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Oh also for number of strategies, it’s much better to have more in the collection than less as you can use the performance filter to trim things.
It sucks when nothing goes in after 10hrs but I also don’t like it when too many are going in too fast. If I get 50-150 overnight then I am happy and I’ll trim those collections down to a portfolio of 10-30.
Hey Tanya,
I think a stop loss should always be used so it’s really only trailing or fixed to choose between.
It’s kind of just a habit that I choose fixed to be honest so definitely feel free to try trailing also and see what gives you the best strategies. You could set two identical reactors running with only difference being one uses fixed and one uses trailing and compare that way to see what’s generally giving you the best looking strategies. Or just set fixed or trailing in the generator so it can choose between the two, both options are all good.
For the portfolios I would definitely recommend working with portfolios rather than individual EAs but I would also recommend not having overly large portfolios unless they are very uncorrelated (which is not easy for same symbol and timeframe).
I would stick to portfolios of about 30 personally, just a preference to limit too many positions being opened at the same time but this really isn’t a big deal unless doing scalping that requires super quick executions. Opening too many positions at once can cause several seconds delay on execution which you will be able to see in MT4.
It’s fine having lots of portfolios on different timeframes and symbols (say 10 portfolios of 30 EAs) as it’s unlikely that for different symbols and timeframes trades will open at the exact same time. But again it’s really not big deal just what I do.
Good plan Tanya,
I personally keep things simple and always use a take profit and stop loss. I just use a fixed stop loss also.
For M15 I think a good range is 20-120, but I would increase the upper range a bit for higher timeframes (say 150 for H1 and 200 for H4).
If you are getting plenty strategies coming through using those ranges over approximately 5 years of data then all good :-)
If I run my reactor and get about 50 EAs overnight on a pair and timeframe then I am pretty happy. If a pair has too much more than this then I’ll make a note that can change the settings a bit for that pair and if too few then likewise I will need to relax the settings.
You are welcome Tanya :-)
The above is all pretty sensible which is great, although ballpark I would probably be aiming for about 12 EA’s with a 0.1 lot size on a 10k demo account. If only trading 6 then could increase to 0.2 and likewise if trading 24 EAs then trade 0.05 lots per EA.
You will get a feel for the kind of profits and drawdowns with a bit more experience and can tune how you want but this is just a recommendation to start out.
Also M15 and H1 timeframes tend to combine well so you could also try including some H1 in your portfolio for the same assets.
Other than that I would say be very clear in your tracking of what you are doing and the results you are getting. That way over the course of a few months you will build valuable data for moving forward.
Excellent glad that all makes sense :-)
Profits won’t come straight away, it takes time and practice to improve and work out the nuances.
I have a few questions:
What EAs are your running?
How many are you allowing to trade on your mock demo account?
What is the balance between symbols an timeframes on your mock demo account?
Also what is the size of your mock demo account and what Lot size are you trading?
Hi Tanya,
I would stick with just using the Monte Carlo. If you want to make it more stringent you can try increasing the number of tests and passing percentage or make the validation acceptance criteria better. I’ve found 20 and 80 works well though.
The walk forward is a more advanced tool(but that doesn’t mean better!). I have used it in the past but I no longer do.
For robust strategies I would recommend the combination of a good amount of data with plenty trades, OOS and Monte Carlo.
I only trade M15, H1 and H4 and I typically like the use 5 years data for M15 and H1 and about 10 years for H4. Can use more but I wouldn’t use less.
Sound like it’s to do with the Lot size you are trading not being available. What lot size are you using?
See if increasing it works in the backtester. I would expect 0.1 to work
Yes that is my recommendation.
So each set of robots would run for two months total. Month 1 is purely trading on demo to get her statistics and then the second month is moving trades from that demo account to your live account (or mock demo).
If you have two demo accounts then you will always have a demo account that’s got a months worth of stats before you trade.
Hope that makes sense?
Hey Tanya,
I would recommend using the premium data (or historical data tool – both are the same really) to generate your strategies using more bars and more trades.
Then once you have a collection of EAs that have say 300 trades over 5 years on this data. I would download the collection and run it through the validator with your IC data selected to check that it performs well over that data also. Obviously when running through the validator you would relax the number of trades made. So for example if you had min trades set to 300 over 5 years using premium data then if only have a years data with your broker you would reduce the number of trades to 300/5 = 60.
I’d recommend 20% OOS personally but only use OOS for the strategy generation and not when running them through the validator for your broker data. Likewise with your monte carlo. Validator on broker data should purely be just checking that the statistics are correct.
I’d do as Petko suggests. Each month you will be moving the robots that you had running on demo from the previous month.
Then you could put the new months robots that he has updated on a second demo account and when they have been demo trading for a month you can switch to moving the robots form that account.
Essentially have two demo accounts and alternate between the two each month for copying EAs from. Does that make sense?
You are only using 1 month results maximum to select your EAs so there is no need for running EAs for any longer on a demo account.
Hope that makes sense and sounds like a simple plan ;-)
Hi Tanya,
How do you know that the US30 EA trade entry condition should have been triggered?
Just because another EA opens trades on this market that doesnt mean that this EA should have?
I assume you mean that you have placed it to trade and nothing has happened yet and not that you arent getting trades on MT4 when backtesting it? What do the backtesting results show for this EA (especially regarding number of trades made per week roughly)? Also of course double check that the face is smiling in the top right corner of the chart.
Hey Tanya,
2 main issues is the amount of data is not enough, especially to generate 300 trades on h1.
also some OOS would be a good idea and also Monte Carlo for robustness.
what courses have you been through?
also what symbols are you planning to trade etc?
Did you resolve the issue of low generations first with a single EA browser as it seemed to be a window becoming inactive issue?
Your 6 core vps should be able to handle about 4-6 browsers comfortably depending on how many mt4 terminals you are also running but make sure to check your processor utilization also.
Hi Tia,
That all seems fine, 4 windows sounds about right for your vps. Although make sure you don’t push your vps too hard as multiple terminals as wel as 4 browsers could be a bit much on a 2 core vps.
Have you checked your processor utilization?
You didn’t minimize the chrome windows did you? You should make sure that you resize them and that all 4 are active on the screen.
As a quick test set then running on the vps, take note of the number of strategies generated and then log out of your vps (but make sure the windows are active). Then log back in after 15 minutes and make sure the strategies generated number has increased significantly (depends on settings but approx +10,000 say)
Then you will know that all is well. If that still doesn’t work then let me know.
It could also be that you are running too many browsers for your vps which can cause a drastic slowdown of Ea studio but if you confirm the results from the above test first it would be good
yeah but your balance drawdown recently was ~18 % which as you say would fail a prop challenge. Likely your equity drawdown was greater but would be good to know what it’s been throughout the life of your account.
for example if it hit 20% and you knew that then reducing your lots size by just over half would have kept you in the challenge right?
Of course it reduces the profit you will get so that needs to be balanced.
Seems like you are going pretty good though, I’d keep doing what you are doing and if you wan to try anything different then do so on a separate account.
Okay so by brand new system you mean you just go straight to live without any demo. Seems to be working well, would be definitely interesting to see how doing same thing for a few more months. If overall it works well again for three months then that would certainly give much confidence I’d say