ForexMorningTrade System

[RobM.]

Re: SLM EA Execution Delay

I have been in touch with SLM 8 times now and have really got nowhere!

Hi fellow SLMers

Apologies for the length but here is my correspondence with SLM today:
Could there possibly be something in the MT4 issue? Might they be saying reinstall from the link below…?

RobM
Sirs

I trade from a powerful VPS, located very close to yourselves and use an EA to execute trades, as per the facility you offer.

Recently, I have noticed that my SLM trades are not executed on time. I trade at 0615 BST.

Today, as is becoming typical, my largest SLM account, which is still small in value but trading at high risk and 3.4 ‘lots’ was over a minute late, entering at 0616, with a 4 pip disadvantage.

I bring this to your attention as the reason for this was 0616:01 ‘no connection’, ‘connect failed’. The MT4 platform says ‘Error 128, trade timeout’. It appears at 0332:17 the same’ no connection’ error occurred.

I am trading with 9 accounts, five of which are SLM. The other four SLM accounts are fine, as are the Aplari UK accounts.

Can you enlighten me as to why this might be? The VPS is obviously working and connected as it has opened and maintained four other connections to you and four connections to another party, without incident. Commercial Network Services confirm that the service was not interrupted.


SLM
Hello

We are doing our best to attempt to help your query.

As we have stated many times, EAs, written by 3rd parties are nothing to do with us and not our responsibility.
However, we are here to help, and obviously want our clients to be content, so we are trying to find out what is going on, over and above making sure everything is fine our end.

We have had a handful of clients with the same issue as you since Monday.
The vast majority have had no issues what so ever.

We have spoken with Metaquotes in Russia and they assure us that this is a client problem, to do with their connection.

We are also speaking to the manufacturers of one of the EAs in an attempt to find out if there could be something within the EA conflicting with the way it works.

There was a recent update of the MT4 platform to build 399, and I am not necessarily convinced that is not to blame.

We do have one idea in the meantime, for those of you that may like to give it a try.
That is to uninstall MT4 from your PC or VPS and then re-install it again.

Here is the link:

http://www.metaquotes.net/files/smartlive/slsb4setup.exe


Regards

SLM


RobM
Sirs

Thank you for your reply.

I am very grateful for your offer to look into this, over and above your belief that this is an EA issue.

I’d like to assure you that, whilst this may constitute an effort on your part, it is extremely important for me and your other clients, using EAs, to be able to trade with confidence with SLM, whatever the cause of this problem may be.

That you offer your platform for use with EAs does imply a responsibility on your part to help resolve this issue with your customers and I am grateful and impressed that you have taken this responsibility on board.

For my part, I shall undertake to follow your advice and un/re-install the platform.

I imagine there are enormous numbers of traders currently assessing whether to migrate their trading accounts to your platform. Your market position is unique, presently and I am sure you would not want to let, what may be teething problems, spoil the mass-market potential of your product. I am not technically qualified, so please excuse my potential ignorance, but could it perhaps be a simple question of peak-time server capacity?

I await your further response, when you have more information and hope it may help you by re-stating the fact that I have FIVE SLM accounts on the same VPS, all trading at 0615 and only one was affected. The EA and its settings are identical on all accounts.

Once again, thank you for your attention to this important matter.

 

[wiseambitions]

Hi Wise - did you manually close out the trade today @ 30 TP or have you set TP=30 (EA)? I would like to know.

I understand that the default is set to 35/45/25/5 - not sure if you saw something in the Price Action that caused you to close out the trade @ 30TP.

Thanks.

kgk

30 was the TP I set myself at 06.15 this morning for the trade.

In all honesty I was of the opinion the £ had been oversold yesterday and I was expecting it to be a bad day against FMT signals to take a short! My supporting evidence was that the pivot point was quite a bit higher, the 40MA was in slight decline, and price was below the 63hr EMA. It was sheer luck that I was closed out at TP at a spike before it retraced. I would not have been closed out at BE because I don't use that strategy, but I would have had nervous minutes if I was watching the trade although it eventually went back to offer much more than 30TP to anyone who had got such exposure (without BE resetting).

 

[wiseambitions]

I am quite new to FMT so please excuse me if this has been dealt with, but regarding which setting is best, is draw down not relevant, presumably a system with a lower draw down could potentially run at a higher risk % than a setting with a larger max draw down, even if at the end of the test period both systems had equal results of total p/L in pips. This would give the system with lower draw down a higher return in £.

That would usually be true if you were compounding but not if you were just taking the income

----
Sorry I just re-read your post. Maybe I misunderstood you. Yes obviously the higher the lot size (as a consequence of taking a higher % risk) the more the monetary profit for a given number of pips.

