No.20: Permanent disabling of trading when bad performance
Description
You can find an example for the Expert Advisor Builder on this page. If you need to familiarize yourself with the MetaTrader strategy tester and the Expert Advisor Builder, please begin with the Getting Started article.
This example highlights the inspector feature, which can be used to monitor a trading module and, if the performance is poor, completely disable the ability to open new trades. This can be especially useful when market conditions change and a trading strategy ceases to be profitable. A notable recent example would have been the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The trade entry is chosen without a specific strategy in mind, intentionally resulting in a negative performance to demonstrate that the trading strategy disables itself permanently as soon as a -2% performance is reached. This trading module can only be reactivated by a complete restart of the application that utilizes it.
Please note that this is not a plug-and-play trading strategy. A trading strategy needs suitable adjustments, fine-tuning to the timeframe and symbol, and thorough backward and forward testing. Therefore, providing fully working trading strategies as read-to-use examples is impossible. However, this example could serve as a foundation for your trading strategy.
Reset of inputs
Locate the Expert Advisor Builder application in the dropdown menu of the strategy tester settings under FEA Trading\MT4\Expert Advisor Builder 2.0 if you're using a MetaTrader 4 instance or FEA Trading\MT5\Expert Advisor Builder 2.0 if you're using a MetaTrader 5 instance. You can replicate the entire example in minutes by following the steps outlined in this article. To begin, kindly reset the strategy tester input as indicated.
The default input parameters of the Expert Advisor Builder are designed to be highly functional. This implies that only some parameters must be adjusted when creating a new strategy. As a result, even with minimal reconfiguration, the output strategy can be significantly different.
Inputs configuration
Most examples can be executed in any timeframe and on any symbol. However, please set EURUSD as the symbol to be tested, M15 as the timeframe, select Open prices only (MT4) or 1 minute OHLC (MT5) as the model, and the previous four weeks as the test period. Finally, enable the visual testing mode.
Refer to the table below to set up the input parameters for the Expert Advisor Builder.
| Input variable within MetaTrader (Identifier in SET file) | Example value | User manual chapters |
|---|---|---|
| > (OUF) Idea output description (max 63 characters) (IN_strOufIdeaOutputDescription) | No.20: Permanent disabling of trading when bad performance | Output Folder |
| > (RIM) Volume calculation (IN_enmRimVolumeCalculation) | FIX REL RISK BASED | Risk Manager |
| > (SLT) A Type (IN_enmSltAType) | MARKET | Stop Loss Trailing |
| > (ITP) Selection (IN_enmItpSelection) | OFF | Initial Take Profit |
| > (ISP) Performance since start rel min (0.0 -> OFF) (IN_dIspPerformanceSinceStartRelMin) | -2.0 | Inspector |
| > (INA) CONF, Signal in use (IN_enmInaSignalInUse) | ON | Configuration Available Indicators and Default Values Example |
| > (INA) COND, Relation 1 INA1 to INA2 (IN_enmInaRelation1) | VALUE 1 CROSS VALUE 2 | |
| > (INA1) CONF, Signal in use (IN_enmIna1SignalInUse) | ON | |
| > (INA2) CONF, Signal in use (IN_enmIna2SignalInUse) | ON | |
| > (INA2) CONF, Selection (IN_enmIna2Selection) | EMA - Exponential Moving Average |
Confirm the inputs by pressing OK, and finally, start the test run with Start.
Chart example and SET file download
The underlying algorithm is highly optimized for execution speed. Generally, it only takes a few minutes until the entire test period is simulated. At the end, you will see a chart similar to the following.
To reproduce the chart from this example, you can download and use the SET file package eab_example_20_v_2_0.set.