I have found that the smaller the time frame the more difficult it is to get a consistent strategy and seem to have reached a downside limit at the 30 minute time frame.

I noticed this a long time ago.  I experienced that most reliable strategies are for 1h, then 4h. Higer time frame strategies need more room to fluctuate and wider stop-losses. In higer time frame strategies the stop-loss hit rate can be lowered by building several logical conditions for exits. Stop-loss need to be the last line of defence not the main exit condition.

I think that trading without a stop-loss = suicide. I buid all my strategies for permanent stop-losses and take profits. I newer know what can happen next, there can be more extreme situations than electrisity failuere, e.g. hardware failure, health problems etc.

A car hit a power pole and we were without power for nearly 5 hours whilst they repaired the cables.

Exactly same once happened to me. I opened my position manually. And I prepared a SL order to it. Exactly when I was going to click on the Send button the computer stopped. (My broker has classical execution model. SL or TP are separated orders of type OCO. It's not possible to send SL order together with the position.) The electrical company have decided to change an electrical pole in front of my house. I was without power for 7 hours. When the power was on, my position was at a $700 loss.
From than I first send SL order and after that I open the real position with a market order. Unfortunately this technique works only for brokers that average the position, in opposite of the MT4 brokers.

From the MT4 brokers I prefer these that are able to send SL / TP together with the position. I was disappointed when FXCM changed their execution model. This requires two transactions. One for the order and another for the SL. For that reason I recently switched to Accent Forex. They have instant SL and TP settings and very fast execution.

But I'll be really happy when MT5 becomes popular.  FSB / FST will work much better for it. The problem in MT4 is that it cannot average a position. This leads to maintaining multiple positions when the strategy uses adding.  FSB is designed to work with one position according to the classical trading theory.

I can say that MT4 is the least safe platform. MT5 will be safer because of the adding. And the best will be direct ECN connection which I plan for the next year.

A recent incident nearby has influenced my strategies. A car hit a power pole and we were without power for nearly 5 hours whilst they repaired the cables. When this happened I then had no way to connect to the internet so I now ALWAYS have what I call a "PCI stop". This stands for Power, Computer, Internet. If I lose any of these the stop is with the broker so if the worst happens all my account can lose an amount down to the current stop loss level.  I have found some generated strategies give much better results without a stop loss but I have now discarded these strategies. When generating strategies I always put in a permanent stop loss and tick the box that says "Do not change the Permanent Stop Loss" 

I would like to thank Mr Popov for making this software freely available and creating this forum.