MT4 Integration Manual A S S E T M A N A G E M E N T P R O J E C T. Version 1.2 English

Transcription

1 MT4 Integration Manual A S S E T M A N A G E M E N T P R O J E C T Version 1.2 English

2 II Copyright 2011 Faunus Analytics LLC. All rights reserved. This document is the property of Faunus Analytics. Any copying, reproduction and publishing of this document in any form (including for commercial profit), in whole or in part, without written permission of the copyright holder is forbidden. If you have any questions, concerning this document and the information it contains, please contact us by or by phone: (Moscow) or (Prague). Microsoft Windows, Windows Installer are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. MetaTrader is a registered trademark of MetaQuotes Sowtware Corporation. Other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.

3 III Contents 1. GENERAL INFORMATION LIMITATIONS Terms of service Requirements to settings of MetaTrader Limitations of trading conditions Trade limitation ENABLING THE API DELIVERY CHANNEL AUTO TRADE API SETTINGS Authorization data Configuration data INTEGRATION WITH METATRADER 4 TRADING PLATFORM Installation Description of advisor s parameters Description of indicator s parameters Technical analysis Automatic Trading Order volume management (Money management, MM) Error control... 6

4 IV 1. GENERAL INFORMATION The trade platform MetaTrader 4 supports special software of trade automation trade robots. Trade robots in MetaTrader 4 are usually called Experts. This is why further we will stick to the term «Expert». The trade platform MetaTrader 4 supports graphic analysis of trade diagrams with the help of technical indicators. Technical indicator is a mathematical transformation of price and volumes of trade on a financial instrument for forecasting of future price changes. Based on signals of technical indicators and other information (news, fundamental analysis, etc.) there are made decisions as to how and when to open or close a trading position. This document describes integration of Faunus Auto Trade API with the trade terminal MetaTrader 4, which allows to: Automate trade with the help of a trade expert Increase the quality of trade decisions made, with the help of Faunus technical indicators. Additional description of supported market analytics is given in Faunus Asset Management - Services Guide. Package for integration of Faunus AutoTrade API with the platform MT4 consists of the following files: faunus_autotrade.mq4 the source code of an expert in the programming language MQL4 faunus_indicator.mq4 the source code of an indicator in the programming language MQL4 faunus_autotrade.ex4 expert file, executable in the MetaTrader 4 environment faunus_indicator.ex4 indicator file, executable in the MetaTrader 4 environment For functioning of Faunus Auto Trade for MT4 there are additionally required: Faunus Auto Trade API client components Auto Trade API delivery channel MetaTrader 4 trading terminal

5 V 2. LIMITATIONS 2.1. Terms of service In order to start using the services a user needs to: 1. Register at the project website at the address 2. Subscribe for the «Trading Signals» and/or «Indicators» service 3. In the list of delivery channels tick «Auto Trade API» 4. Install and set client components of Faunus Auto Trade API. 5. Install and set MetaTrader 4 trading terminal 6. Install and set Faunus Auto Trade for MT Requirements to settings of MetaTrader 4 In order to make automation of trade possible, the following modes must be enabled in settings of the trade platform: 1. Enable experts 2. Allow an expert to trade

6 VI 2.3. Limitations of trading conditions A trade account must meet the following requirements: 1. Currency of the trade account must coincide with settings of trade conditions. Setting up of trade conditions can be performed in the personal profile of the Faunus system. By default it is expected to be USD. 2. A trade account must support trade instruments, which you specified during subscription to trade signals. 3. Spread, collected by a broker should not increase the model spread of Faunus significantly Trade limitation Technically it is allowed to manually open and close trading positions. However, you should realize, that you interfere with operation of the trading system. There is a possibility to prohibit manual opening of positions (see advisor s parameter auto_trade_only). In this case all trading positions that were opened not in Faunus Auto Trade for MT4, will close automatically. 3. ENABLING THE API DELIVERY CHANNEL In order to receive trading signals through the Auto Trade API delivery channel, you need to enable it. You can do this in your Personal profile in the section My profile Delivery settings.

7 VII 4. AUTO TRADE API SETTINGS Settings specify the authorization data and conditions of data loading from Faunus. You can make settings at the installation stage or after installation. In order to change settings after installation, you need to find the Faunus icon in the system tray. In order to open the contextual menu, use right mouse click on the icon. Select the required dialog in this menu. You can also open the settings dialog using «Start» in Windows OS Authorization data Authorization data are user name and password. User name and password must be the same as you entered during registration at the project website.

