Basic Balanced System (Expert Advisor included)

[Oshaban]

Hi all

I believe you have to do some backtesting (Strategy tester)

1. Does the EA post real trades. If it does on backtesting it will.
Sure. By the way, I don't believe in backtest that much. Backtest is an evaluation of a strategy on the past history data. Market changes, so, live market parameters may change, then ea/strategy may not work good as before or as tuned on past parameters !.
2. What SL is best to use? You have to run some test upon the currency you are going to trade
I used to use the default settings and collect profit whenever feel the market will change or I got my daily target profit.
3. What is performance? The backtesting tells you that
I did backtest for it 2 years ago, but honestly, I can't remember.
4. What lotsize should be used? Here Floor Traders Essential Toolbox (Useful stuff section) gives an answer
It depends on how many trades you intend to open as maximum, account balance/equity, risk value, ....
5. Does it work on all currencies and all timeframes? Backtesting gives the answer
The original strategy states that it works on all currencies and time frames. I used mostly on H4 and few times on H1. I prefere H4.
6. Will it work on changed market condition? If you backtest every 14 days to make sure SL and TP are right for the last month, probably
May be! But do you think that such a shot period will give a good new setting?

The basic condition for entry is:

If EMA(5) is crossing EMA(10) and price > SMA(20) and RSI(14) > 50
and Stoch(14,3,3) < 80 and prev bar Stoch(14,3,3) was lower
then buy

I guess RSI and Stoch are essensial here. I would expect RSI(14) to be < 50 in these circumstances. There is a hell of a difference between crossover and this crossover.
Kjell, RSI>50 to ensure that the currency trending up according to the last 14 bars.

regard kjell

Thanks Kjell
Thanks for the reply. I added my openions too

[litxus82]

Osama,

Can you post your daily trades here too? I'll try using your strategy 4H time frame only on all pairs I find with lower spreads (max spread 10). If using version 1 apply template to all pairs, do a visual check, determine risk % per trade of using about 100 pips stop loss (what do you suggest a good one to have on 4H or specific for each pair?), enable EA if all looks good (place SL and TP immediately) and move to next pair? I know stops and targets depend per pair, but maybe you can post your calculation methods (you mentioned pivots, maybe you can post pivot indicator you use?). Last but not least, if you see all trades in profit of about 100-500 pips, move sl very close and enable a smaller trailing stop or close all?

[gogoprovost]

I've left the EA open all night on 12 pairs with live trading on and it did not take any trade... I just wanted to test if it worked, it doesn't seem to... Did somethin similar happen to someone else?

[gogoprovost]

no error messages just nothing happening... maybe it didn't take any trades... Do you just have to drag it in a chart, remove the ''allow live trading'' option and press on the Experts Advisor button on top so it becomes green and there is a sad smiley face on the upper right corner of the chart?

[nixcreations]

hi there , thks for the effort on the EA. i have tried 30 mins and it works quite well on 5 digits, can you input TP 1 and TP2?

[Oshaban]

Osama,

Can you post your daily trades here too? I'll try using your strategy 4H time frame only on all pairs I find with lower spreads (max spread 10). If using version 1 apply template to all pairs, do a visual check, determine risk % per trade of using about 100 pips stop loss (what do you suggest a good one to have on 4H or specific for each pair?), enable EA if all looks good (place SL and TP immediately) and move to next pair? I know stops and targets depend per pair, but maybe you can post your calculation methods (you mentioned pivots, maybe you can post pivot indicator you use?). Last but not least, if you see all trades in profit of about 100-500 pips, move sl very close and enable a smaller trailing stop or close all?

litxus,
To be honest, I'm using too many accounts. I open one, then do some changes to the code then use the same account, later I open a new one. It is development stage. It is still hard for me to use just one account.
Risk % can be calculated by you. Just decide how many pairs to trade (maximum number of pairs) then devide the the risk on max. number of pairs. Most of the time I use the default settings on H4 time frame. I use manual entry and go away, when I find the account in good profit, I close all positions (most of the time).
For Pivot/S/R indicator, it is just for watching the market form time to time. If I find account in profit and the price stuck at a narrow range, I close all positions. Also, if the price just go far a way from a previous narrow range, I leave positions opened because the profit will go to higher levels.

I attached the indicator I use.

Pivot Lines.mq4

(14.2 KiB) Downloaded 1045 times

[Oshaban]

hi there , thks for the effort on the EA. i have tried 30 mins and it works quite well on 5 digits, can you input TP 1 and TP2?

This option is not included in this EA. May be later!.

[kobe334]

Please explain the differences between Version 1 and Version 2 and why you prefer Version 1.

Thank you, this a great thread.

[kobe334]

I have a few questions that would help me clarify my use of the EA.

1.Could you post the exact settings of the "Values" you recommend using for each "Variable" in your preferred EA. This would clarify all the changes you have made in the various posts.

2. Which version was Khalid using? I noticed his EA said "Basic Balanced System" in the top right hand corner of his chart, while my says "BBS_SMA_Filter". Is there a difference? Was he manually entering his trades or was the EA entering the trades? Was he using the 1 or 4 hour time frame?

3. I am using the 4 hour time frame and getting very few trades in the last few days. However, the trades I did get were highly profitable. They were profitable in excess of $5000 on 1 lot standard contracts on a demo account. Too bad they were not real live accounts. Since Sunday night I only had 2 trades which resulted in $3300 of closed profit. Khalid results were many trades in a few days. Mine were 2. Why the dramatic difference?

4. My results were achieved by the EA making the trades automatically, without any manual intervention on my part. I only got involved manually in help closing the trades by the use of the indicators and trailing stops. Is it safe to let the EA itself open the trades, without my manual intervention? This would of course be ideal.

I hope I haven't taken up too much of everybody's time by this lengthy post. Finally, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread and especially Osama who was so generous in bringing this EA to fruition. This appears to be the best forex contribution I have seen in a very long time.

Thank you all.

[Onyebuchim]

Please explain the differences between Version 1 and Version 2 and why you prefer Version 1.

Thank you, this a great thread.

version 1 needs manual intervention before you enable the EA to take further actions and place an order. in otherwords your decisions matters a lot with the first version bcos you need to identify when the entry rules are valid before enabling the EA to take further actions.

Version 2 does not need any manual intervention. The EA evaluates the market and places a trade in accordance to the rules.

In summary the programmer (Oshaban) advises that the version 1 has more probability of taking more trades than version 2.