I’ve been meaning to write a FAQ to put up on my blog as to help people filter through some of the nonsense I write over there LOL, meaning to go quickly to what’s important to understand. I’ve gathered a certain number of questions/topics and with the approval of the people who asked those questions, I’m now including those in this FAQ. Come back once in a while as I’ll be adding other items with time. OK so here goes with your questions:
1. How do you get, say, three platforms set up when some demo accounts expire after 1 month then another demo account is required.
The demo account expiries are a pain, but we have to live with that. The broker I’m using now (MIG) fortunately has demos which expire after NINETY days. So that’s 3 months of no worries. But they still have server shutdowns or things like they change their servers completely so you lose your demo account, etc. Nothing in life is perfect I guess. So what do you do after expiration? I’ll answer in 3 parts by explaining how to use the platforms.
You can use the platforms in 3 ways. I like the 3rdnd option better, but the first 2 are fine as well.
a) On Fridays, delete your accounts on both platforms and create new ones to start from scratch every Monday. From here, you can see where the “week” is headed.
b) On Fridays, close all your trades from both platforms and make a note of the balances. On Mondays restart them. So from Friday’s balances, you can see where the “week” is headed (similar to the first, but less hassle).
c) Don’t delete/close anything. Continue observing where things are headed with respect to Friday balances. This way you get a better long term view. And when the demos do expire, well simply re-start from scratch – I’ve done it many times and you’d be like in example (a) for the week then you can decide to do (b) or (c).
2. Have you set up 1 live account and 3 mini or micro live accounts for the observation or are they 3 demo accounts with a broker who has no expiry period?
I have 3 separate platforms. Two are my observation ones and the third is where I do my actual trading. You don’t really need a fourth (although you can). I’ll explain here. If you have platforms 3 and 4 up, you’ve got one which is all set up for trending and the other for ranging. So whenever you decide to fire up the one in the right direction, you simply need to log into your account on that platform (while the other one remains dormant). If you use only the number 3 platform (like me) when things change (from trending to ranging or vice-versa) you load the corresponding *.set files (copy all the trending and ranging *.set files in your directory for this to work). It takes about 5 minutes to do the 10 pairs. The reason I don’t use the 4th is that I have multiple and multiple platforms open at the same time on my computer for testing purposes so I try to have as few as I can. Oh, and as far as I know, there are NO brokers who offer “lifetime” demos.
3. Do you run any other EA’s in addition to 3 MACrossEA?
Nope, just the MACrossEA.
4. You mention you would have an explanation of Centre of Gravity put on to the Download link but I have not been able to find that yet. Where should I be looking for that?
I wanted to include the explanation on how that indicator works – its algorithms and how it makes its calculations but unfortunately, I have never been able to find that darn explanation in my GAZILLION directories. The day I do, I’ll send you a personal message and will post it on the Download link.
5. You mention your live excel spread sheet pip value calculator in the May 28 blog entry. Where can that be found?
You’re a good observer ! I didn’t put it up either. These are the ONLY 2 things I didn’t put up and since I don’t agree with editing old posts (for “honesty” purposes) well I didn’t edit the posts. Now, the reason I didn’t transfer the spreadsheet is because it had some glitches which I had “home” fixed, so to speak, and my solution, although it did work, was not very elegant (I was recalculating USD from CAD…. anyway). This is now fixed. So this time, it’s TRUE, you will find the spreadsheet in the download link. Make sure you have at least one platform running and also that you have “Enable DDE server” checked in order for the sheet to work and have live feeds for prices (Top menu: Tools, Options, Server, Enable DDE server).
6. Other than where you mention H1 times frame for all 10 pairs, what other time frames will it work effectively with? I have conducted tests on ALL timeframes (well, that’s not true, I didn’t do the weeklies or monthlies). So I tested 1m, 5m, 15m, 30m, 1H, 4H and dailies. In a nutshell, the best and consistent results were with the 1H (some were with the 4H however) but in order to have a simple system, I went with all 1Hs.
7. I have now read about the four MT4 directories being 2 for observing and 2 for trading. If these are on the one computer, do you run the two observing platforms and one of the trading platforms concurrently? I have three computers in one room – could I run the two observing platforms on one computer, one trading platform on another computer and the other trading platform on the third computer?
It’s totally up to you to use multiple computers or just one depending on the capabilities or your machines. I use just one and everything’s fine.
8. I assume the instruction document “1 setup instructions.pdf” is the only instruction document other than what is written in your blog.
