Blessing Manual
Blessing Manual
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Major Features
Blessing is placed on the hourly chart or, quite frankly, any chart period you
desire to trade. Blessing, in its basic strategy, was designed to trade the
USDJPY pair on the daily chart. Newly added features have allowed Blessing
to trade other timeframes and pairs. These new features have created a
better return and lower drawdowns on the hourly timeframe.
Blessing shows great potential on the one minute charts trading the EURCHF
pair. Set files are being developed and will be posted outside the purview of
this manual. Simply applying the tested set file to the timeframe and pair
listed in the set file name will allow you to trade Blessing with that pair.
Entry Settings
Blessing now uses up to five indicators in its entry decision making process.
You can use them all together or separately. The UseAnyEntry feature allows
you to tighten your entry decision. By default, MA is turned on as the base
indicator. If you elect to turn on the other indicators, Blessing can use them
all to determine entry, or use the first available entry from the indicators.
Indicators
Each of the 5 standard entry indicators built into Blessing has a user setting
which can have one of 3 states: If the entry method is set to 0, then that
entry method is disabled, and will not be used. If the entry method is set to
1, then it will act as normal, placing a trade if the entry conditions are met.
If the entry method is set to 2, then it will trade in reverse, i.e. if the entry
triggers a BUY STOP/LIMIT order, then Blessing will place a SELL
STOP/LIMIT order.
Moving Average (MA)
Original designs of Blessing yielded an Expert Advisor that relied solely on
the Moving Average. The MAEntry was set in the menu with the period set
in MAPeriod and Blessing used this simply to place its first grid set of a
BUY/SELL STOP/LIMIT at 25 pips. The idea was to always have Blessing
placing the grid once the basket of trades was closed. Occasionally, the
direction was not perfectly selected. After all, it could simply be a flip of a
coin (long or short)! Blessing didn’t make money with perfect entries but
profited solely on the size of the grid.
Commodities Channel Index (CCI)
CCI was added as another indictor to MA. CCI looks at prices on the M5,
M15, M30 and H1 timeframes of that pair for the period set in CCIPeriod,
and if the CCI is “trending” the same on all 4 timeframes, that trend is used.
CCI is user selectable via the CCIEntry menu set item. The direction of CCI
for the 4 time frames can be viewed on the screen by setting DisplayCCI to
true in the Display Control settings.
MA Channel
Neither MA nor CCI had the ability to define a ranging market. By default,
Blessing believes we are in a ranging market and it’s through MA calculation
or CCI calculation that we determine whether the market is moving up or
down. However, Blessing was quick to determine up or down, ruling out
ranging altogether! Not any more! Blessing's capabilities now define a
window of a ranging market. Blessing uses a channel set by the user in
number of pips.
Once BollingerEntry is on, it looks for the condition where price is outside the
bands. If outside the bands it will place a short trade if above the upper
band or a long trade if below the lower band. Since price will typically move
back the other direction, Blessing will usually take a profit after one or two
trades. This leads to a lower draw down over time and a better grid
selection.
Anyone used to the previous versions of Blessing will have noticed that the
BB entry would place instant BUY/SELL orders. In order for that to happen in
this current version, B3Traditional must be set to false.
Stochastic Indicator
The Stochastic indicator is turned on in the menu with StochEntry. The
Stochastic indicator is used to determine whether the market is in an
overbought or oversold condition.
If the Stoch zone is set less than 50, then Stoch typically places fewer
starting trades. Having Stoch on yields fewer trades but hopefully a better
direction and a better grid for profit.
MACD Indicator
The MACD indicator is one of the simplest and most effective momentum
indicators available. It can be turned on with the MACDEntry setting.
Used in conjunction with the other indicators, you can trade the direction
you desire, when ever you desire. With all 8 of these direction determining
and entry decision variables, Blessing has 3,888 different ways to enter the
first trade.
Blessing Strategy
Once the direction is determined and trading is started, Blessing uses LIMIT
trading to add to the basket of trades. Blessing starts placing trades by
bracketing the current price with STOP/LIMIT trades in a proprietary fashion.
This proprietary fashion using the MathMod function sets the STOP/LIMIT
trades around the current price at distance of approximately ½ the pips
defined by the first grid value, 25 in this case. A user has the ability to
adjust the MathMod feature of Blessing using the EntryOffset parameter.
Once either the STOP or LIMIT is hit creating the first trade, subsequent
trades are placed a fixed distance of 25 pips either side of the current price.
Each LIMIT trade added is placed 25 pips above/below the last trade. The 25
pip amount is used until 5 open trades are out. If the user selectable feature
of B3Traditional is set to false, then the grid is started using a BUY or SELL.
The EntryOffset has no effect if this feature is used. The sixth trade (LIMIT
trade) is placed 50 pips above/below the fifth outstanding trade. This 50 pip
amount is used until 9 total trades are open. The tenth trade (LIMIT trade) is
placed 100 pips above/below the 9th trade. This 100 pip amount is used for
all remaining trades placed.
For this strategy, each LIMIT trade added is called a “level”. The number of
trades at the 25 pip difference and the number of trades at the 50 pip
difference is user selectable with SetCountArray, and the number of pips
difference in each block is user adjustable with GridSetArray.
Remaining trades (10th level and beyond) placed at the 100 pip range is
user selectable also. 25/50/100 remains Blessing's set grid but the grid can
be squished or auto calculated (discussed later) without changing individual
numbers listed in the menu.
