are problems with that.  Which time frame is the trend you should be following?  The trend for CF should probably be the 240 or max the daily for a couple of reasons, first, CF uses a 240 stochastic, and second, when a basket starts, and depending on how many maxorder you are allowing, a price reversal could last a long long time.

Picture this - Price has been ranging on the daily for weeks and CF is happy to make Buys and Sells inside this daily range.  Now you enter a few trades, I've notice 4 to 6 in a ranging market on the 1 hour TF or 4 hour TF then price snaps against you.  CF enters more trades, price keeps ranging and snapping against you.  "Snapping" is the term I use when price surges in the direction of the trend.  In a downtrend, if you look at the chart you see price slowly drifting up, then all of a sudden it hits a level that everyone wants and BOOM, you have a lopsided market and price moves fast.So what I'm going to try is to limit drawdown by turning off Buys or Sells once price passes a certain spot or level. 
Here is the research I did to arrive at the solution.  I'm going to use AUDUSD charts as I have trades shown on it.  Now remember,  none of these trades had any drawdowns I couldn't deal with.  The trade starts are marked with lines
Here is the daily, notice the daily trend is strong down - didn't matter, CF made coin.  We'll zoom in after this chart.

Below is the hourly of the same pair

Both directions made money - look where the buys are made in this downtrend, pullbacks and consolidation.  If the pullback is weak or the consolidation not strong what happens?  You get hammered.
Here is a picture of what getting hammered looks like.
EURUSD Buys in a down trending market.  This is the hourly - clearly headed lower. Everything looks good until the recent buy, notice the pullback was weak and we get smashed.

 
In this case - you could have drawn a line at the top of the range and call it "SellBelow", CF will only enter sell trade when price is under this line.  In my version, I will also add to the logic, once price goes over this line all sell orders will be closed.  Then get back to trading with a profit.
I don't know if this will work.  I've looked at the trades CF makes (myfxbook charts the trades) and this approach should work.  You could even follow the pivot points on the chart if you wanted too. 

How would I prevent this?  here is the idea.
Draw a line on the chart, a line in the sand.  Actually, draw 2 lines.  A green line and a red line.
Buys are only allowed ABOVE the green line, so you can trail it up if you want too.
Sells are only allowed BELOW the red line, you could trail this down if you wanted too.

One more thing - if there are open Buy orders and price drops below the green line, I close the basket.
So now I don’t have to worry about having two charts open, or having stupid large drawdowns.  You could even use SAR as your trend switch here instead of lines, SAR is more automatic.

Back to the first chart - where to put the lines?
On the downtrend, I plan to use the red line and the green line on a 1 hour chart to start.  The safe way to go in a downtrend, just turn off the Buy trades, chances are on your side that you wont get killed.  You wouldn't even need these lines.  

These are my Safety Lines.
So go ahead and draw the lines on the chart, the problem is if you change the timeframe CF needs to reload, I'm not sure if this is an issue or not.  Go to a 1 hour TF, put the red line above the high that price would have to get to and make the strong downtrend weak.
Here's an example (yes, hindsight is 20/20)
The red lines I show, the bottom right of each line is "when" I would move the line
The green lines - as soon as the Buy (long) trades are started, I would move the green line.  If you wanted “rules” – then as soon as the first trade is entered, draw a line.  You have lots of time to do it before you get smacked.
The yellow box below shows you the current Buy trades that are getting hammered, and where this system would have exited.


If you are familiar with supply and demand you shouldn't have a problem with this.  I'm going to try this and I'll keep you posted.  I won't be near a computer for a few days, so don;'t expect quick replies!!!  The code is NOT finished yet, maybe by the end of the weekend.  I would like your thoughts on this method.

Play MP3 sound files in MT4

Play MP3 files in MT4

Have you ever wanted to play a MP3 file in MT4?  

The built in function PlaySound() will only play wav files.

If you are interested in this, send me an email.  I can play mp3 files from MT4, it's easy!

Forex Trading Signal for MT4

If your interested in following forex trading signals, take a look at this link for the signal.  Good gains!

MetaQuotes (MT4) - What are the alternatives?

