Trailing Stop / Forum: Forex Trading with MetaTrader 4

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Trailing Stop

guitaraguitara 2005.09.14 03:00

My expert doesn't seem to modify my stop loss correctly. However, I'm mirroring the Trailing Stop Implementation seen here:

if(TrailingStop>0)  
              {                 
               if(Bid-OrderOpenPrice()>Point*TrailingStop)
                 {
                  if(OrderStopLoss()<Bid-Point*TrailingStop)
                    {
                     OrderModify(OrderTicket(),OrderOpenPrice(),Bid-Point*TrailingStop,OrderTakeProfit(),0,Green);
                     return(0);
                    }
                 }
              }
           }

What I want this to do is modify the stop loss, on EVERY completed bar (already using the completed bar idea, thanks Shimodax) to be my trailing stop. Is this statement doing so? For example, using a Trailing stop of 10, and using a BUY order opened on the first bar for a price of 12:

Bar   |   1      2     3      4
Price |   12    14    16     25 
Stop  |          4     6     15

I don't see my SL changing when I trade in live (or I guess backtesting) mode very often. Perhaps only once in 10 bars, yet the price is moving. Also, when I visually examine the trades made, I find it diffucult sometimes to see how the trade was closed if it hit the SL. The only visual confirmation I have is that another trade has been opened later on the same pair. Can I, should I, add my own figures to the chart to see more easily? I would expect a Trailing Stop would modify the order every bar, and place the figure underneath it. This would create a very visual and easy to follow trade. I hope I've been clear, and thank you all for your help.

19	guitaraguitara 2005.09.14 03:15 EDIT

239

ShimodaxShimodax 2005.09.14 03:32

You should see each modification on the backtester Journal tab, also on the Results tab and it should make a dent in the Graph.

And yes, it should update on every tick (every live tick or synthetic tick fed into the backtester), unless of course you only check on every full bar ( something like if (Volume[0]>) ... ).

Also, the exits should give you an exit mark (triangle pointing left) on the Show Chart in the backtester.

If you want to debug, add Print commands inside your if's ... they will appear in the Tester's Journal tab (or Terminal's Experts tab on real time).

Markus

guitaraguitara 2005.09.14 05:36

Here's an example. Perhaps you can help. This is during live testing.

See how the SL is modified only once? the yellow line is for when I modify it based on certain parameters. The red, should be the beginning set TSL. I halve the value of the trailing stop with some logic during the trade, and then reset it for any new order. The red arrow is the first sell, the red line above is the first TSL. That doesn't seem to trail the price with each bar. Then at the yellow bar, i the SL, as I said, and it updates. I see no close. Then another order. But the first sell did close. The Yellow SL was breached, and it closed. Where's the close arrow? So, again, you can see with the second trade, we have the same thing.

EDIT: I guess I should say, in the backtester, it appears to do the right thing, and it only shows the last modifying. Confirmed using Print commands, and reading log.
EDIT2: The only "fix" is to not use any logic, and modify order every complete bar to reflect trailing stop. This is not pretty, but I've confirmed using backtesting, that modifying everytime, versus using the template code changes things.
EDIT3: Of course, now running a 3 month backtest yields weird results. Ugh, maybe it's just me.
EDIT4: Here's one of a different day, showing the problem perfectly.

guitaraguitara 2005.09.14 06:29

Here's the exact code.

//##################     BUY ORDER TRAILING STOP Adjustment  #######################

  total=OrdersTotal();
  if(total>0)
   { 
   for(cnt=0;cnt<total;cnt++)
    {
     OrderSelect(cnt, SELECT_BY_POS, MODE_TRADES);
     if(OrderType()==OP_BUY && OrderSymbol()==Symbol())
      {
     if(TrailingStop>0)  
      {
      if (Logic)
      {
          TrailingStop=SL;
          OrderModify(OrderTicket(),OrderOpenPrice(),Bid-Point*TrailingStop,OrderTakeProfit(),0,Yellow);
          //Print("Stop Loss Set: ", TrailingStop," Price: ",Close[0]," Price minues SL: ",Close[0]-0.0012," SL: ",Ask+Point*TrailingStop);
      }
      if(Bid-OrderOpenPrice()>Point*TrailingStop)
       {
       if(OrderStopLoss()<Bid-Point*TrailingStop)
        {
        OrderModify(OrderTicket(),OrderOpenPrice(),Bid-Point*TrailingStop,OrderTakeProfit(),0,DodgerBlue);
        return(0);
      }}}}}}

