FAP Scalp Stop Override Update and Free Indicator

Note: Although the Stop Override EA was designed for FAP Turbo users, I am also giving away a free indicator in this post called “FXRM Open Trade Pip History”.

New Version of FAP Scalp Stop Override EA

It was recently brought to my attention by a reader that my FAP Scalp Stop Override EA was not working for all users and all brokers.  I believe the problem has to do with the way that some brokers quotes their currency pairs.

For readers that may be new, the FAP Scalp Stop Override EA is a little Exert Advisor that I wrote for owners of FAP Turbo. The Stop Override allows the user to customize their own stop loss values for the FAP Turbo Scalper strategy. For example, the defualt stop loss may be -110 pips, but that may be higher than what the trader is comfortable with. Thus, using the Stop Override the users may override this stop loss value and have the trade close at -75 pips.

For most standard accounts the broker will use standard symbols such as “EURGBP”, “EURCHF”, and “GBPCHF”. However, other brokers may add letters to either the beginning or end of the symbol name. As an example, the IBFX Mini accounts that many use actually add the lowercase letter “m” to the end of the symbol name. Thus, the symbols would appear as “EURGBPm”, “EURCHF”, and “GBPCHFm”.

I have corrected this problem by allowing you to edit the symbol names for each pair in the EAs Input tab. If your symbols names do not match your broker’s symbols, then this EA will not do what it is supposed to do. I have also removed the password requirement, because even I found that kind of annoying. I have fully tested this EA and have found that it closes trades as intended when it is setup properly.

You can download the new version here:  “FAP Scalp Stop Override v2″

To identify how your broker quotes their symbols, you typically just need to look in the upper left hand corner of your chart window. Here is an example from my IBFX Mini account:

EURGBP with little "m"

Please let me know if you encounter any further issues with the Stop Override EA. If you are wondering where exactly to set your stops, then this next section might be of use to you. Running the “FXRM Open Pip History” on a FAP Turbo demo account with the default stop settings should give you some insights on where to set the stops for each pair.

FREE Indicator: FXRM Open Trade Pip History

Have you ever had trouble figuring out exactly what the best stop loss or take profit level is for your trading strategy or trading robot? Personally I ask myself that question all the time. In theory, if you have a system that can be back tested and optimized using the MT4 Strategy Tester, then the optimization procedure should find the best values for you. But, not all systems can be back tested accurately, and it is not always clear how a  the strategy developers decided on the default settings. Also, it can be time consuming to wake up in the morning and try and figure out exactly what happened with trades that were executed while you were asleep.

I really wanted a solution to this, and as the saying goes, necessity truely is the mother of invention. So, I developed the following MT4 indicator that will give you running history of the maximum pips that an open trade goes either positive or negative on each trading bar, and will tell you where the trade eventually closed at (don’t worry – I have some pictures for examples). Even if you are not interested in changing your stop loss and take profit values, I think this indicator is actually pretty neat.

Keep in mind that these indicators are “Live” indicators. They CAN NOT look backward in time and generate a pip history for closed trades. Basically they just record the trades as they occur. If you change the settings or restart your platform, you will lose the information in the indicator….

You can download this indicator here (FXRM stands for FX Robot Man): “FXRM Open Trade Pip History”

You can also download a similar indicator to track your broker’s spread: “FXRM Spread History”

The indicator does have one primary limitation though – it can only track ONE open trade per chart. As long as you have different Magic Numbers for each chart, it can track as many trades on the same pair as you want, but it doesn’t work well with multiple trades with the same magic number.  So, if you are using grid trading or a similar strategy that carries multiple open orders on the same pair with the same magic number this indicator doesn’t really work right.

Here are some examples:

This short trade on the EURUSD H4 chart immediately ran a maximum of +228 pips into profit, before eventually being stopped out at +168.

This Short Trade on the EURJPY H1 chart had a spike down to a maximum +210 pips before retracing. It was eventually stopped out for +72 pips of the +210 pips possible.

