Tim Trush & Julie Lavrin. Introducing CANDLESTICK SNIPER. Tim Trush, Julie Lavrin, T&J Profit Club, 2014, All rights reserved

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1 Tim Trush & Julie Lavrin Introducing CANDLESTICK SNIPER Tim Trush, Julie Lavrin, T&J Profit Club, 2014, All rights reserved

2 Table Of Contents Chapter I: You need to know what you are doing 3 If you are using automated systems for trading, you need to know how does it work and what setup fits your trading style the best. It should also give you freedom to manage positions or filter entry points manually. Don't be a slave to black-box systems! Chapter II: Set-up II.1. The first start 4 A step by step manual showing you how to install the Expert Advisor. II.2. Entry rules 7 When to enter. II.3. Confirmation 7 Confirm the patterns with indicators. II.4. Exit rules 8 When to exit. Several exit techniques. II.5. Stop Loss rules 8 Where to place Stop Loss. II.6. Money management 9 Adding to position, lot size, exit only part... II.7. Candlestick patterns and divergence 9 Trend filter, reliability filter, the list of all patterns. Chapter III: How do traders benefit from Candlestick Sniper III.1. Use as discretionary EA 10 This method is very effective when you are awaiting retracement from a significant support / resistance level and you want to confirm it with a candlestick pattern. You can use any support / resistance level such as double top, double bottom, daily high, daily low, pivot points, etc. III.2. Use as fully automated EA 12 Several settings for profitable trading strategies. III.3. Tune up your trading for maximum profit 14 How to optimize the EA. III.4. Follow the best trending pair! 16 Two ingredients of the most effective system are candlestick patterns and finding the best trending pair. 2

3 Chapter I: You need to know what you are doing There are many Forex trading robots you can buy and start trading in a minute. You have no clue what the robot is doing, it's just placing trades and you see the result being positive or negative. If you are using automated systems for trading, you need to know how does it work and what setup fits your trading style the best. It should also give you freedom to manage positions or filter entry points manually. Don't be a slave to black-box systems! The Candlestick Sniper trades the well-known candlestick and divergence patterns and you can select the pattern reliability. You can use the Moving Average or the Bollinger Bands as a confirmation tool. The EA will open position only if the pattern touches the Moving Average or Bollinger Bands. You can also use the Horizontal Line as confirmation. The EA will trade patterns that retrace from the Horizontal Line. There are several exit techniques. You can exit on reversal pattern, custom Take Profit level, or moving average crossover. By default, the Stop Loss is placed just below or just above the candlestick pattern. Losing position is exited with a very small loss. Magic Number is assigned to every trade and ensures that the Candlestick Sniper will not manage your other trades and it will not conflict with other EAs on the same account. You can use the Candlestick Sniper for discretionary or fully automated trading. 3

4 Chapter II: Set-up II.1. The first start 1) First, you have to enable Expert Advisors. Check that the Expert Advisors are enabled (Tools Options). 2) To import an Expert Advisor (EA) into MetaTrader, you have to copy the file CandlestickSniper.ex4 into the experts folder. There are differences between newer and older MetaTrader 4. Newer MetaTrader 4 (since Build 574) Start MetaTrader and click File Open Data Folder. You can find all indicators in folder MQL4 Experts. 4

5 Older MetaTrader 4 You can find default indicators here: MetaTraderPath\experts where MetaTraderPath is the full path where you installed MetaTrader; for example: C:\Program Files\MetaTrader 4\experts To find the MetaTraderPath, right-click on the desktop icon of your platform and click Open File Location. Restart MetaTrader. 3) Expand the Expert Advisors left box (double click) and you will find there the CandlestickSniper. Double click on CandlestickSniper. 5

6 Be sure that the EA will open both Long & Short positions, the alerts are enabled and live trading is allowed. A smile in the top right corner confirms that the EA is working live. 4) To change the EA properties, right-click on the chart and choose Expert Advisors Properties. Shortcut: F7. We will cover the CandlestickSniper properties in the next paragraphs. 6