My first answer was along the lines that if you had a given % risk per trade and had 2 possible settings which historically yielded the same number of pips gain in a series of trades, the one with the lower drawdown would give better gain if you're compounding, but if you're just taking the income it's only pips that matter.

 

[kgk]

30 was the TP I set myself at 06.15 this morning for the trade.

In all honesty I was of the opinion the £ had been oversold yesterday and I was expecting it to be a bad day against FMT signals to take a short! My supporting evidence was that the pivot point was quite a bit higher, the 40MA was in slight decline, and price was below the 63hr EMA. It was sheer luck that I was closed out at TP at a spike before it retraced. I would not have been closed out at BE because I don't use that strategy, but I would have had nervous minutes if I was watching the trade although it eventually went back to offer much more than 30TP to anyone who had got such exposure (without BE resetting).

Good for you!! I ended up with +5 I can't afford to be up @ 1:15 AM EST

 

[wiseambitions]

Good for you!! I ended up with +5 I can't afford to be up @ 1:15 AM EST

Hopefully it will come right for you. I know the revised FMT recommendation has been robustly tested and you just have to stick with the same thing long term and give it chance to work. The fact I might go and do other things doesn't mean I'm always right but I try and keep to my own rules!

 

[andycon]

That would usually be true if you were compounding but not if you were just taking the income

----
Sorry I just re-read your post. Maybe I misunderstood you. Yes obviously the higher the lot size (as a consequence of taking a higher % risk) the more the monetary profit for a given number of pips.

My first answer was along the lines that if you had a given % risk per trade and had 2 possible settings which historically yielded the same number of pips gain in a series of trades, the one with the lower drawdown would give better gain if you're compounding, but if you're just taking the income it's only pips that matter.

Hi, what I was getting at was that say on one setting you run at 4% risk of account, and you had another setting that yielded the same amount of pips over the period or even slightly lower, but had a significantly lower draw down levels, you could potentially run the second settings at a higher % risk, say 6%, because the risk of sustained draw down periods and risk of blowing up your account would be potentially lower. So the second settings should yield a higher £ level over the period.

 

[wiseambitions]

Hi, what I was getting at was that say on one setting you run at 4% risk of account, and you had another setting that yielded the same amount of pips over the period or even slightly lower, but had a significantly lower draw down levels, you could potentially run the second settings at a higher % risk, say 6%, because the risk of sustained draw down periods and risk of blowing up your account would be potentially lower. So the second settings should yield a higher £ level over the period.

Yes that would be right because the total profit you get is the number of pips gained (after the spread), multiplied by the number of lots traded.

 

[coral]

Hopefully it will come right for you. I know the revised FMT recommendation has been robustly tested and you just have to stick with the same thing long term and give it chance to work. The fact I might go and do other things doesn't mean I'm always right but I try and keep to my own rules!

Hello Wise. I'm lost in the fog. What setting are you trading if I may ask? I have an interesting slant on one of your settings if it's the right one. I'm looking at opening another smaller account with a higher risk and was wondering which one you favour.

Al

 

[coral]

BE + 5 today on Go Markets. Patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue, pa .......

 

[mike1booth]

RE: SLM problem

I wrote to SLM today then received a phone call from the infamous "Paul" and later an email to which I further replied. Think you can get the gist from the exchange of emails:

Since opening my account with SLM, I have been very pleased with your service. So pleased in fact that two weeks ago, when fellow traders were complaining on a forum about their various brokers, I posted a comment expounding the benefits of SLM to others, including the low two pip spread you have on the Forex GBP/USD (better than most) and in particular your fast execution of bets.
However, on each of the last three days, there has been a considerable delay in execution, on all three days giving me an error posted in the journal as “cannot login [No connection]”.
On looking at comments on the previously mentioned forum, I read that many of your clients are having the same problems, particularly when trying to place bets (trades) at 6.15am and 6.30am UK time (7.15am and 7.30am SLM time).
On querying this with your company, several of your clients mentioned that they have received replies suggesting that there is “probably” a fault with their computer clock, and/or their internet connection and/or their EA.
It seems peculiar that none of these customers, like myself, were having problems previous to this week, and like me are using the same computer, internet connection and EA as they were in April.
Surely we can’t all be wrong? Surely we all could not have suddenly developed problems with our computers, internet connections and EA’s all at the same time?
It would seem to any reasonable person that there is some problem at SLM.
I don’t think anyone (so far) is attempting to have any money returned or indeed is accusing SLM of any wrongdoing. We would simply like the problem to be taken seriously and investigated.
I would be grateful for your comments.

