Hey gang,
I love this software! It just keeps assembling great entry and exit strategies!
What I'd really like to have now is trade management modules that can override parts of the Strategy Properties window with things like...
1. Trailing and Jumping stoploss. Just in case, I'll explain what I mean...
Trailing Stoploss is MT4's standard trailing stop... It is managed and monitored on the client side only, (server knows nothing about it).
Jumping Stoploss is managed by the client, and monitored/executed by the server. When current price is 2 * JumpingStop Pips away from an order's current stoploss, the client sends an OrderModify request, increasing the stoploss value by JumpingStop Pips, thereby locking in some your profit, just in case you lose connection to the server.
I tend to use both, set to the same value, and only executed after break-even.
2. Scaling in or out, based on momentum indicators, rather than "Same Direction Signal" and "Opposite Direction Signal"
To give you an example of what you could do with this, I'll tell you about a little trade/scale-in manager that I'm trying to put together in mql4, (I say "trying" because I can't code, I just copy, paste, and edit until it does what I want).
Since it's late here, and my brain is addled from working in a very noisy environment, I'll be lazy with the numbers...
First trade has an initial SL of 25 pips, Breakeven of 25 pips, (I actually move the stoploss a couple of pips into profit when PA reaches the break-even point, so, BreakEvenProfit of 2 pips), and a Jumping+Trailing stop of 25 pips.
When price has moved 50 pips from my current stoploss, the trade management routine modifies the order, increasing the stoploss by 25 pips, then it calls on a routine that tests whether there's enough momentum to add another trade... If there's not enough momentum, it goes back to the start, and waits for the next opportunity to jump the stoploss another 25 pips.
If there's enough momentum, it goes to the scale-in routine.
One of the inputs to the EA allows me to set how much of my locked-in profit (OrderStopLoss - OrderOpenPrice, converted to dollars) that I want to risk, 1 = All, 2 = half, 3 = 1/3, etc. Since I always start a run with the minimum lot-size (0.01 lots), and I"m only willing to risk half of my locked-in profit, I'll have to wait until my JumpingStoploss has jumped twice.
Ok, so my stoploss has jumped twice, and I'm ready to scale-in... Scale-in trades have an initial SL of 27 pips (so it's hiding behind the winner's SL), Breakeven of 25 pips, BreakEvenProfit of 2 pips, and a Jumping+Trailing stop of 25 pips, and, initially, they are the same lot-size as the first trade of the run.
If I've gotten in early on a big move, and I've set my stops right, I can very quickly double the lot-size of scale-in trades, whilst still only risking half of my locked-in profit, and then double again after only 2 or 3 more jumps, (and again... and again...).
So, as you can see, if you generate a good trend trading strategy, lock it, then add this style of trade/scale-in management, you've got yourself quite a winner
Have fun!
Radar =8^)