Basket Bull (System downloads post 3)

[saragosa]

its working now, thanks. but do i have check *confirm dll function calls* in expertadvisor?

[soundfx]

Hi saragosa,

 

Good stuff - no, "confirm dll function calls" will display a popup box saying something like "do you wish to allow access to this dll?" everytime a dll is called and it should be normally left unticked for all EAs. "Allow dll imports" should be ticked and also "allow live trading"

 

Not a big problem for this EA as the only DLL called is a standard Windows dll which I think is only used to restore MT4 if the connection is lost, all the same leave "confirm dll function calls" unticked as it's not needed.

[ryujeans]

I've installed the BB v7.0 on FXDD (4-digit broker) MT4, but nothing displays on the chart, expect for the message "INITIALIZING EA" written on black screen. Any suggestion, please?

[soundfx]

ryujeans,

 

The reason for this has already been explained several times in the thread.

 

When the EA doesn't work as expected look in the "experts" tab at the bottom of the screen and there you'll see any error messages. If the error message is a "divide by 0" which is what you are getting with FXDD it means that some currency pairs which the EA wants to trade are not tradeable by FXDD.

 

The pairs which are not in FXDD demo are: NZD/JPY and AUD/JPY.

 

For reference, the EA when trading 8 pairs wants to trade the following:

 

GBP/USD

EUR/JPY

AUD/USD

NZD/JPY

 

EUR/USD

GBP/JPY

NZD/USD

AUD/JPY

 

You can either use a different broker (recommended), or try and find currency pairs which are available which are strongly correlated with NZD/JPY and AUD/JPY. Note that to replace these pairs you'll need to change the EA parameters and any hardcoding in the EA code.

[soundfx]

Guys,

 

Now that we've got several folks testing BasketBull, rather than us all doing the same thing, it would be handy if two of you could setup the EA in MyFxbook running with different timeframes. I'm using 1H (tf=60) on version 7.0 because that's the timeframe I used on v6.6 for some brief testing.

 

1. tf=240 (because the developer of v7.0 made 4H his default and this may work better than 1H with version 7.0)

 

2. tf=3600 (because a guy on the alpari.ru forum ran v6.6 on Daily for a month and it doubled his account! - it will be interesting to see if the same happens with v7.0)

 

If you've not used MyFxBook before, it's reasonably easy to set up. You can read the help files here:

 

http://www.myfxbook.com/help#help_33

 

and the EA which is used to gather the stats. can be downloaded from here or from the links in the help pages:

 

http://www.myfxbook.com/pages/Myfxbook.ex4

 

You can attach the myfbook EA to any chart.

[ryujeans]

The reason for this has already been explained several times in the thread.

 

When the EA doesn't work as expected look in the "experts" tab at the bottom of the screen and there you'll see any error messages. If the error message is a "divide by 0" which is what you are getting with FXDD it means that some currency pairs which the EA wants to trade are not tradeable by FXDD.

 

The pairs which are not in FXDD demo are: NZD/JPY and AUD/JPY.

 

For reference, the EA when trading 8 pairs wants to trade the following:

 

GBP/USD

EUR/JPY

AUD/USD

NZD/JPY

 

EUR/USD

GBP/JPY

NZD/USD

AUD/JPY

 

You can either use a different broker (recommended), or try and find currency pairs which are available which are strongly correlated with NZD/JPY and AUD/JPY. Note that to replace these pairs you'll need to change the EA parameters and any hardcoding in the EA code.

I now know the reason why. In fact, FXDD offers AUDJPY, but NOT NZDJPY. I 'd follow your recommendation and look elsewhere. But, if I want to stick with FXDD, which pairs could be a possible replacement for NZDJPY? And what parameters need to be changed? Probably, many other readers would like to hear about tweaking the EA to be able to trade it on their broker's platform.

 

Thank you very much in advance!

[soundfx]

ryujeans,

 

The current "basket" of 8 pairs was deliberately selected by the developer to give the best results, so any changes to currencies in the basket may affect the profitability of the EA.

 

You need to look at the NZDJPY chart and find another one with an almost identical shape, however just simply replacing NZDJPY with a similar pair may not work (even if you can find one).

 

If you look at how the basket is formed, you have the "buy" pairs which all have different base currencies of AUD, EUR, GBP and NZD and the "sell" pairs which have the same base currencies.

 

Two of the "buy" pairs (AUD and NZD) are paired with USD and the other two (EUR and GBP) are paired with JPY.

 

Two of the "sell" pairs (EUR and GBP) are paired with USD and the other two (AUD and NZD) are paired with JPY.

 

This symmetry ensures that drawdown is kept to a minimum in unusual market conditions.

 

As you can see, there is a high degree of thought which has gone into the selection of the basket which is why I recommend not changing it.

