Stocks, ETF's, Forex, Amibroker, MT4, and anything related to trading for profit, by Another Brian.
There’s regulation, then there’s protection. Do not confuse the two. I want both. Is the broker regulated, and registered with the regulator listed on their site? If they are, also go to the regulators web site and cross check to make sure they are actually registered and in good standing. For US resident, good luck, the NFA and CFTC are pretty useless for forex, and in comparison the rest of the world, totally useless as there is no protection (refer to my post of CIPF which offers solid protection). I recommend a Canadian broker, if they let you open an account you have some real solid protection for your funds. Also, ask “is the money deposited separated from operational capital, in other words, is it segregated”? You want segregated.Dealing Desk, Non-Dealing Desk ECN
I like ECN, it’s a straight through process with less screwing with your orders.Spreads or commissions
Does the broker offer fixed or non-fixed spreads? Depends on how much you trade. Most MT4 brokers make money on the spread. There are many tools on the net to check this. How wide are the spreads? Check the tools and get a demo to confirm when you narrow down to a few brokers. Spread is more important if you trade short term.Demo accounts
Leverage and margin
Do they offer demo accounts? You need this to get familiar with the software and it will prompt LOTS of question if you actually place trades and follow through. How long until the demo account expires?Account lot size (mini, micro, standard). A smaller lot size allows you to trade with less money.
Does this broker credit or debit daily rollover interest? Some brokers either do both, deduct interest, or neither. This information is important to traders who hold positions overnight.Some even have negative swap both ways, meaning you have to pay them, how is this possible? If you want to do carry trades this will impact you.Trade rules
distance of stops, orders inside bid/ask, order types (brackets orders?), is hedging allowed?Currency pairs offered
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.
Hello,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....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)
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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;
Spead Filters
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 -
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.)
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
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.
Community based, tons of features.
http://www.chartingstation.com
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.
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