Pin Bar System

[Mata Nui]

OK. Didn't think to look at the 'journal' tab. Says 'trading by experts is prohibited'. I dont think they're calling me an expert trader who should be disqualified, but that no EA's are allowed in the competion.
That clears that up

With my live account i had to contact SLM to have it enabled. Its enabled by default on the demo accounts though.

 

[pocrel]

Mata Nui

can you have a look at the eurgbp trade today which was very clear at 12pm

the EA put in an order to short at a terrible price on the correct bar and then cancelled the order even as it triggered

here is the chart the EA actions for the 12pm trade on the eurgbp today, could you please have a look at it and tell me why it has done this

thanks

 

[Mata Nui]

audusd hit 1 to1 stopped out for b/e (Took long at 10am - Lost. Your short pin not marked as a pin)

eurgbp hit 1to1 stopped out for b/e (Yes same)

wti +100 on half other half up +300 (half at 1:1, Then stopped at BE)

Nas +7 1 to1 reach other half still running (My Auto pivots must be off. I dont see a trade. It placed a short order at 4 which expired)

gold -80 (stopped out by 1 point and reversed to hit target ouch) (its got more sence than i did. Entered long at 15:00. Missed being stopped by less than a point as it adds /subtracts another 1 to the pin so closed at a nice profit)

silver hit 1 to1 stopped out second half b/e (Autopivots off, no trade taken - are you sure it hit 1:1?)

Not as good as what you would have hoped but in profit. Still needs a bit of work. If i was running live i think i would manually put the pivots in for idx and oil.

 

[Mata Nui]

Mata Nui

can you have a look at the eurgbp trade today which was very clear at 12pm

the EA put in an order to short at a terrible price on the correct bar and then cancelled the order even as it triggered

here is the chart the EA actions for the 12pm trade on the eurgbp today, could you please have a look at it and tell me why it has done this

thanks
View attachment 113838

Just run it and it has done correct (on backtest at least).

Journal entries below.

2011.05.12 19:45:49 2011.05.12 11:45 HSPinBarTrader EURGBPSB,M30: close #1 sell 0.10 EURGBPSB at 0.87064 sl: 0.87065 tp: 0.86355 at price 0.86855
2011.05.12 19:45:49 2011.05.12 11:45 HSPinBarTrader EURGBPSB,M30: modify #1 sell 0.10 EURGBPSB at 0.87064 sl: 0.87065 tp: 0.86355 ok
2011.05.12 19:45:49 2011.05.12 11:45 HSPinBarTrader EURGBPSB,M30: modify #1 sell 0.10 EURGBPSB at 0.87064 sl: 0.87064 tp: 0.86355 ok
2011.05.12 19:45:49 2011.05.12 11:02 Tester: order #1, sell 0.10 EURGBPSB is opened at 0.87064
2011.05.12 19:45:49 2011.05.12 11:00 HSPinBarTrader EURGBPSB,M30: open #1 sell stop 0.10 EURGBPSB at 0.87064 sl: 0.87276 tp: 0.86355 ok
2011.05.12 19:45:49 2011.05.12 11:00 HSPinBarTrader EURGBPSB,M30: Long Trade. Entry: 0.87064000 Stop: 0.87276000 Target: 0.86355333 Lots: 0.10000000

Is yours on a backtest? must be settings.

 

[Mata Nui]

Mata Nui

can you have a look at the eurgbp trade today which was very clear at 12pm

the EA put in an order to short at a terrible price on the correct bar and then cancelled the order even as it triggered

here is the chart the EA actions for the 12pm trade on the eurgbp today, could you please have a look at it and tell me why it has done this

thanks
View attachment 113838

Which version of the EA are you using? I will post a new one in a moment but the very first one DID have a problem with the expire time code. I will upload another in a moment (I played with the idea of reversing a loss, Its an option on the new one).

 

[pocrel]

audusd hit 1 to1 stopped out for b/e (Took long at 10am - Lost. Your short pin not marked as a pin)

eurgbp hit 1to1 stopped out for b/e (Yes same)

wti +100 on half other half up +300 (half at 1:1, Then stopped at BE)

Nas +7 1 to1 reach other half still running (My Auto pivots must be off. I dont see a trade. It placed a short order at 4 which expired)

gold -80 (stopped out by 1 point and reversed to hit target ouch) (its got more sence than i did. Entered long at 15:00. Missed being stopped by less than a point as it adds /subtracts another 1 to the pin so closed at a nice profit)

silver hit 1 to1 stopped out second half b/e (Autopivots off, no trade taken - are you sure it hit 1:1?)