Hello
We are doing our best to attempt to help your query.
As we have stated many times, EAs, written by 3rd parties are nothing to do with us and not our responsibility.
However, we are here to help, and obviously want our clients to be content, so we are trying to find out what is going on, over and above making sure everything is fine our end.
We have had a handful of clients with the same issue as you since Monday.
The vast majority have had no issues what so ever.
We have spoken with Metaquotes in Russia and they assure us that this is a client problem, to do with their connection.
We are also speaking to the manufacturers of one of the EAs in an attempt to find out if there could be something within the EA conflicting with the way it works.
There was a recent update of the MT4 platform to build 399, and I am not necessarily convinced that is not to blame.
We do have one idea in the meantime, for those of you that may like to give it a try.
That is to uninstall MT4 from your PC or VPS and then re-install it again.
Here is the link:
http://www.metaquotes.net/files/smartlive/slsb4setup.exe
Regards
SLM

Thank you for your written reply to my enquiry, and for taking the time to phone.
It was unfortunate however, that the person that called (he said his name was Paul) seemed only interested in convincing me that the problem was not SLM’s but in fact the EA that I (and several other clients) are using. When I tried to explain why I thought the problem was not our EA, Paul seemed to get rather annoyed, accusing me of trying to talk over him and intimating that he was doing me a favour by even looking into this.
I don’t think that anyone is suggesting there is a problem with the general MT4 platform as used wildly by many brokers in the industry. The fact that you have called Metaquotes in Russia and they say that the problem is not on MT4 comes as no surprise. In fact, what I was trying to explain to Paul, when he was talking over me, is that I am using the exact same EA, at the exact same time of day on another account I have with Alpari UK and am not experiencing any problems at all with them
Furthermore, I know that many people are using this EA, with many different brokers, and the only ones experiencing this problem are the ones using SLM! However, as I said, Paul didn’t seem to want to even listen to this. I have to say that I find SLM’s choice in Paul, as a customer liaison officer, with the attitude he has towards clients, somewhat puzzling.
However, I note that you have sent a standard reply to all of us experiencing this problem, and suggest a possible solution may be to uninstall our SLM MT4 platform and reinstall a modified version. I shall indeed proceed to do this and will let you know on Monday if it has solved the problem.
Regards,
Mike...

 

[michaelhryu]

Here are a few facts to support the 'leave it alone' theory:

191 trades for the last exactly 12 months:

FMT1 40/40 +1880
by putting in BE @ 20 you'd have 1800

FMT2 35/40 with BE @ 20 +1685
if you ignored break even resets, +1665 (Hey where's the big difference?)

10/40 +1260, with 93% winning trades

28/40 +1812

20/40 +1180 (quite a useless setting really!)

so at the end of 12 months is there really a meaningful difference between a set that gets you 1665 and one that gets you 1880? I say not. It's only the difference between 2 or 3 trades going to TP instead of SL

Which trading time is used for the above stats, 6:15 or 6:30? Please clarify. Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[mike1booth]

RE: SLM problem

Update.... Reply received from my last email to SLM. This guy is unbelievable!

"MY PLATFORM"??? I think he means the one I downloaded from SLM?

Hello
This is Paul and I wrote the previous email.
I am sorry if we were talking over each other, but you were not listening to me, and I was trying to help, which is why I called you.
It is not our fault you are experiencing problems. Our servers are fine.
The fact that you have other accounts with other brokers with no problems is good, so do I.
I had no problem using FMT today, but then I do not have an issue with MY connection or MY platform.
The issue is YOUR platform or the EA installation on it.
Whether that is the EA directly or the EA conflicting with it or just some glitch with your MT4 platform is difficult to say.
But hopefully a reinstallation will solve this problem.
Regards
Paul
SLM

 

[deserteagle]

RE: SLM problem

Update.... Reply received from my last email to SLM. This guy is unbelievable!

"MY PLATFORM"??? I think he means the one I downloaded from SLM?

Hello
This is Paul and I wrote the previous email.
I am sorry if we were talking over each other, but you were not listening to me, and I was trying to help, which is why I called you.
It is not our fault you are experiencing problems. Our servers are fine.
The fact that you have other accounts with other brokers with no problems is good, so do I.
I had no problem using FMT today, but then I do not have an issue with MY connection or MY platform.
The issue is YOUR platform or the EA installation on it.
Whether that is the EA directly or the EA conflicting with it or just some glitch with your MT4 platform is difficult to say.
But hopefully a reinstallation will solve this problem.
Regards
Paul
SLM

I'm out of this discussion, but... is this guy from SLM?
What is clear they do not invest too much in customer care.

 

[mike1booth]

I'm out of this discussion, but... is this guy from SLM?
What is clear they do not invest too much in customer care.