7 II.2. Entry rules Entry_Bullish_Patterns Entry_Bearish_Patterns Entry_Candlestick_Patterns Entry_Divergence_Patterns Allows opening long positions on bullish patterns (candlestick or divergence). Allows opening short positions on bearish patterns (candlestick or divergence). Allows opening positions on candlestick patterns. Allows opening positions on divergence patterns. Example: If you want to trade only divergence patterns, not candlestick patterns, set Entry_Candlestick_Patterns to false. If you want to open only long positions and ignore the bearish divergence, set Entry_Bearish_Patterns to false. II.3. Confirmation Confirmation_Horizontal_Line Confirmation_Moving_Average EMA_Period Look only for patterns touching the horizontal line drawn on the chart. This approach is covered later in paragraph II.1. Use as discretionary EA. Look only for patterns touching the moving average. This approach was covered in the Forex Candlestick Tactics, Chapter IV: Trend following strategy. The period of the moving average when used as confirmation. 7

8 Confirmation_Bollinger_Bands Look only for patterns touching the Bollinger Bands. This approach was covered in the Forex Candlestick Tactics, Chapter III: Pin-ball strategy. II.4. Exit rules Exit_Candlestick_Patterns Exit_Divergence_Patterns Exit_Divergence_Valley Exit_Take_Profit Take_Profit Exit_Crossover EMA_Fast EMA_Slow Exit long position when a bearish candlestick pattern appears, or exit short position when a bullish candlestick pattern appears. Exit long position when a bearish divergence pattern appears, or exit short position when a bullish divergence pattern appears. As explained in the Divergence Mater Trader e-book, the divergence valley is a good place for profit taking. Take Profit at specific amount of pips. Take Profit in pips when the Exit_Take_Profit is set to true. Exit long position when the fast moving average crosses the slow moving average downwards, etc. as described in Forex Candlestick Tactics, Chapter IV: Trend following strategy. The period of the fast moving average. The period of the slow moving average. II.5. Stop Loss rules 8

9 Stoploss_HighLow Stoploss_min Stoploss Place Stop Loss just below or just above the pattern. Minimum Stop Loss in pips. Too small Stop Loss can be refused by your broker. Stop Loss in pips (used when the Stoploss_HighLow is set to false). II.6. Money management Add_To_Position Lots Exit_Only_Part Magic_Number If Add_To_Position is set to false, there will be no more than one opened position at a time. The number of lots to open on each order. For example, if you want to close only half of the opened position, set this to 0.5 (useful only for discretionary approach). This randomly chosen number is assigned to every trade and ensures that the Candlestick Sniper will not manage your other trades and it will not conflict with other EAs on the same account. II.7. Candlestick patterns and divergence Trend_Filter Reliability There are more signals if the trend filter is turned off, but most of them are invalid. We recommend to trade only with the trend filter. 1 trade all patterns 2 trade high and medium reliability patterns 3 only high reliability 9

10 Chapter III: How do traders benefit from Candlestick Sniper III.1. Use as discretionary EA EXIT METHOD By setting the Magic_Number to zero, you permit the EA to close an existing position on your account. For example, you can exit on reversal pattern or moving average crossover. Examples: Exit on candlestick or divergence pattern: The settings: Entry_Bullish_Patterns = false Entry_Bearish_Patterns = false Exit_Candlestick_Patterns = true Exit_Divergence_Patterns = true Magic_Number = 0 Other inputs: default disable entries Exit on moving average crossover: The settings: Entry_Bullish_Patterns = false Entry_Bearish_Patterns = false Exit_Crossover = true Magic_Number = 0 Other inputs: default disable entries ENTRY METHOD This is the most effective method as explained in the Forex Candlestick Tactics, Chapter V: Confident trades. Using the Horizontal Line tool, you can mark any support / resistance level such as double top, double bottom, daily high, daily low, pivot points, etc. In the next example, we have used the Zig-Zag indicator to find the latest resistance point. 10

11 Draw the Horizontal Line on the chart. The strategy: The settings: Entry: divergence or candlestick pattern Entry_Candlestick_Patterns = true touching the Horizontal Line Entry_Divergence_Patterns = true Confirmation_Horizontal_Line = true Other inputs: default The EA opened a short position as the price retraced from the resistance level forming a spike : 11