Not as good as what you would have hoped but in profit. Still needs a bit of work. If i was running live i think i would manually put the pivots in for idx and oil.

why was wti moved to brekeven, the stop must remain below the pin not moved to B/E and it now has hit the pivot point

 

[Mata Nui]

why was wti moved to brekeven, the stop must remain below the pin not moved to B/E and it now has hit the pivot point

View attachment 113840

Its an option. Mine was defaulted to move to BE at 1x. with it set to 0, it took half at 1x then the rest went to just a bit less than 4x. Would have been a really nice trade.

 

[amer328]

Which version of the EA are you using? I will post a new one in a moment but the very first one DID have a problem with the expire time code. I will upload another in a moment (I played with the idea of reversing a loss, Its an option on the new one).

Hi Mata Nui

I get the same problem as Pocrel, although I'm just running the back test for one pair over the last 3 days, it tells me that there is not enough money in the account and deletes the trade.

Any ideas on how to fix this so that we can do some forward testing?

 

[Mata Nui]

Hi Mata Nui

I get the same problem as Pocrel, although I'm just running the back test for one pair over the last 3 days, it tells me that there is not enough money in the account and deletes the trade.

Any ideas on how to fix this so that we can do some forward testing?

I think your problem is different to Pocrels. It looks like what it has done is used the 'risk' you have set and worked out the £per point from that. It does this by looking at your free margin, working out the risk amount from your % then dividing by the points needed for the SL.

From the look of the report this £per point would take you over your margin. Unfortunately MT4 allows you to place orders that you cant afford then deletes them once they are triggered (It is even possible to manually place orders like this). I will see if i can change it so it checks Before placing the order. In the mean time you can get around it by setting a fixed amount for 'Lots'.

 

[Allistah]

Hi all --

A couple of questions...

I'm not new to trading. Been trading for about 6 years now. There are a couple terms in this thread that I don't understand.

What is a "pin bar"?

What does "EA" mean?

I'm trying to put this system together in my head because I'd like to try it out and it confuses me.

Also, is there a latest version of the rules that someone can point me to? 172 pages of posts is a lot to try and find the latest so I figured I'd ask.

Would you mind pasting the code you're working with here? I use ThinkOrSwim and I'd like to port the code over so I can backtest it with some other items like index futures and commodities. I'll of course post my results here.

Thanks!

-Alli

Thank you,

-Alli

 

[amer328]

I think your problem is different to Pocrels. It looks like what it has done is used the 'risk' you have set and worked out the £per point from that. It does this by looking at your free margin, working out the risk amount from your % then dividing by the points needed for the SL.

From the look of the report this £per point would take you over your margin. Unfortunately MT4 allows you to place orders that you cant afford then deletes them once they are triggered (It is even possible to manually place orders like this). I will see if i can change it so it checks Before placing the order. In the mean time you can get around it by setting a fixed amount for 'Lots'.

Thanks for the explaination, I'll try your suggestion and see if I can get some forward testing going.

 

[Allistah]

I'm confused about the entries and exits.

If prices are coming down and the pin bar goes deep through of the pivots, and the bars of the left and right of that bar are pretty tall, you enter the trade after the 3rd bar closes completing the pattern right? In that case, you could get in pretty high up.

If someone could mark on a chart where their entry and exits were that are correctly following the system I'd like to see it so I can learn how to do this.

Thanks a bunch guys, I'm really interested in this system..

-Alli

 

[Mata Nui]

I'm confused about the entries and exits.

If prices are coming down and the pin bar goes deep through of the pivots, and the bars of the left and right of that bar are pretty tall, you enter the trade after the 3rd bar closes completing the pattern right? In that case, you could get in pretty high up.

If someone could mark on a chart where their entry and exits were that are correctly following the system I'd like to see it so I can learn how to do this.

Thanks a bunch guys, I'm really interested in this system..