You are correcto !
9. I am remaining a little short on knowledge to date on the best way to know when to switch from Trending to Ranging on the live account.
I think I answered that one for you in an earlier email (but not sure). Basically, what you need to do in the beginning is simply observe both balances. It’s as simple as that. Now if balances stay relatively the same, we’re going nowhere, so we do nothing. The platforms are helping us NOT TRADE, in a sense, by showing us there’s not a clear direction, so stay away (or if you’re in trades right now, adjust your stop losses and shut down your robots, but more on this later).
Now when one of the platforms take off (and one always does at some point), then you decide to fire off your own account in the same direction.This observation period can last a few days or a few hours depending on market volatility, day, etc. But a general rule of thumb is to wait until there is about a 200 difference in the 2, meaning if the trending is around +100 and the ranging is at –100, well, you’d know what to do. Don’t worry about “being too late”. I did in the beginning, but you’ll soon see that waiting is much better than hopping in too early. And since we’re trading 10 pairs and movements tend to gather momentum, you’ll have some decent trade possibilities awaiting you, don’t worry. That 200 figure can be more and it can be less, whatever you’re comfortable with.
And, finally, I’d say that after a while, you’ll get the “feel” of how things work and it’ll become easier to “see” where markets are headed. And there’s nothing wrong with shutting everything down if you’re seeing you were “wrong”. Simply manage your SLs as best as possible (losses happen, this IS trading after all) and stay on the sidelines until you clearly see the direction.
10. Is there a simple guide to figure out when to switch in the case of a live account?
Not sure I understand, but if your question is about WHEN to switch to a live account, I’d say after a couple months of demo, at least, so that you are well familiar with the platforms. It can be more if you are risk averse or a bit less if you’re impatient (!!!) but do demo for a while before jumping in. Now, if your question was rather when to switch from trending to ranging, well I think I explained it earlier. You never “touch” your observation platforms. When you see, for instance that the trending (which was going strong let’s say) is starting to lose some steam and the ranging one is gaining, manage your trades (in your account demo or live) then turn off the bots and wait to see when (if) the ranging will gain enough for you to decide you’ve got a clear direction. You do your observing with the 2 observation platforms and you do you trading (making a decision to go trend or range) in your 3 rd platform (your account).
11. What are the correct settings for the COG (Centre of Gravity) indicator?
Well the default settings are 125 for the number of back bars. I like to use it with the equivalent of a week back for our 1H pairs, so that’s about 7 days * 24 hours (24 1H bars), so I set it to 168. If you use it to have a general longer term view on the dailies, I use about an 8-month window. So there you’d go with 30 (days in a month approx) * 8 (months) * 1 day (daily bars) = 240. Now DON’T switch TIMEFRAMES I REPEAT DON’T SWTICH TIMEFRAMES in your platforms (observation OR your account) because the bots will get all confused. Simply open up another chart of a given pair, switch it to Daily and attach the COG. For this I like using a template I made (which you can also easily make for yourself and save) which I call “Nothing” because I simply make the background black, put candle bars (red and green), don’t show grid lines etc. So there’s “nothing” on that template which I use for various purposes to check things. Then once your template is up, just drag the COG, configure to what you like, then resave with a name like “Nothing with COG” (It doesn’t make logical linguistic sense LOL but to me it speaks). Then you can use it instantly with all the other pairs instead of repeating the process.
12. Can I manage trades taken by the EAs?
You can ALWAYS manually modify ALL the trades that the EA has taken. For example, you can put a stop loss (of your choice), you can put a trailing stop (of x pips, of your choice), you can put a TP (of your choice) or you can simply exit a trade when you want.
To do so, in the TERMINAL WINDOW right-click on the trade you wish to modify:
SL & TP Choose "Modify or delete order". You will have the choice for SL and TP. You can use the default which is suggested or put in your preferred numbers manually.
Trailing stop
Choose "Trailing stop". You can use the suggestions or "custom" and put in your numbers (minimum 15 pips).
Exit trade
Choose "Close order”, then “close” to confirm.
13. What if my trades are different from yours ?
Go here:http://forexleader-forexleader.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-are-my-trades-different-from-yours.html
14. What do I do if the EA doesn’t take a trade?
Go here: http://forexleader-forexleader.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-do-i-do-if-ea-doesnt-take-trade.html
I will be adding new questions (and hopefully new answers!!!) in the future, so be sure to come back once in a while. 