12 This method is very effective when you are awaiting retracement from a significant support / resistance level and you want to confirm it with a candlestick pattern. III.2. Use as fully automated EA Let's define a simple strategy on EUR/USD, 15-minute time frame. The advantage of the EUR/USD pair is the lowest spread and highest liquidity with most brokers. There are only few trades on higher time frames, but the spread becomes critical on lower time frames. This is why we have chosen the 15- minute time frame. We will enter on divergence pattern and exit on the opposite divergence pattern, or candlestick pattern. For exit signals, we will choose the candlestick patterns with high or medium reliability (not too far, not too often). By default, the Stop Loss is placed just below or just above the pattern. The strategy: The settings: Chart: EUR/USD, M15 Entry_Candlestick_Patterns = false Entry: divergence Entry_Divergence_Patterns = true Exit: divergence or candlestick pattern Exit_Candlestick_Patterns = true Exit_Divergence_Patterns = true Reliability = 2 Other inputs: default To run the Strategy Tester, right-click on the chart and choose Expert Advisors Strategy Tester. Shortcut: F6. The Strategy Tester window will open. Be sure that the symbol EUR/USD with period M15 is selected. 12

13 Click on the Start button and wait until the backtest process finishes. Switch to the Graph tab. You see the equity curve. When using Bollinger Bands as a confirmation tool (Confirmation_Bollinger_Bands = true), the equity curve becomes a little smoother: Another exit strategy: The settings: Chart: EUR/USD, M15 Entry_Candlestick_Patterns = false Entry: divergence Entry_Divergence_Patterns = true Exit: moving average crossover (EMA34 and EMA8) Exit_Crossover = true Other inputs: default 13

14 Another strategy with reliable candlestick pattern signals and fixed Take Profit: The settings: Chart: EUR/USD, M30 Entry_Candlestick_Patterns = true Entry: candlestick pattern Entry_Divergence_Patterns = false Confirmation: EMA34 Confirmation_Moving_Average = true Exit: Take Profit = 300 pips Exit_Take_Profit = true Take_Profit = 300 Reliability = 3 (highest reliability) Other inputs: default We will optimize the Take Profit in the next paragraph. III.3. Tune up your trading for maximum profit The volatility of the Forex market has dramatically increased in recent years. The best Take Profit value depends on the market volatility and time frame. Now, we will optimize the Take Profit value. Click on Expert properties in the Strategy Tester window. Check the Take_Profit box and edit the Start, Step and Stop values. We will start testing from 50 to 400 pips, incrementing by 10. Check the Optimization box in the Strategy Tester window and click on the Start button. Wait until the 14

15 optimization process finishes. Switch to the Optimization Graph. You can see a peak in the graph at value Take_Profit = 290. This means that the strategy is most profitable if the Take Profit is 290 pips. You can also optimize the EMA_Period together with the Take_Profit. The optimization process can last a long time, but the result will be better. Now, let's choose the value Take_Profit = 290 by doubleclicking on the peak and then by double-clicking on the selected row. Be sure that the Optimization box is unchecked and run the test again. The same way you can find the best periods for the moving average crossover. 15

16 III.4. Follow the best trending pair! Two ingredients of the most effective system are candlestick patterns and finding the best trending pair. Forex Trendy software gives you the best trending pair and time-frame at any time. In the next in the Forex Tools & Tips Subscription, you will discover a simple daily set-up to run Candlestick Sniper only on specific pairs that are being chosen by Forex Trendy. 16

17 Happy Trading! The Candlestick Sniper has mostly been developed by two of our students and it is now given away as a free bonus to all ForexMystery.com customers. It has been developed and tested for MetaTrader 4, it is provided as is without warranties and further support. Risk disclaimer: Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to invest in foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. CFTC RULE Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any particular trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical performance results is that they are generally prepared with the benefit of hindsight. In addition, hypothetical trading does not involve financial risk. Variables such as the ability to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading losses as well as maintaining adequate liquidity are material points which can adversely affect actual real trading results. 17