-Alli

According to the system rules it doesnt matter which way prices in general are moving. The rules are pretty basic.
Draw the daily pivots on a 30 min chart (there are links earlier on where to get these pivot values.
Look for a pin bar that breaks one of these pivots. (there is an indicator that will alert to a pin bar also on this thread. It alerts ALL pins, you just need to note the ones that break a pivot).
If the pin is pointing up (Long nose is up and the body is at the bottom) you enter a short order 1 point below the low of the pin.
If the pin is pointing down (Long nose is down and the body is at the top) you enter a long order 1 point + spread above the highof the pin.
Your target is the next pivot.
Close half at 1:1 and let the rest run to target.

People post live trades so look at the charts as they are posted and you will soon get the idea.

 

[Mata Nui]

Pocrel & DDI, as you have both been running this system for a while. Do you have any stats on the more profitable instruments (ant the ones to avoid). Just from a kind of feel for the trades as they are happening it looks like brent and wti have been the best performers lately, The jpy pairs seem good for at least 1:1 and maybe the GBP pairs being the worse of the lot.

 

[pocrel]

trade alert watching for dax long

 

[pocrel]

trade alert watching for dax long

long dax now

 

[pocrel]

Pocrel & DDI, as you have both been running this system for a while. Do you have any stats on the more profitable instruments (ant the ones to avoid). Just from a kind of feel for the trades as they are happening it looks like brent and wti have been the best performers lately, The jpy pairs seem good for at least 1:1 and maybe the GBP pairs being the worse of the lot.

Certainly over the last few days crude has been working very well but i think you can get great trades on the currencies aswell also the index trades work very well, i think its to early to drop anything but it would be a great idea to keep an eye on which ones really do not work

this month alone the dax seems to be the worst peformer, i will get back with some more detailed analysis when i get a chance

on call again today so could be rusing out the door at any min

 

[Mata Nui]

All, I know some of you have been having some problems with the EA. One of the common ones is that it is deleting orders as they should be executed. This is down to it calculating lots that would put you over your margin. What it should have done is look at how much margin per lot is required. I have fixed that now but it will still cause problems if you have a very small account and lotsize is close to the minimum.

Please bear in mind i am new to MQL so am still learning the framework (what functions it has etc) and its not the easiest language to debug since you cant look at what it is doing once you click to start.

Also it has a LOT of options for your trade management which really i needed to put in as we can use discretion and slightly modify things as we trade but the EA cant. To use it exactly as Pocrels system you need to set to Close at 1 and set the BE and Trailing Stop parameters to 0. Otherwise play with the settings and you might be surprised.

There are still bugs, I am sure of that. Looking at the journals if i have BE, Close and Trail functions running i get order modify error 130 at times. It doesnt seem to affect things too much though.

Version 2 att. Fixed lots problem and a few other things.

 

[pocrel]

long dax now

View attachment 113888

not happy with this dax trade going to close it for -7 full points

no momentum from the pin

 

[pocrel]

All, I know some of you have been having some problems with the EA. One of the common ones is that it is deleting orders as they should be executed. This is down to it calculating lots that would put you over your margin. What it should have done is look at how much margin per lot is required. I have fixed that now but it will still cause problems if you have a very small account and lotsize is close to the minimum.

Please bear in mind i am new to MQL so am still learning the framework (what functions it has etc) and its not the easiest language to debug since you cant look at what it is doing once you click to start.

Also it has a LOT of options for your trade management which really i needed to put in as we can use discretion and slightly modify things as we trade but the EA cant. To use it exactly as Pocrels system you need to set to Close at 1 and set the BE and Trailing Stop parameters to 0. Otherwise play with the settings and you might be surprised.

There are still bugs, I am sure of that. Looking at the journals if i have BE, Close and Trail functions running i get order modify error 130 at times. It doesnt seem to affect things too much though.

Version 2 att. Fixed lots problem and a few other things.

thanks again Mata Nui

i will run it and have a look, how is it getting on today the system did it pick out the dax and cac trades? what is the report on the pivots saying? or are you calculating the pivots from the daily bars? which wont give u the right levels for the index trades

i notice the currency trades worked correct on my broker yesterday so thats good but my brokers autopivot works very well and is usually correct where as i have seen other broker miles out (this is going to give everyone different results on backtesting)

everyone who is running needs to check todays pivot levels against the journal and also mark down a few previous days levels to ensure they are correct otherwise your trades wont be correct