This Short Trade on the GBPUSD H4 chart quickly moved +300 pips into profit, but eventually retraced on stopped out at break even.

Articles I Am Working On

• Status of the “Perfect Circle” Hedging Strategy
• FAP Turbo Monte Carlo Simulations (this one is sweet)
• Rules of Thumb for Spotting Shady Forex Claims
• Some Legitimate Trading Signal Providers
• A Profitable EA for $20

As always – may the Pips be with you!

-Ben aka FX Robot Man

New Forex Experts & Robots I’m Watching

Happy New Year Forex Robot Man Readers!

Ever since I started FX Robot Man and my coverage of FAP Turbo I am constantly being asked by vistors and subscribers if there are any other Forex EAs I recommend besides FAP Turbo. I personally have 7-8 different EAs in my portfolio that I am either testing or trading with live money – but not all of these are publicly available so I cannot really write about them.

One in particular that is showing some very promising results is one I am calling “Perfect Circle FPI” that uses a hedged trading ring to slowly rack up profits. I have started running a live demo account on ODL for this EA that has made about 9% in only 4 days. If it keeps up this pace it will be on track to make between 20-50% per month.  You can view the live demo statement here: Perfect Circle FPI Live Statement

I am not impressed with the support or documentation for “Perfect Circle” but the strategy is awesome and very comfortable to trade. I might see if I can work out a deal for FX Robot Man readers – currently this EA is priced between $200- $400 so I’ll see what I can do….

Disclaimer About the Following Trading Robots

The next few sections of this post will be discussing several EAs / Forex Robots that I am currently investigating. I have not really had time / money to purchase and test all of these products yet, so please don’t consider this list a definitive recommendations.

If any of you have purchased or do purchase any of the following trading robots I would appreciate your thoughts and impressions on any of these products – please use the “Contact” page if you have anything I should be aware of regarding these products.

Some Robots That May Be Duplicates

I have started researching Pipzu and Pipzu Extrapolated, and ended up in a forum where it was suggested that Pipzu is the same as ForexHitter and that Pipzu Extrapolated is the same as Forex-Auto-Trader. These two EAs (the Pipzu family) are supposedly more conservative (safer) than many other trading robots – but I’m not sure I buy that. FAP Turbo can be traded either aggressively or conservatively, so I think “safe” is a bit subjective here.

• Pipzu ($99.00) and Pipzu Extrapolated (+$59.00 after purchasing Pipzu)
  Based on what I have seen it is pretty likely that Pipzu, which trades the EURUSD 1-Hour bars is very similar to ForexHitter. Also, Pipzu Extrapolated which trades the EURUSD 15-Minute bars is probably very similar to Forex-Auto-Trader.Now, this in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing if the systems actually perform. In fact, even though the Pipzu family of EAs is more expensive than the other ones, I get the impression that the Pipzu products are the most recent versions. Plus, by going with Pipzu you are only dealing with one company for both products for support and refunds.I had a chance to see some independent backtests of  Pipzu Extrapolated and it appears that the independent results match the results on their sales page. If any of you have experience with Pipzu I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section or via email.
• Forex Hitter ($39.00)
  Forex Hitter trades the EURUSD on the 1-hour chart just like Pipzu. I had a chance to see some backtest settings for this one, and was a bit suprised to see that the system has different take profit, stop loss, and trailing stop settings for buy orders and sell orders. This seems strange to me – I don’t think EAs should explicity favor one direction or the other. In any case, to get the $39.00 price just pretend like you are leaving the site and the chat window will give you the discount link.
• Forex Auto Trader ($49.00)
  The Forex-Auto-Trader EA trades the EURUSD 15-minute chart just like Pipzu Extrapolated and several reviews have said that the live trading actually matches the forward testing.  To get the $49.00 price just pretend like you are leaving the site, and the chat window will give you the extra discount.