In a story I have been following closely, MetaQuotes has published on its broker support site that it is urging brokers to cease operation with third party developers that they believe to have ‘hacked’ their MT4 trading platform and are violating the firm’s license agreements. Mentioned in the letter to brokers are copy trading provider ZuluTrade, Tradency, Tradeo and Myfxbook. A similar announcement led to the banning of a popular third party user interface plugin from MT4i.  According to sources, MetaQuotes is presently in the process of trying to ban IPs being used by these four service providers.

The overriding opinion is that while there are in fact cases where plugins are detrimental, conference goers believed the marketplace was a ploy by MetaQuotes to increase revenues on the back of their platform.

Below is the entire message from MetaQuotes to brokers. Forex Magnates is currently reaching out to brokers and third party developers for their opinions and will be updating this story as we receive more information.

Unfortunately, some third-party developers have hacked MetaTrader 4 trading platform’s network protocols violating end user license agreements and terms of contracts with brokerage companies.

As a part of our active efforts to improve MetaTrader 4 system, we are starting to upgrade the network protocols and block all services based on the hacked versions.

We urge you to cease any cooperation with ZuluTrade, Tradency, Tradeo, Myfxbook and other companies that use the hacked protocols violating our rights.

Further to MetaQuotes issuance of a warning urging brokers and traders to desist from using third party copy trading platform providers this morning, Tradency has been the first of those mentioned to respond.

The company has announced that it has with immediate effect ceased operation with MetaQuotes systems, shifting its Mirror Trader brokers to various currently available proven solutions.  Tradency stated that its various integration solutions will be offered to those of its clients that have been previously using Mirror Trader with MetaQuotes services. The on-going transition process has been in motion for some time now, and is expected to accelerate in light of recent events.

Tradency sent a clear message in a corporate statement today that the company will continue to offer its growing client base with top-tier technological integration solutions away from MetaTrader, including Currenex, FXCM, ACT and additional proprietary solutions. These solutions are already in place with a series of brokers, therefore paving the way for what Tradency expects to be a straight-forward transition.

Support Growing For New Platforms

Tradency’s step, while seemingly bold, could also be viewed as being far from a step into the great unknown.

The early part of this year has seen some of the world’s large banks pledge their support for new platforms such as ParFX and cTrader, and discussion among some senior figures last week at the IFXEXPO in Cyprus favoring open platforms, this could be the dawn of a new era.

Dukascopy CEO Alain Broyon addressed delegates at the IFXEXPO conference last week in Cyprus in favor of open platforms. “The Jforex platform is built in with different interfaces that can be set by the broker. Every platform should have a detail that is different, to help it be global and allow the technology to be in line with regulation.”

Tim Haman, CEO of Fair Trading Tehcnology added that third party applications and tools are important to traders who want to use EAs and signals. He explained : “They may not be programmers therefore they need to be able to have a list of options to customize their platform to suit trading style.”

Gold-i CEO Tom Higgins considers the server-side as important as the user interface side: “We see a lot of server side integration, copy trading, multi-account managers. We are very big on the server side. There is a lot of demand for back office integration so that databases can be managed and reports to regulators can be easily pulled off the system.”

The general consensus among the panel was that the participants were very much pro open trading platforms. It was agreed that party providers which can link a broker to appstore and provide on-the-move open applications can really make a difference to the reach of a broker.

When asked if the future is open platforms, the answer was a resounding yes. It was the view of the panel that closed platforms are not offering enough solutions to brokers or traders, therefore it is down to programmers and developers to continue to engineer open platforms and third party solutions which integrate with such platforms.

Please comment on alternative platforms or sign up and discuss in the SteveHopwoodForum, links to relevant posts are below.

cTrader seems to be the leader, but there are many others.  

In an email I sent to Amibroker, Thomaz said he would release the code fo iBControler.  The email is below

Hi Amibroker guys;

 

I own version 5.4.

 

I wanted to let you know that there is considerable pushback from MT4 users now – Metaquotes have done some stupid things, one of which is forced upgrades resulting in some not being able to access there account.

You probably have heard of the rumblings since its your line of business, if not, here is a start....

 

http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2267

 

http://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2291&start=10

 

What this email is about is just to give you some thoughts....