8 VIII Authorization data are stored on the user s computer in encrypted form. Nevertheless, we advise you to install and timely update means of computer protection Configuration data In these settings during normal operation a user should change only the path to the cache-files. All actual trading signals and indicators, received from Faunus, are stored in these cache-files. For trade platform MetaTrader 4 the data file must be saved in the folder of trade terminal data. This must be the folder [MetaTrader_4 installation folder]\experts\files. Attention! The file path must refer to existing folders of the file system. The system will not create any folders! During normal operation of the system the files will be automatically created in the specified folder of the file system some time after successful completion of installation (usually within 5-10 minutes, if there is a stable connection to the Internet), in the first request for trading signals and indicators.

9 For the file name you can use any name, supported by the operating system and expected by the trading platform. The default name of the data file corresponds to that expected by default by Faunus AutoTrade for MT4. You can set paths of the file system yourself. You can also use functions of automatic configuration for the trade platform MetaTrader. IX It is recommended to use automatic setting tools, where possible. In case automatic setting is successful, all components, required for integration with the trade platform will also be automatically installed. Without automatic setting, components of integration with the trade platform will need to be installed separately. Attention! The function of automatic configuring automates setting of API and its integration with the selected trade platform. The function of automatic configuration can work during a long period, depending on performance of your computer and the file system.

10 5. INTEGRATION WITH METATRADER 4 TRADING PLATFORM 5.1. Installation Source and executable files for MetaTrader 4 are located in the subfolder MT4 in the installation folder of Faunus Auto Trade API. Faunus Auto Trade for MT4 can also be downloaded from the website as a separate archive file. This may be required if you want to use he update of Faunus Auto Trade for MT4 without reinstalling Faunus Auto Trade API. You need to register Faunus AutoTrade for MT4 in the trading platform MetaTrader 4. For this purpose it is required to: Copy the executable file of expert faunus_autotrade.ex4 into the folder [MetaTrader_4 installation folder]\experts, intended for experts. Copy the executable file of indicator faunus_indicator.ex4 into the folder [MetaTrader_4 installation folder]\indicators, intended for user s indicators. The easiest way to copy files is to use the function of automatic configuring, which is described in the section Configuration data. Then restart the trade terminal. After this, installed components must be displayed in the «Navigator» window. After registration the advisor has to be linked to any trading instrument chart. The advisor is multi-instrumental. This is why you should not link it to more than one chart. Attention! Locate the advisor only on one price chart!

11 I Attention! The advisor cannot work in the test or optimization mode! After registration an indicator has to be bound to the price diagram of a trade instrument of interest with one hour period. Attention! Faunus indicator must fit the diagram with one hour period. In diagrams with the period less than 60 minutes an indicator will also be displayed correctly, but the time between drawing of two successive lines of the indicator will anyway be about 60 minutes.

12 II 5.2. Description of advisor s parameters Parameter in advisor s settings window Trading signals file Parameter in advisor s code trade_signal_file_name Parameter designation Export file of trading signals, which are received from Faunus Auto Trade API. The file name should coincide with the file name, which is specified in the product s client components setting (see section Settings Configuration data). Open orders file order_backup_file_name Back-up storage file of open orders for restoring of advisors work after trading terminal stop. File reading frequency, seconds Slippage, points TP-level of position, % SL-level of position, % Additional check of orders volume trade_signal_request_ period slippage_in_points position_tp_in_percent position_sl_in_percent check_order_volume Periodicity of checking the presence of new trading signals in the export file. Specified in seconds. It is not recommended to read the file more frequently, than once every 30 seconds, because it can hamper its refreshing. Allowable slippage (requote) during changing of trading positions. Specified in points. In case of slippage, which exceeds the allowable level, there will be the second attempt to change the trading position. Stop-level of a trading position take profit. This level serves to control positions at the broker s side in case of absence of connection with the trade server during a long time or a sharp turnaround in prices. In normal conditions the trading position is controlled by trading signals from Faunus. Stop-level of a trading position stop loss. This level serves to control positions at the broker s side in case of absence of connection with the trade server during a long time or a sharp turnaround in prices. In normal conditions the trading position is controlled by trade signals from Faunus. The necessity of additional control of opened orders volume. Broker s conditions limit the possible order values and the