Forex Signal Services (Not Automated)

I have recieved numerous emails recommending a couple of forex signal services. Generally I prefer autotrading because of my time constraints, but I also know that many EAs underperform a skilled traders manual trading signals. Let me know if you have experience with either of these services…

• Forex Ambush 2.0 ($197.00)
  This service claims 100% winning trades – but I don’t know – losing money is part of trading. However, they provide their past trade history on the site as well as weekly statements trading their signals. If you are never far from a computer, then perhaps this is worth a shot.  Personally I would like to see them automate their signals using an MT4 signal server, and then charge like $50/month. We can only hope I suppose…
• RTC Signals ($149.00)
  I first heard of this signal service mentioned in a forum, and if you are just looking for a fancy and flashy website then this service is not for you. In fact, the sales page is pretty ghetto and uninspiring. That being said, these signals come from a legitimate discretionary trader that probably couldn’t care less about having a fancy website. I have heard in forums and from other blogs that this guy is the real deal. Again, if you are close to a computer most of the time, could be worth a shot if you like manual trading.
• Pure Price Action Signals ($55 – $99 monthly)
  There are two little known services that I will call “Pure Price Action Signals” for now. I have been following both services for about 6 months now. I haven’t actually been trading with them yet, but I am impressed by how far both of them have come. I will write up a separate post and review of these guys in the coming weeks because I think they are the real deal and really care about educating people about how to trade forex. Rather than promising you a million dollars in 90 days, these are legitimate traders trying to help people create either a side income or full time income from trading. More to come in a few weeks….

More Asian Session Scalping Systems

Ever since FAP Turbo came out scalping systems for the low volatility Asian trading sesssion have become all the rage. Although I have been reasonably happy with FAP Turbo (even the long-term strategy is starting to rack up profits again), I am always on the look out for somebody who can take a good idea and turn it into a great idea. Here are some more scalpers to consider….

• Forex Bull 2.1 ($99.00)
  Forex Bull 2.1 trades the EURCHF, USDCHF, EURGBP, GBPCHF 15-minute chart from 22:00 – 5:00 GMT. What I really like about the Forex Bull 2.1 system is that the take profit and stop loss levels offer a much more favorable profit factor than you will experience with FAP Turbo.With FAP it is possible to trade EURCHF, EURGBP, GBPCHF and USDCAD – but the FAP Winner team only recommends trading EURCHF and EURGBP. In any case, FAP Turbo uses a 110 pip stop loss and take profits in the 7-10 pip range.  Now, even though it is rare, this means that you can have one trade ocasionally wipe out a few days worth of profits. I even wrote my own program to override the stop loss on FAP Turbo (although the FAP developers stronger suggest not to do this).

  Based on the Forex Bull 2.1 demo statements that they are posting the profits and stop losses seem much in line with eachother so that losing trades don’t dramatically undue the winning trades. Imight pick up this system in the coming days/weeks and start forward testing it myself while it is still <$100. I will try and start posting a live demo stament for you to monitor if I go through with the purchase.

• _rdb_Your_Lucky_EURGBP_v2.ex4 (Free!)
  This is a free EURGBP scalping EA that I came across at the www.forex-tsd.com forums. It is actually not a bad system considering that it is free. I even played with it on my live money account this week. Here is my advice if you decide to check this one out:
  1. Run it on a demo for a couple of days to watch how it trades
  2. Change the start time from 21 to 22 and make sure the Damiani filter = true
  3. Use very little risk for real money such as 0.01 – 0.02 lots per $500 of equity

Until Next Time

I know this was an uber long post with lots of information to check out – so I apologize. I will try to keep it shorter next time.

In the coming weeks you can watch for:

• More information on the “Perfect Circle FPI” trading system
• More information on the “Pure Price Action” signal services
• More information on the EA that I am currently programming and testing which I am calling “Lazy Pip Surfer”. This will be my first commercial EA (besides MegaTrend x4 which I haven’t released yet). I will be selling “Lazy Pip Surfer” for for probably $20 when it is ready…

As always – may the Pips be with you!

-Ben aka FX Robot Man

P.S. Feel free to post comments or send me an email. I try to respond to all questions and comments.