He didn't give a second name, but for sure this guy is not a simple employee working in a customer care office. They are trained on how to deal with customers and would never write an email like that one. I think it is the Director of Trading on their company website - http://www.smartlivemarkets.co.uk/pages/about-us/meet-the-team.aspx

 

[podberry]

He didn't give a second name, but for sure this guy is not a simple employee working in a customer care office. They are trained on how to deal with customers and would never write an email like that one. I think it is the Director of Trading on their company website - http://www.smartlivemarkets.co.uk/pages/about-us/meet-the-team.aspx

Guys, I checked forexpeacearmy's broker reviews http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/forex_broker_reviews for Smart Live Markets only to be disappointed that they are not even listed on the site. Well, I had to rectify that so I posted Smart Live Markets first review, wasn't a nice one, short and sweet about their shocking customer service. The review was posted today and will appear on the website in the next couple of days after being moderated, please feel free to add your reviews when it's live, after a few reviews we can send the link to Paul to have a good read.

 

[Remraf]

Not really. There was a bit of the usual snobery about "real trading" and "betting". Most were pretty dismissive and only wanted to talk about their own "new" platforms.

I think it will come eventually. SLM must have gained a lot of business with their MT4 platform and their competitors (the other spread betters) will soon realise that.

Mike

I was planning to open a live SLM account, but with the problems they are having and their attitude to resoving them for current users I think I'll keep clear of them for the time being and stick with dealing manually on IG, after all, it is surprising how placing trades manually and watching the price movement in relation to MA's, S&R and news is helping me get a better feel for the £/$ market that I now get, even if I do have to get up at 6am! Let's hope that SLM get their act together, or another broker see's the opportunity that SLM have un-covered and gives them some competition!

 

[magicdogsbrain]

Guys, I checked forexpeacearmy's broker reviews http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/forex_broker_reviews for Smart Live Markets only to be disappointed that they are not even listed on the site. Well, I had to rectify that so I posted Smart Live Markets first review, wasn't a nice one, short and sweet about their shocking customer service. The review was posted today and will appear on the website in the next couple of days after being moderated, please feel free to add your reviews when it's live, after a few reviews we can send the link to Paul to have a good read.

EDIT: FMT EA does an MQL4 OrderSend() request which is exactly what happens under the covers when you trade manually.


I am a software engineer working on client/server applications - "no connection to trade server" means that the client (your MT4 client) tried to open a socket with the trade server but the trade server was not available over the internet.

This means either your connection to the internet is not working, their connection to the internet is not working, or speciacally their trade server is not listening on its port for new client connections (perhaps because it is already serving too many clients). Since we all had the same issue - its 100% clear - its their trade server refusing connections.

It has nothing to do with your connection, nothing to do with you EA, nothing to do with metaquotes MT4 client. SLM know this very well - why they want to take us all for fools is beyond me - I for one would really like to hear that they have got some problems and what they are doing about it.

 

[Remraf]

I look forward to your statistics.

I am really just an EA user who is becoming interested in learning to trade. So far I am learning most about patience and greed. This seems like watching grass grow when patently it is quite the opposite!

It takes 10 minutes to do the stats on 'what could be' and seems to take forever to experience 'what will be'!

My number one criterion was to earn some 'extra' by having to do 'nothing'. I have tried hard to organise my accounts, use VPSs and try and leave alone. Although I never meddle, I find this forum almost addictive, with opinion, advice and humour flying in all directions.

It's my Achille's heel because it sticks me with a dose of emotion about my trades and settings: Should I alter them? Why not open another account and trade those settings? Why not just put that money into the 'old faithful'? His or her 'old faithful' seems better than mine .... I'm sure others are familiar with this feeling.

I sometimes think I must abstain from the forum and just let things happen and try and let FMT just work for me in the background as I'd intended.

I'm sure many here feel similar things. I just thought I'd share something a little different..... until the next post... and the next... and the next...!

Rob,

I think we can all relate to this! but the discipline is to stick with a trading set that you're happy with and let it run, but be flexible enough to take on board potential changes that are identified through Marc and those on the forum that post results on other sets. I think as Wise as identified on more than one occasion, it is consistency that pays in the long term, and that readily changing settings, timings, stopping and starting will only frustrate you and add to poor results and drawdown. I for one think we would be all the poorer for not engaging with this brilliant forum, for whilst at times it might frustrate and confuse, but for the most part it is educational, inspiring, uplifting, serious, light-hearted and honest! - I feel our trading success can only benefit from the excellent range of views and information it provides:smart:

 

[shoot2scoot]

SLM - "Too small to care, too big for their boots!"

 

[shoot2scoot]

Guys, I checked forexpeacearmy's broker reviews http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/forex_broker_reviews for Smart Live Markets only to be disappointed that they are not even listed on the site.

Thanks Pod. There will be an orderly queue of us waiting to get on the site in the morning. Happy to give up time on a Saturday for a good cause!