//##################    SELL ORDER TRAILING STOP Adjustment  #######################

  total=OrdersTotal();
  if(total>0)
   { 
   for(cnt=0;cnt<total;cnt++)
    {
     OrderSelect(cnt, SELECT_BY_POS, MODE_TRADES);
     if(OrderType()==OP_SELL && OrderSymbol()==Symbol())
      {
     if(TrailingStop>0)  
      {      
      if (Logic)
      {
          TrailingStop=SL;
          OrderModify(OrderTicket(),OrderOpenPrice(),Ask+Point*TrailingStop,OrderTakeProfit(),0,Yellow);
      }           
      if((OrderOpenPrice()-Ask)>(Point*TrailingStop))
       {
       if((OrderStopLoss()>(Ask+Point*TrailingStop)) || (OrderStopLoss()==0))
        {
        OrderModify(OrderTicket(),OrderOpenPrice(),Ask+Point*TrailingStop,OrderTakeProfit(),0,DodgerBlue);
        return(0);
      }}}}}}

Check Completed bar code, and it backtests the same, with or without it.

//exit if not new bar
// if(BarTime == Time[0]) {return(0);}
//new bar, update bartime
 //BarTime = Time[0];

19	guitaraguitara 2005.09.14 07:09

19	guitaraguitara 2005.09.14 07:14

guitaraguitara 2005.09.14 07:30

Here's a simple modification of the Trailing Stop 5.mq4 by MT. It *appears* to work. Just uses RSI>70 RSI<30 crosses as signals. Modding it with my logic indicators creates the same problem. I've removed all trouble code, just changed the Trailing Stop in here to 12, and I get the same result. Am I wrong about where it should SL? I'm really puzzled.

extern double TakeProfit = 0;
extern double StopLoss = 15;
extern double Lots = 1;
extern double TrailingStop = 5;

int start()
  {
  int total, ticket;
  
  
   double rsi=iRSI(NULL,0,5,PRICE_CLOSE,0);
   double orsi=iRSI(NULL,0,5,PRICE_CLOSE,1);
  
  for (int i = 0; i < OrdersTotal(); i++) {
      OrderSelect(i, SELECT_BY_POS, MODE_TRADES);

      if (OrderType() == OP_BUY) {
         if (Bid - OrderOpenPrice() > TrailingStop * MarketInfo(OrderSymbol(), MODE_POINT)) {
            if (OrderStopLoss() < Bid - TrailingStop * MarketInfo(OrderSymbol(), MODE_POINT)) {
               OrderModify(OrderTicket(), OrderOpenPrice(), Bid - TrailingStop * MarketInfo(OrderSymbol(), MODE_POINT), OrderTakeProfit(), Red);
            }
         }
      } else if (OrderType() == OP_SELL) {
         if (OrderOpenPrice() - Ask > TrailingStop * MarketInfo(OrderSymbol(), MODE_POINT)) {
            if ((OrderStopLoss() > Ask + TrailingStop * MarketInfo(OrderSymbol(), MODE_POINT)) || 
                  (OrderStopLoss() == 0)) {
               OrderModify(OrderTicket(), OrderOpenPrice(),Ask + TrailingStop * MarketInfo(OrderSymbol(), MODE_POINT), OrderTakeProfit(), Red);
            }
         }
      }
	}
 total=OrdersTotal();
  if(total==0&&rsi>30&&orsi<=30)
  {
   ticket=OrderSend(Symbol(),OP_BUY,Lots,Ask,3,Bid-Point*TrailingStop,0,"MA Long",16384,0,Lime);
   if(ticket>0)
    {
    if(OrderSelect(ticket,SELECT_BY_TICKET,MODE_TRADES)) Print("BUY order opened : ",OrderOpenPrice());
     }
      else Print("Error opening BUY order : ",GetLastError()); 
      return(0); 
   }
   
    total=OrdersTotal();
  if(total==0&&rsi<70&&orsi>=70)
  {
   ticket=OrderSend(Symbol(),OP_SELL,Lots,Bid,3,Ask+Point*TrailingStop,0,"MA Short",16384,0,Red);
   if(ticket>0)
   {
   if(OrderSelect(ticket,SELECT_BY_TICKET,MODE_TRADES)) Print("SELL order opened : ",OrderOpenPrice());
    }
     else Print("Error opening SELL order : ",GetLastError()); 
     return(0); 
    }  

   return(0);
  }

19	guitaraguitara 2005.09.15 04:07 Figured it out. Whew. Turns out the shell code for the TSL is indeed incorrect. Using the MQ4 one achieves the desired results. Thanks.

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