 

There could be a business opportunity for you, adjust Amibroker for the MT4 users who want to leave to another platform.. Some are considering cForex or jForex but those platforms aren’t quite right.

 

The reason I don’t use Ami any longer to trade is the trading interface.  I want data and a trading interface that is not clunky, it needs to be built in.  I want to trade, not program interfaces.  I traded with IB but found to much of the actual trade interface to be a pain in the ass.  I wrote TipsterTrendlines, I know you have heard of it.

 

You should give some consideration to connecting traders to brokers, the FXCM’s of the world.  I don’t like the order2go plug in, or importing/exporting data.  I like to turn on the software, the data comes in, the connection is made with the broker using programming from an expert (like you guys) and I do the trading.  You could write a back end or use another platforms, maybe jForex, its open source, but I don't know anything about it (just suggestions)

 

If you want to get more of a feel and some good feed back from some traders I suggest you sign up at SteveHopwoodForex.  Friendly bunch of people who were fed up with ForexFactory so they started their own forum.  I hope to see you there.

 

Brian (AnotherBrian)

 

Hello,

Thank you very much for your e-mail.

What I am planning is to release source codes for existing IBController with a free license to
create derivative works and some docs regarding
how to connect 3rd party solutions to GetTradingInterface function of AmiBroker.
This should provide enough ground for 3rd parties to add their own trading interfaces.

At the moment I can not promise that I will develop anything especially for MT4 users since
our resources are limited, and trading interfaces require lots of maintenance as brokers change their APIs.
But I think that opening sources for IBController may be good first step.

Best regards,
Tomasz Janeczko
amibroker.com

Hear the Market

A great way to study the market with the Market Pace indi.

This indicator was posted on FF and I've used it occasionally to "hear" the ticks. It's sort of like watching the level 2 screen but easier. Since SHF is where I usually go for forex related info, I thought I would post it there.
Set it up on a 1 minute chart and listen as price goes into supply and demand areas, or tests new highs and lows. It will sit there for a while then a big pop can be heard, the bigger the pop, the more points it just travelled.
As I don't tend to scalp very often I don't use this much but I do listen as I do other things sometimes. It sort of tells you when things are heating up....
If you scalp, you might want to try it out.
rooicol wrote this gem.  I you have issues installing there are a few posts on FF that might help. Some users have had difficulties getting the correct sounds to play. Read the instructions and the posts on FF if you have issues. Feel free to post questions here as there are many brains willing to help.
It's attached here so you don't have to go get it.

Drawing Levels on MT4

This is a new script I wrote and have been using.
TT2P_DrawLevels
Drag and drop the script to the top part of the level you want to identify and it will draw two horizontal lines from that point to the right of the chart. If you drop it above current price it's red, below is green. So post on page 18 for a picture. If you turn on "show object descriptions" in the chart properties, the level will also show the timeframe where you found the level.

TT2P

Just a reminder that Tipster Trendlines is available for MT4 totally FREE from this web site

Questrade and MT4

Canadian broker Questrade now offers MT4. I don't have any info or details on the "rule set" but there is a demo available. If you sign up, use this promo code pa1ink35, you get some free trades (50 bucks) but I'm not sure that applies to MT4, it might only be stocks.
They are regulated by IIROC and your account would be protected by CIPF, and that's killer protection!!

Money Management idea for MT4 EA’s

Lots of EA’s out there don’t place stops and the idea or risking a percentage of the balance isn’t really accurate.  So you leave yourself open to more risk.

Here’s an idea that might help assuming your EA is profitable.

When an account grows and the lot size is determined by the risk value, the lots can get too big. Then the account gets hammered.
I know when I would kick this in for a demo but for a real account, would you really let it trade 1 lot? Maybe, but this way you can adjust it to your own appetite. This also lets you not worry to much about making withdrawals on time to gain back your initial investment or monthly withdrawals.

If you want to see the system performance and not colour the results with MM, use a constant lot size. The equity curve should be a relatively straight line. Then you use MM to curve it upwards. BUT, don;'t use MT4 to do this, it's not of ANY use.
To test this, start a demo and use a low lot size that would be lower than if your set the risk to 10. I would do this but I don't have any space for more demos. I might, however, try this add on to one of my existing experiments....

Then add your max lot size code and do another test.