No.26: Intraday trading mode with forced closures at end of day
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 demonstrates the process of initiating long orders based on signals generated by the intersection of two average indicators. Moreover, this example is configured with a static take profit and a trailing stop loss based on ATR. Only one trade can be open simultaneously, meaning some signals are intentionally disregarded.
A day trading strategy involves opening and closing multiple trades within short timeframes on the same day. Even minor price changes can lead to substantial profits or losses. Due to the unpredictable nature of a chart during the night, many day traders prefer to close all trades before the so-called swap occurs. This is a common practice to mitigate the risk of chart gaps. Therefore, this example showcases the so-called intraday trading mode, defined by a time range during which trades are permitted to be opened and a deadline at which all open trades will be closed, regardless of the current performance. In this case, the trading hours are between 09:00:00 and 18:00:00, and all open trades will close at 21:00:00.
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.26: Intraday trading mode with forced closures at end of day | Output Folder |
| > (TIM) Intraday mode (OFF -> Time ignored) (IN_enmTimIntradayMode) | ON | Timing |
| > (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 X CROSS VALUE X | |
| > (INA1) CONF, Signal in use (IN_enmIna1SignalInUse) | ON | |
| > (INA2) CONF, Signal in use (IN_enmIna2SignalInUse) | ON |
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_26_v_2_0.set.