13 Trade server time zone server_time_zone III volume of joint order position. Due to this fact the order volume used can be different from that recommended by the system. Checking consists in notification of a user, in case of significant difference between recommended and actual volume of a trading order. Defines the time zone of a broker s server as an offset in minutes relative to UTC. In order to correctly set up this parameter contact the technical support of your broker Description of indicator s parameters Parameter in the settings window of the expert Indicators file File reading frequency, seconds Reliability level of recommendations (from 1 to 10) Short name of an indicator Parameter in code of the expert indicator_file_name indicator_request_ period cutoff_level indicator_short_name Parameter designation File of export of indicators, received from Faunus Auto Trade API. The file name must coincide with the file name, specified in settings of client s product components (see section Settings Configuration data). Periodicity of checking new indicators in the export file. It is specified in seconds. It is not recommended to read the file more often than once every 30 seconds, as it can make its updating difficult. This parameter allows to set the algorithm of additional trading recommendations. Reliability of Faunus indicator (forecast) is measured according to a 10-point scale. For indicators with reliability lower, than the cutoff_level there will be displayed recommendation for opening of trade position in the left upper corner of the price diagram window. Text, displayed in the left upper corner of the indicator window.

14 IV 5.4. Technical analysis Faunus indicators directly show future expected price tendencies in the next 24 hours of market activity. For example, a Faunus indicator, created at :00 UTC for EUR/USD, can say, that during the period from :00 till :00 (the next 24 hours) rise in quotes is expected. There can also be forecasted fall in quotes, depending on the market situation. Faunus indicators are displayed as a histogram in a separate window. The color and direction of lines show the forecast of price tendencies, length of lines shows the level of forecast reliability. Faunus indicator is the forecast for the next 24 hours. The green line shows that growth of prices is expected, the red line decrease in prices. The longer the line, the higher the probability that the forecast will come true. The forecast period starts from the moment when the indicator line is displayed. Any forecast is characterized by reliability. For Faunus indicators the point-based scale of reliability assessment is used. Value of the reliability point is additionally displayed as text in the left upper corner of the indicator window.

15 Two consecutive indicator lines may have different "opinion" about the future. In fact, the second indicator line is created based on the new information. The most valuable information is provided by the last indicator line. Analysis of forecast change dynamics can also give useful information. In order to simplify decision making an indicator supports parameter of forecast reliability threshold value. If the forecast reliability level is equal to or exceeds the specified threshold, the left upper corner of the price diagram window will show the message with recommendations to buy or sell, depending on the price change forecasted. V 5.5. Automatic Trading According to entry of trading signals the advisor will open and change trading positions. All actions are automatic. But a trader can interfere by closing positions earlier. Such actions break the trading strategy, but technically they are possible. If you decide to interfere in advisors work, then close the whole position. Partial closing of positions is not allowed in manual mode Order volume management (Money management, MM) Faunus independently manages the order volume (contract size). Besides other factors, the order volume depends on the current trading balance size, type of trading account, the expected rate of trading signals flow. Currency of the trading account and other parameters are set in the personal profile of the project site (US dollar account is expected by default). If the expected currency of the trading account is different from the actual currency, the advisor will give the diagnostic message, and will not do any trade. The order volume shall be corrected considering the current balance of the trading account. The volume of orders in the trading signal may not meet broker s limits. In this case the order volume is set to the closest possible value. But if deviation from the original order volume is 5% up and the «Additional check of orders volume» option is enabled, then advisor will display a warning message. A trader shall decide whether to continue trading.

16 VI To correct the problem, if order volumes in trading signals are too low, you can: Switch to a mini or micro-trading account Reduce the expected rate of trading signals by decreasing the service volume (deselect some check boxes in the applications matrix) See details in the document Faunus Asset Management - Subscription Guide. It is possible to disable warnings by changing the advisor s parameter check_order_volume into false. The parameter «Minimum margin level without leverage, %» allows controlling the total volume of all opened positions Error control Advisor s actions are displayed on the tab «Experts». Besides logging of opening operations, changing and closing of orders, there are also displayed errors of interaction with the broker s trading server. Format of the trading server error message: [CODE FOR CONVENIENT SEARCH OF A LINE IN THE ADVISOR PROGRAM] ERROR: retcode= [NUMERIC CODE, RETURNED BY THE TRADING SERVER]. More detailed information on the error can be found in the MQL4 programming language reference book. Not all errors are critical, but they can cause potential problems in advisor s settings. There can also be file processing errors and so on. In this case the message format is the same, but instead of the code a short problem description will be given.