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  • in reply to: What Acceptence Criteria do you guys use? #84812
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    This is my summary of algo trading and what has brought me to this point that I feel works for me. (I could be wrong???)

    Put a large amount of time / filters / robustness tests into creating a smaller number of EAs that are tuned to run for a longer period of time and ride out the drawdowns with confidence that your EA will work in the longterm.

    Create a larger number of EAs with less robustness filters etc…  Allow them to run forward and filter them on the fly….. Replacing them on a more frequent basis to keep them aligned with the market.

    I am just more comfortable with the second.

    If you watch enough of Petko’s videos ( And I recommend that you do) you will see there are 2 main filtering systems that he utilises.

    1.) Create your strats, run them forward on demo, filter the top performers ( with PF, WL etc) and transfer them to live account.

    2.) Create your strats. Leave them for a week / month.  Load them into validator and pick the top performers and transfer them straight to live. Or hold back a week / month run them through the validator and transfer to live.

    So for me I chose to use both filtering systems as this gave me better results…..  I create my M1 strats over 8 weeks of data, not using the previous week.  Then run them forward on the validator for one week, giving me the top 100 / 200 or whatever. (Pre-filter).  Then to demo.  After they meet my criteria on demo they go to live for the rest of that 4 hour session.

    I hope that makes sense…..  I have probably gone on too much…….

    in reply to: What Acceptence Criteria do you guys use? #84810
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    I hold back the previous week of data and then run the strats forward on that week using the validator.  This is basically doing a one week OOS. I prefer to use the validator to do this as it gives me more filtering options and allows me to load large amounts of strats.  It allows me to set slightly different run times or whatever other filters I choose for testing purposes…

     

    Yes After much testing I have decided to focus on the  4 hour London / US overlap.  This is the most active session of the day.  Also I have noticed that when a new market session opens it can sometimes reverse the current market, so I try to line up as many things as I can in my favour….

    I also only want to trade a pair that has both of their respective banks open during that session which is why I am focussing on the GBPUSD for now….

    I create my strats on the 4 hour overlap only.  I have done comparisons of creating them over a 24 hour period and the overlap and the overlap shows more promising results….. So for me I set the sessions to 1515 – 1845.

     

     

     

     

    in reply to: What Acceptence Criteria do you guys use? #84669
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    I only go back 8 weeks on the M1.  I use the reactor. I leave out the previous week as I use this as a pre-filter.  So actually start back 9 weeks.  I use COT = 100, PF = 1.2, Max losses = 3.  I don’t use any robustness or optimisation.  I just want raw strats as I run my own form of robustness tests later by comparing many slightly different versions of my core strategy.  I run 12 instances of EA studios at the same time.  6 on each PC.  It normally takes 6 hours to get 300 strats on each EAS.  So about 4 or 5 days to get 60000 strats.  Seems like an overkill I know…….  I have done many tests with different amounts of strats up to 60000 and have found that the more I have the lower the DD and the higher the PF becomes.  I am aware that I may be curve fitting the strats by having that many so am watching for that.  After I have the 60000 I run them forward on the previous weeks data in the validator.  With much stricter criteria:  COT = 10, PF = 2, Max losses = 1.  This shows me how those 60000 strats would have run “Live” for that week.  There is normally 300 strats that pass this criteria.  I then select the top 100 / 200 and create a portfolio.  I run them on demo.  I use a custom made filtering app that does the final filtering and sends the ones that pass through to a live account.  Normal settings are something like wait 3 trades, if 2/3 trades win with a PF of 2 and R2 above 50% they go to live.  I monitor them in the live account and if they start to drop below my criteria they are removed.

    I am always continuously testing.  So if I have an idea that I want to test I usually run about 10 slight variations of it side by side for a month or so and then evaluate and move forward with the one that is working the best.  This way I keep narrowing down what works for me.

    After lots of testing with the M15 and the H1 I found I just could not get consistent results.  Not to say it can’t be done, just doesn’t work for me.  The markets have also been pretty crazy for the last year and there is potentially massive changes ahead to the fiat currency system as we know it…..  So i want to trade a TF that can adapt quickly to changes and not look back to far in the past.  Again this is just what I am comfortable with…..

    I have also narrowed it down to one particular pair that performs well and I also only run my EAs on a 4 hour window each day when the markets are most active and the markets are not crossing over from one another…..

    I still have a way to go but the results are improving and getting more consistent as I go…..

    I am working towards opening an account with FTMO and some other prop firms in the next month or so.  So I have been trying to create a system that stays with the tight requirements of the prop firms….