 

If you really want to risk doing this and only want to replace NZDJPY with EURJPY (not a good idea BTW), then you need to replace NZDJPY in the EA parameters with EURJPY.

 

Likewise open up the code in the MT4 editor and change all NZDJPY in the EA code to EURJPY.

 

I think that anyone using brokers which have strange suffixes e.g. EURUSDm may need to do the same - i.e. append 'm' to each pair in the EA parameters and then go into the code and do a global replace of EURUSD with EURUSDm. I'm not sure on this one though, because I've only got standard accounts.

[beorn]

Hi guys,

 

I set up a new demo account with GoMarkets before the markets opened this and let it run with soundfx's settings.

I was trying to see if the EA could work with a small account and started with just $100 and 1:100 leverage. Not nearly enough to run the EA. I kept getting errors of "not enough money to open trade" on some of the "exotic pairs" like AUDJPY and NZDJPY. The account got drained pretty quickly.

I set up another account this time with $200 and 1:500. Only one trade so far and lots of Old Tick errors (trying to sort this out).

 

soundfx's got a point and we should be testing different strategies. I'm going to set up a new account tomorrow and test a different time frame.

 

What would you recommend as the minimum amount needed to run this EA successfully? I'm trying to find the bare minimum as I would like to eventually test this live without risking/investing a lot of money.

 

b.

[Stormin_Norman]

i have been running 15m 1h 4h and 1d charts.

 

its beginning to become quite clear to me that the higher timeframes work much better then the lower ones.

[soundfx]

Hi Beorn,

 

I see this EA as a "steady earner" which means that you're not going to make a fortune overnight with it but should be looking for a decent % increase on your account each month.

 

The account funding problem is that the EA trades 8 pairs and some of those are more "exotic" as you say and that means higher spreads. So, trading 8 pairs on a standard account is like trading 0.8 lots on one pair with a large spread to pay.

 

On a standard account (1:100 leverage) I'd be looking to trade this system with $10K and that's why I set up a $10K demo, at this level 5% = $500 which is a reasonable global stop level. At a pinch you may be able to run the system with $5K on a standard account, though I wouldn't recommend it until you know how the system performs in the longer term.

 

Last week I ended up with around 20% increase of my account. Today that was reduced in no time to 11.85%. Basketbull recovered a bit and I'm back to 14.7% up, however bad days like today could happen several times in a row and that's the time where you need ample cash in your trading account to "ride the dips" and you also need the psychological stamina to trust the system implicitly to come good even when you're losing loads of cash - which is very difficult. The more you run a system and see it being successful, the better you trust it, which is the secret there.

 

Before running the system live, I want to understand much more of how it ticks (I think the same for any EA). Even the best written EAs can make obvious and stupid trades to a casual observer looking at the charts and you need to know how the EA operates to understand when it needs a bit of manual help.

 

I realise that not everyone has $10K to start with, so the best option rather than raising leverage through the roof is to use a micro/mini account. I'm not sure exactly how these accounts work so maybe others can help you out.

 

Norman,

 

That's a good finding indeed. So the EA makes more profit from creating a basket of swing trades rather than days trades? This makes a lot of sense as trailing stops are big part of the EAs make up and trails always work better with longer term trades.

[Stormin_Norman]

This is a chart from a russian on the development forum. he hasn't shared his exact settings with the world, but it is 1day charts. Start of April to Start of May.

 

http://stashbox.org/906424/Basketbull_v6.06.gif

 

the detail statement:

 

http://sharebee.com/3bf4641f

[fx4a]

Seems he is using all 14 pairs. Not many basket trades in a month. Possibly using on a daily TF?

This week i have had 3 baskets, first 2 losers, now 3rd in progress. Was up 13% but now at 10%. Any idea how it takes profit?

[puzzlebird]

Hi Soundfx and Norman, your comments makes a lot sense. I am going to switch to H4 tomorrow. In a ranging market, 1H will cause the frequent trade, and cause unnecessary loss.

 

8 pair is more reasonable than 14 pairs as it is more well balanced.

[fx4a]

Well TF is not that important. This from the manual.....................

extern string timeframe = "adviser and indicators;

extern int tf = 60;

Timeframe, to calculate the built-in indicators adviser. The algorithm of the Adviser or to timeframe, or to schedule a pair is not tied, so you can install the Advisor on the schedule of any pair of any (preferably small) timeframe.

[Stormin_Norman]

the chart you install it on isnt important. the timeframe is though.

 

the developer had the 4h chart in mind for the system.

[dbz1713006267]

For me the most important thing of this ea is that the drawdown choosing 5% is quite small and the equity can grow slowly but grows even if you have quite some bad trades not like the scalpers around that need 10 good trades for just one bad.

[soundfx]

Hi Guys,

 

I had disconnection of all my systems this morning and I was left with BasketBull trades which I had to manually close. I decided to use this opportunity to change the timeframe from tf=60 to tf=240.

