Topic: Are these things possible with Strategy Builder Pro

Hi

First post here, very excited and looking forward to working with the apps for what I think will be a long time.

The first thing that I'm wondering, is it possible to use FSB to create strategies that involve moving average pullbacks (EMA Bounces), price level trades (highs/lows/distances etc)?

No need to tell me how to do it, but I am just wondering if it's possible.  I've been trying to do things like this with MQL4 and Excel for a while now.  I can do the EMA pullbacks but it's very awkward. 

Timeframe correlation and so on.  Things like that.... 

I'm sure if these things can't be done I will still love the programs as I have already seen quite a lot of cool things in the Robot Factory

Thanks

Re: Are these things possible with Strategy Builder Pro

We have a long and negative experience with retracement indicators.
We even remove these from FSB Pro probably 10 years ago.

The problem was that we found out that the pool back signals tend to redraw in a way that leaves only the successful trades in the backtest. This was very difficult to detect. It took me 4 months to understand why the strategy works on the backtest but loses money on the real trading.

We also found out that it is very difficult to explain to the FSB user why they should not use such indicators. Finally, we decided to remove them from the program.

Anyway, FSB Pro is fully capable to execute such indicators if someone makes custom ones.

Re: Are these things possible with Strategy Builder Pro

Thanks Popov, I don’t fully understand what the problem is that you were having.  But I do understand  sometimes there can be really annoying activities involved in programming. 

However, if I want to create custom indicators as you mentioned, do I do that right here in FSB or do I need to create them in MQL4 and brings them in?  Main question I’m asking is, will I need to use a programming language or is there a way to select options. 

Sorry I’m only still going through the course materials. 

I do believe I may have a way to make this all work, but it will take a bit of work and trial and error

Re: Are these things possible with Strategy Builder Pro

We spend a lot of time to make FSB Pro creating well-performing and reliable strategies. I may say we even passed over the optimal design and over-engineered the program. I'm pretty sure you will have better results if you spend your time using the program as it is with its bundled indicator instead of trying to "improve" it with custom ones.

> Main question I’m asking is, will I need to use a programming language or is there a way to select options.

Yes, you need a programming language (actually 2 of them), but this sounds like to ask if you need to know words in order to write a poem.

I suggest you using the vanilla FSB Pro and EA Studio for several years. You will find there are greater challenges then using a particular indicator or a setup.

Re: Are these things possible with Strategy Builder Pro

When you say I need two programming languages, what language other than MQL4 do I need?  Must I create both MQL4 and MQL5?  Or is it a language based on FSB?  I have so far gone quickly through the text part of the guide and I’m just wondering if there are any videos that demonstrate how I could best approach the below.   I won't be simply using the below, but along with these, I will still have indicators to determine bullish or bearish setups.  And also, I already have much of the code written for the indicators I would like to use, so it may not be too time-consuming if I know it can be done.

So essentially, can I create an indicator with my own code, then use a value from that indicator to determine where an entry price should be, and then using the same or similar indicator, determine where the take profit and stop loss should be?  For example, if I were to use the most recent major high and low, and have the indicator tell me to buy at a certain distance up from the low, and have a take profit a certain distance down from the potentially revisited high.  Most importantly this means the closing rules will always be different as a result of being based on prices determined by percentages from levels “and” sometimes trades wont be entered even if the trade entry conditions are met, simply because the price is too high above a recent low. 

So can I add a new parameter to the stop loss section.  It says that you must have either of Bar Closing, Day Closing or Week Closing in order to use Closing logic Conditions.  But can I replace those with a number derived from an indicator as mentioned above?

That’s really the absolute main thing I’m trying to get done.  I just want to make the adaptability to environments to be as far from static as possible and to have dynamic calculations for each bullish or bearish zones potential size.

Based on these notes I have found in the guide it looks like they follow similar logic and my ideas may be possible and if so is there an article or video that may describe it? 

Notes =
“The adding value is measured either in lots or in percent depending on the selected trade unit.  The program will execute an adding only if the next direction signal logic permits.
Next opposite direction signal sets behaviour.
The formula for calculating entry size is:  NextAmount = EntryAmount * (MartingaleMultiplier ^ ConsecutiveLoses).
Indicators which can set a definite entry price are placed there.
The indicator's logic sets the long position price.
You can also choose a certain time for closing the position using indicators like: Bar Closing, Day Closing, Week Closing and Exit Hour.
Other indicators that set the exact price of the order are: Moving Average, Pivot Points, Bollinger Bands etc.
Indicators specifying more than one entry price are: Price Move, Stark Bands, Top Bottom Price etc. These indicators set different points for closing a short and a long position. It is the indicator's logic that determines the different closing prices for long and short positions.
Longer time frame (LTF) option sets a specific period for the current indicator. For example, if you have a strategy working on EURUSD H4 chart, you can set an indicator with Longer time frame = D1.
You can enter long on a M5 chart only if you have an uptrend on a daily chart. To do so, set the strategy period to M5 and chose a trend indicator and set its Longer time frame to D1.
End of Notes…

The above preloaded features look great, however being able to create my own variables is very important since it will help me observe the exact type of strategies that I've been studying etc...

Re: Are these things possible with Strategy Builder Pro

FSB Pro uses indicators written in C#. You need also separate versions in MQL.

You can find the complete source code of  the FSB Pro indicators and also a test project here: https://github.com/PopovMP/FSB_Pro_Indicators

You can also find more than 100 examples here: https://forexsb.com/repository/repository_indicators/

There is no special documentation regarding the custom indicators because they are Open-source. If you want, the easiest way to start is by modifying some of the existing indicators.

Anyway, the main goal of FSB Pro is to provide a fast and reliable backtest. This is not exactly the same as "exact type of strategies that I've been studying".

If you want free form coding, the best way is to make it directly in MetaTrader in MQL. FSB Pro is not suitable for that because it has a predefined strategy and indicators structure in order to suit better to the backtesting engine.

FSB Pro is not able to test all possible strategies. We generally use FSB Pro for faster generating strategies with a desired backtest performance and statistics. We usually generate a strategy first and then look at its trading rules. The opposite is what the traders without FSB Pro and EA Studio do because they literarily cannot do what we can do with our software.

Even if you really want to program your own strategies, it is much faster to use the Generator first to see what actually works on the particular market. Then you can code your own strategies based on the generated ones.