    Good luck and just keep testing and practicing……

    in reply to: What Acceptence Criteria do you guys use? #84608
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Also….  Once you have got the reactor sorted.  Take time to learn the validator.  This is a very powerful part of the program that will allow you to input 1000’s of strats and “Run them forward” on say the last weeks / months data.  I use this as a pre-filter before I take them to demo for a final filter  (For example wait 3 trades and then any strats above PF of 2 transfer to live)…..

    in reply to: What Acceptence Criteria do you guys use? #84606
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Just my opinion…..  You are using to much filtering.  I would drop any optimisation and normalisation.  Also Just stick with the monte Carlo for the robustness testing.  I would also always use a SL and TP.  After 2 years of using EA studios and probably a 1000 + hours invested in this program and with the help of Petko I have realised it is best to set the parameters lower, get lots of strats and filter them out on demo before putting them on live.  Currently I have taken this to the extreme by creating about 50000 strats a week on the M1 and then pre-filtering them down to 100 / 200 with the prior weeks data and then running them on demo and doing a final filter down to 30/40 strats to run live.  Again this is just what is working for me.  Watch some of Petkos videos on the filtering of starts, I believe this is key……  Good luck.

    in reply to: Important: EA Studio pausing on vps #80733
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    There has been an ongoing problem with chrome since an update a few months ago.  The link below is to the other forum. Follow the instructions in post 16 to fix the problem….

     

    https://forexsb.com/forum/topic/8595/browser-slowdowns-the-inactive-tabs/

    in reply to: 99 EA’s but only 16 trading #70572
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    If all the strats were opening at the same time that would be more of a concern.  It would show that there is not enough diversification between the strats.  That they have similar settings and indicators.

    As for selecting the top EAs.  There are several ways and Petko has some very good videos explaining them in detail.

    You can run all the strats on demo for a certain time (1 week, 2 weeks etc) and then choose the best performers.

    You can wait till a strat has a certain amount of trades with a good PF ratio. (Say min of 5 trades with a PF greater then 1.2)

    You can hold  back 1 month of data when creating all your strats.  Then feed them back into the validator. Change the data to the last month and then run them forward.  This will simulate how they would have traded in the last month.  Then use the filtering option to say choose the top 10 / 5/ 3 or whatever.  And then transfer these to the “Live” account.  This is my preferred method but you will have to test for yourself and see what works for you…

    in reply to: 99 EA’s but only 16 trading #70570
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Sounds about right…..  The others have just not had their entry criteria met.  Also probably low liquidity this week with the holidays…..

    in reply to: What happens when Internet is disconnected? #69233
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Hey guys.  I also set up a UPS and it has saved me a few times from the storms we have here in Brisbane in the summer…..  I recently bought a router that you can fit a sim card into and it will automatically flick to mobile network if the internet  goes down.  No good if the power cut is significant and all the local cell phone towers go down but it seems to do the trick so far……

    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    You can use CTRL WINDOWS and LEFT / RIGHT keys to “speed” between your desktops as well…..

    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Hi Asser.

    Thanks for sharing.  Yes I have been using this setup for a while.  Helps to keep things organised.  If you get to a situation where you start to run a lot of MT4 platforms you might want to also look at creating new users and running on each user.  I find about 10 MT4 platforms per user is good.  If you have to many per user it starts to lock up the mt4s I find.  Not 100% sure but I think windows assigns a certain amount of cpu and ram to each user which helps spread the load over your PC.  It also helps you get around the limit of a maximum of 32 instances of MT4 per PC as each user is considered to be it’s own PC…..  I have had up to 50 MT4’s running at once but this is a bit excessive…….  Just “switch” between users instead of logging out and this will keep everything running……  Now back to searching for a new broker…….

    in reply to: The Generator Cannot Find Strategies (please help) #69151
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Yes.  I live in Australia and got the same from my brokers…..  I am now looking at alternatives.  We have a few months to sort out alternatives….  Let me know what you come up with and I will do the same.  So far Dukascopy is looking good.  There leverage is 1:100 but can go to 1:200.  I would love to find a trustworthy 1:500 broker.

    It seems that if you are a wall street banker you can have all the rules and regulations changed so that you can use massive leverage and get a free bail out when you get it wrong, but the small retail trader is the one that can’t be trusted to manage his own money……..  Oh well that’s the way it goes.  The other thing that I am following closely is the talk of another Bretton  Woods agreement and the likely restructure of the forex markets as we know them in the next few years…..  I think we will all need to be able to adapt quickly in the next few years to keep doing what we are doing here……  Just my opinion…

    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Yes.  Getting sick of chrome / microsoft BS so will go to firefox as well……

    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Yes same here….  I have 2 PCs.  The one that does not allow any updates is fine.  The one that updated is now affected.  I have tried uninstalling updates and even rolling my PC back to previous restore points.  Microsoft will not allow you to remove updates from Edge.  Anyone else have similar problems and any answers……  This is becoming a pain in the ASS………

    in reply to: Use of Historical data & Data Horizon #66733
    User Avatarrichard
    Participant

    Sounds good……

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 63 total)
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