- Max trades each side is basically telling the robot that It can only open 10 positions both side at one time. depending on what you set it too. default setting is 50. But based off my testing. the most positions I had at one time was 10. And that wasn't even one way. one way meaning either a Buy or a Sell. So leave it on the default setting. What I noticed was if you set it to low maybe two or three. You not allowing the EA to hedge the drawdown quicker. Because now it can only open 3 trades one way. So you will be stuck in that drawdown longer. Where if the setting was maybe 5. It could have closed the positions much quicker. Another thing when it hedges the positions. It will always close in a profit. I only had few instances where it closed out in a small loss.
-Magic number this setting I have always left on default.
-Trailing stop. This is a really nice feature. It allows the robot to trail stop the positions when it starts going into profit. default setting is 12 pips with a step of 1. The step setting is same multiplier. You can tell the EA to trail the stop in different pip increments. I have just left this on default. As it works best this way. What I did notice was on certain pairs the trail stop doesn't kick in. On others It worked perfectly.
-Max Pair trades can leave on default 2 pairs . Allows for some sort of risk management. If you allow it to trade a lot of pairs at once opens you up to draw down.
-Trading time just leave on default setting. I have noticed that on my side the EA will take trades with Japan and Euro/London session cross over. And then again with US open. This works nicely for me. As there is nicely volume incoming when this happens.
- Now the juicy bit. The currency list. This took me a while to figure out based of the testing DATA. On some pairs the EA works splendidly. Yes big word lol. Why splendidly it doesn't go into big draw down. It hits TP with no real issues. But then on other pairs it makes a Total hash brown out of it. Going into big drawdowns. I also tested this EA on indices like NAS100 and US30. Even gold silver and oil. On indices it works. and works well. But on indices your risk is much higher and it eats more into your margin requirements so drawdown will blow a small account to zero very quick. On Gold it made decent profits but some times couldn't handle the volatility and went into big drawdowns. Which eventually closed in profits. On my live account I had two instances where it blew 2 weeks of consistent profit because of two pairs who went into heavy drawdown. So high volatility pairs is a no go for this EA. Don't add gold or silver or any type of commodities. Leave indices out as well. I am still testing the indices to get the perfect settings. What I have noticed on indices with some brokers that offers micro indices the EA doesn't read the name correctly because there is NAS.mic in the name or NAS.z or any other type of letter added onto the name. With some currency pairs it does read it correctly regardless what letter is added. So this EA was solely build to trade currencies. So based off my testing the best currencies to set this EA on is AUDUSD, GBPUSD, GBPJPY. all the other pairs you can remove. These 3 offers the best return. These 3 pairs are very good volume pairs. They move well on daily basis. Some might argue yah but why not the other pairs. Off all the months of testing those 3 pairs was traded the most. USDJPY blew profits on a few occasions. EURAUD went it big drawdowns sometimes for two days. So testing allows you to see what works and what doesn't. Also why do people choose to automate trading is to take out the emotional factor. But if your EA is going into big drawdowns you still have some sort of emotional attachment to it. I also noticed that these were the only pairs that the EA actually trades with the trend and not against it. Because of me having being in the markets so long a lot of times on some pairs I saw it will trade against the trend. Now counter trend trading can be done but opens you up for bigger risk. So for me it was to eliminate all of that and get it to a point where it pulls consistent profits. Small profits with zero or minimal drawdowns. And these 3 pairs offers that. What I have done is to find my sweet spot based of my account size with the correct lot sizing. This allows me to get a consistent 20 - 30usd per day with minimal drawdown.
So final remarks. This is one of the few EA's out there that does work. Yes folks it will give you a consistent daily return if you are patient. Yes like manual trading and learning anything in life. It takes patience and repeatedly working at it. If you patient and don't mind taking small profits daily to build your capital in the long run this is the EA for you. If you want quick returns hit the casino or play lottery. I am yet to run the EA through a VPS. This will be my next thing to test. VPS allows for much quicker execution time. And is very nice option if you working full time and only want to monitor it from you phone and don't want a PC or laptop running constantly at home unattended.
Another thing to note. Ensure you running your MT4 on a reasonably fast laptop or PC with good internet speed. Turn off windows updates. I have noticed that after windows updates the EA wont work or settings goes back to default. on mt4 this EA doesn't like to be added to a chart with other running indicators etc. on it. Make sure when you paste it on one chart that is a clean chart.
So here is my current settings.
Time frame - M15. This time frame works best for EA.
Lot size 0.04 - I am on a 1000usd plus account. Based off my Take profit and the pairs this lot size is safe for my account.
Take profit - 18pips
Stop loss - default 400
Max Trades Each side - 10 (based off my testing as mentioned above)
Trailing stop - 12
Trailing step - 1
Pairs - GBPUSD, GBPJPY, AUDUSD.
This settings gives me a consistent 20 - 30usd daily. With very low or zero drawdown and very good risk management. You can scale your lot size as your account size grows.
Hope this helps you guys and gals. I will give more feedback when I am done testing the indices and have the correct settings. And for the newbie trader. Don't give up on trading. Yes the dynamic has changed because we live in a society where everything is automated. But trading as a skill will allow you things that an ordinary job cant and that is Time Freedom.
Take Care.