 

I think we're all in agreement that 4H or Daily appears to be the best timeframe to run BasketBull with.

 

My 1H trades were still up 7% from the start of last week, however I envisage longer term running BasketBull on 1H will gain profits one week and give them all back the next. Add in the the cost of trading with all the spreads and the EA could be a gradual loser on 1H rather than a gradual winner.

[scorpion]

Hello FXsound, and Norman

 

I am using an account with 8k, with 0.10 lots and it becomes clear that sometimes you need a little more flexibility at the margin, this morning, closed two times at a loss,

I have yet another account with 50k, and the same lot size, 0.10, and until now has not been lost, (50k * 5% = $ 2,500)

the system seems to recognize only too well the times when prices make a correction,

So I think it is very important, establish a level of Stoploss, in relation to the lot size used, and deposit in the account,

I think 10k for an account, if we increase the maximum risk of 10% can get a higher number of hits, and more long-term benefit

clearly to confirm this last is necessary a long period of testing.

 

 

But I can not understand how to adjust the parameters of risk, as well as the batch size to use.

 

Sorry for my bad English.

Regards

[soundfx]

Hi Scorpion,

 

I too have been wondering if increasing the risk may allow for more flexibility with the trades particularly when we're trading larger timeframes.

 

The maximum risk is defined by the parameter "Stop" which I have set to 5 which means that trades are closed if they are losing more than 5% of the account.

 

Lot size is automatically determined when the parameter "Maximum Risk" is set to a value other than 0.

 

If you want the Lot size to be automatically calculated but for the EA to trade larger lot sizes then increase "Maximum Risk" from 3 to a higher number.

 

If you want fixed lot sizes, then set "Maximum Risk" to 0 and put the lot size in the parameter "Lot"

[dbz1713006267]

Looks like the person who doubled the account on daily charts made also some other changes.

tern string Po_indikatoram = "Only one in four";

extern bool auto_tral = true; / / Automatic choice of tracer trawl

extern bool wpr_tral = false; / / Run the trawl Indicators

extern bool dto_tral = false; / / In the parameters we choose one type,

extern bool rsi_tral = false; / / kotroy Bodo enabled by default.

V_valyute extern string = "one of the two";

extern bool preset_trail = true; / / true = Tral currency depot / false = percentage of depot

extern bool atr_tral = false; / / Full trawl for ATR

bool equity_trail = true; / / Allow trawl (includes a choice of type trawl in a window or a machine)

extern string Tralee = "just profit?";

extern bool only_profit = true; / / Tralee only profit? (For the indicator trawls)

extern string Raschet_trala = "start / step in the currency, if 0 - Percentage;

extern double start_trail_val = 50;

extern double trail_val = 1; / / To use a trawl as TakeProfit set the minimum value> 0

extern string proc_trail = "start / step as a percentage of the Depot;

extern double start_trail = 10;

extern double trail = 1; / / For use trawl as TakeProfit set the minimum value> 0

[Stormin_Norman]

How did you find out the changes he made dbz?

[dbz1713006267]

Got them from the alpari forum.

[scorpion]

Thanks SoundFX,

 

So far I have started a new demo, with 20k, while maintaining the same parameters, thus, the maximum level of loss increases to $ 1,000,

This will allow us to see if we're right,

 

then he begins to experiment by changing the parameters suggested by you

[Stormin_Norman]

extern bool only_profit = true; / / Tralee only profit? (For the indicator trawls)

extern string Raschet_trala = "start / step in the currency, if 0 - Percentage;

extern double start_trail_val = 50;

extern double trail_val = 1; / / To use a trawl as TakeProfit set the minimum value> 0

 

what values are these? dollars? pips?

[clovelly]

what values are these? dollars? pips?

extern string Raschet_trala = "start / step in the currency, if 0 - Percentage;

extern double start_trail_val = 50;

extern double trail_val = 1; / / To use a trawl as TakeProfit set the minimum value> 0

extern string proc_trail = "start / step as a percentage of the Depot;

extern double start_trail = 10;

extern double trail = 1; / / For use trawl as TakeProfit set the minimum value> 0

 

There is some confusion in the code/comment: The comment says if start_trail_val = 0, then the trailing is based on percentage. But the EA coding itself is also confused:

 

1. When calculating the trailing values, it uses a percentage of the account balance if start_trail_val > 0 (the start_trail_val is actually the % used in the calculation)

 

2. However, when displayed on the EA panel, it will display ">Percent xx%/yy%" if start_trail_val = 0 :)

 

The calculation code, not comment or panel display, will determine the real action by the EA. So, if you want "percentage", set start_trail_val > 0. If start_trail_val = 0, then the trailing values will be in dollars based on start_trail and trail