- Most Forex traders lose all their money.
- Using the robot posted here in trading Forex does not guarantee success.
- Trading this robot could lead to serious financial loss.
Welcome to my latest experimental robot, Basket With Bigger Balls. Please remember that it is experimental and is not to be used on live accounts yet. We have vinesh to thank for the memorable name.
Not many of you will remember, but a couple of years ago a trader called trader101 posited a basket trading method that some of us adopted for a while. I did not use his method for long; it demanded a lot of screen time and my own understanding was limited at the time; T101 was inclined to hissy-fits and frequently closed his thread; there was far too much rubbish along Star Wars lines; it all became a little tiresome. I was at the start of my coding career and was not able to automate the method as I can now.
I thought about it again a couple of days ago and this inspired the basket trading robot to be found at http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...25#post4141225. We are having some fun with that one.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, basket trading involves this:
- take out a number of trades on a variety of pairs - a 'basket' of trades.
- the fate of an individual trade does not matter. What matters is the profit of the overall basket.
- when the upl of the whole basket reaches a pre-determined point, the basket is closed and we start again.
We need to decide on the direction of each individual trade; T101 has a neat method of doing this. Contributors to the first thread have been reminding me about this:
- on demo, take out 7 buy and 7 sell trades on 14 different pairs - you can see the pairs in question in the attached pdf.
- click the Profit column twice, so the platform displays the trades in descending order of profitability.
- leave these trades alone for a few hours whilst the markets sort out the direction in which they are going to move.
- after a few hours have elapsed, if the buys are all at the top, then buy the entire basket on your live account. If the sells are all at the top, then sell the basket.
- close the basket when you are happy with the upl.
That is what this robot does. Truth to tell, we have Orest to thank for the guts of the bot. The fantastic screen display is all his, so our heartfelt thanks and a warm round of applause for a fantastic coder. Pick up more of his tools from http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=112522. His ea/indicator take the place of the 'phantom' basket.
For full details of the manual trading method, read the attached pdf and visit T101's thread at http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=107119. Ignore all the stuff about 'jumpers'; BWBB is all about trading the basket.
Setting up the robot
- download Basket With Better Balls to your Expert's folder.
- download the template to your Template folder.
- close down and restart the trading platform.
- drag the robot onto a chart. Any chart. Time frame does not matter. Only one chart. Loading the template instead of dragging the robot onto a chart has the same effect, except that it blanks out the candles that otherwise get in the way of the display.
Inputs: these are pretty straight-forward:
- Lot is your order size. Make sure this is acceptable to your criminal; there is no idiot-checking.
- PipsTakeProfitTargetPerTradeis a profit target per individual trades. BWBB multiplies this figure by the number of open trades to arrive at a basket tp. To make baskets close more frequently, lower the default; to hold them longer, increase it. BWBB automatically compensates for 5 digit criminals, so enter 'proper' pips.
- PipsStopLossTargetPerTrade is the stop loss.
- Colums to trigger trades: this is where you have some deciding to do. Each of the inputs represents a column in the screen display. By default, BWBB looks back at the previous 24 hours trading and only sends buy basket when all three of the rightmost columns have "LONG (Strong)" as their blue label, and sell baskets when these contain "SHORT (Strong)". The fewer columns you need to confirm the trigger, the more baskets you will trade but the riskier they will be. The more columns you require as confirmation, the fewer baskets there will be but the safer they will be. In theory, anyhow.
- Hedging: non-US traders can use this to hedge those loosing trades at the bottom of the basket:
- UseHedging: turn hedging on/off. Defaults to on.
- HedgeAtLossPips: the number of pips you will allow a trade to go wrong before hedging it. The default is pure guesswork. BWBB automatically accommodates this input to different digit quotes.
- HedgeLotsMiltiplier: the multiplier for the Lot input.
- BreakEvenProfit: once the basket contains a hedge trade, BWBB starts looking for an opportunity to close it at break even, by looking at the upl. BreakEvenProfit allows you to add some extra cash to the breakeven; it is a currency input, so enter a figure in your account's currency.
Pair suffixes
BWBB should detect these and add them automatically.
Immediate action labels
These are the 'Close all trades' and the stop/start the expert labels. To activate them, you double-click the label and move it somewhere else. Take care with the 'Close all trades' lable; this is intended for use when you want instant basket closure and BWB does not ask for confirmation.
Once started and has received its first tick, BWBB will not stop unless your system crashes or you become disconnected from your criminal. Using the Expert Advisors button at the top of your platform has no effect. To temporarily stop BWBB trading, use the 'Stop the robot label'; the bot will continue to monitor the basket for tp/sl closure.
YOU MUST ONLY TRADE THIS ROBOT ON THE ACCOUNT. You cannot trade other methods/systems at the same time. The robot has no way of recognising that there are trades it does not own, and will regard any open trade as belonging to its basket.
Once the bot has opened its first basket, click the Profit column in the trades window; it is fascinating to see the winners lining up at the top and the losers at the bottom.
In conclusion
I think that is everything. Pop BWBB onto a demo and watch it trade for a couple of days to see if it has anything to offer. T101's is a method that he was trading successfully and profitably a couple of years ago. I assume he still is doing so, and expect this BWBB to be able to go live quite soon. We shall see.
Have fun.
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Traders familiar with my work need read no further.
Posting restrictions
I have restricted the ability to post in this thread to: traders with at least 1 voucher; and traders on my 'buddy' list. I have done this because I do not want the thread cluttered with 'newbie' questions about the basics. New/inexperienced traders, this is not intended as a direct insult. What I want here is discussion with traders who fully understand what it is they are doing; when you newbs have been around a while, you will come to understand what a difference experience makes to the posts a member writes and shudder at the recollection of some of the questions you asked. I do. http://cdn.forexfactory.com/images/s..._the_floor.gif Go to your profile page; there is a link to the FF page that describes the voucher process.
Do not attempt to get around this by sending me pm's asking for help with your basic problems. Doing so will earn you an automatic ban from all of my threads.
I have set up a partner thread to this one and Nanningbob's at http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...66#post3948666
Here, you can post the questions that you cannot post here, about anything you need to know. Someone with the knowledge and experience you need will answer. I opened it for Nanningbob traders, but feel free to ask about this robot as well.
Traders/coders with experience who have not yet been vouched for, can get around this restriction be being added to my 'buddy' list; all you have to do is pm me to ask me to do this.