The Take Profit values are just double the grid values and are set
with TP_SetArray. 50/100/200 pips are the Take Profits that are coded into
Blessing and can be modified via the menu. All these values are placed in an
array defined by the user. The array is a uniquely new feature to Blessing
and can be manipulated in any way by the user.
Blessing Grid Management
The default values in the array are set via menu set items. It is important to
understand how this array functions before attempting to modify the default
values of Blessing. All a user needs to know is simply this. There needs to be
one less number in the SetCountArray than there are in
the GridSetArray and TP_SetArrayvariables. Why? The SetCountArray uses
the MaxTrades variable as its “ceiling”. Since this variable is already set,
the GridSetArray doesn’t need that number.
A user, with the array, has the ability of creating any grid they desire! This
powerful feature will allow power users to explore different ways to trade
with Blessing. A user can have as many blocks as they desire with various
Take Profits for each. For example, if a user wants a 5 block grid (6 blocks in
the end!) that varies from 1 trade in the first block to 8 trades in the last,
they simple need to set the array with 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 (1,2,3,5,8 for the
menu). This means there will be 1 trade in the first block, 2 in the second, 3
in the third, 5 in the fourth and 8 in the fifth. The spread of the grid comes
next. A user sets 16, 34, 68, 112, 168, and 180 (16,34,68,112,168,180 for
the menu). This means the first trade will be placed 16 pips from entry
(coupled with the Entry Offset and MathMod function). The next two trades
will be placed 34 pips apart defining block 2. The next three trades will be
placed at 68 pips. The next 5 trades will be placed at 112 pips. The next 8
trades will be placed at 168 pips. And now, if you remember, the final
trade(s) will all be placed at 180 pips at MaxTrades minus the total of the
trades in the array. In this example, there are 19 trades in the array.
If MaxTrades had been set at 20, the last trade will be placed at 180 pip
distance.
The Take Profits are set similarly. For each grid block there needs to be a
Take Profit. In this case we will use 32, 68, 136, 224, 336, and 360
(32,68,136,224,336,360 for the menu). We won’t go into detail but Blessing
will set the Take Profit when the next level of the grid is asked for during
trading. As you can see, the array is a powerful feature for Blessing.
Auto Calculation of Grid and Grid Adjustment
Auto Calculation is based on the Average True Range (ATR) indicator. The
number of trades per block is base on the number in the SetCountArray. The
remaining block runs up to the Max Trades number. The ATR indicator is
based on a 21 period cycle of that pair and is not user selectable. This allows
the user to create a “breathing grid” based on that pair’s volatility. If a user
wanted to auto calculate the grid they simply just set AutoCal to true. What
will it yield? It will find the first number, replace the default value of 25 with
that new number then use a multiplication factor of 2/2/2/1.5/1.5. The grid
blocks could look like 21/42/84/168/252 if AutoCal finds 21 pips as the ATR
for that pair. The Take Profit values would then be 42/84/168/252/378.
A user can use both the AutoCal and GAF together, separate or not at all but
it is through these functions where the user can control the size of grid that
is laid out for trading. A user can use a GAF with their own defined grid array
as well. There is a multitude of ways to create a grid with Blessing.
Integral to laying out additional trades, Blessing adjusts the lot size for that
trade based on a user selectable Multiplier. Every trade added as a LIMIT
has a lot size incrementally larger than the previous based on the user
selectable Multiplier. This Multiplier is directly tied to the Money Management
routine developed in Blessing and is proprietary to Blessing's routine.
The Multiplier and how it is used is explained in the Money Management
Section.
To get out of a basket of trades sooner by not going for a profit but by
simply breaking even, a user can set a break even trade number in the
menu. If BreakEvenTrade is set at 12 for example, should the basket size
reach 12 trades, instead of going for a profit, Blessing will close out the
trades once the profit of the basket reaches zero. With 12 trades out,
Blessing would need a larger reversal to get the profit it calculates. If a value
is entered in BEPlusPips then when the BreakEvenTrade has been reached
the basket will close at a profit of BEPlusPips instead of Break Even. Note
that if BEPlusPips is negative then the basket will close at a loss. We also
have the ability to utilize the Emergency Close All Function. More on that
later.
How much does someone risk to trade? That’s a great question and we’re
still searching for the perfect amount of money to trade. Whether we trade a
lot or a little, if we trade FOREX, dangerous waters are right around the
corner if we risk more than we should.
1,000,000 100 -
500,000 50 -
100,000 10 -
50,000 5 50
10,000 1 10
5.000 0.5 5
1.000 0.1 1
50 - 0.05
10 - 0.01
Using this chart will help us in our trading. On our $5,000 account, we
shouldn’t have any more than .5 standard contracts or 5 nano contracts out
on trades. This is safe trading, this is smart trading and it’s the approach
Blessing takes for trading money. It doesn’t seem like a lot but it can make
us money over time. If we trade this philosophy on a Grid Trader Expert
Advisor, we have a more complicated issue to contend with.
x = lot y = Multiplier (amount you are willing to increase each new trade)
Level 1 = x
Level 2 = xy
Level 3 = xy2
Level 4 = xy3
Level 5 = xy4
Level 6 = xy5
Level 7 = xy6
Contract = x + xy + xy2 + xy3 + xy4 + xy5 + xy6
Using simple algebra here’s the formula for finding the number of base lots
to trade on a standard account:
Contracts = Account Balance * (.0001) (the safe trading method
selection, standard)
(.001) (used if a nano account)
This is a total of .35 trades out on contract which is less than our .5 from our
table above. We can see if Blessing decided to go higher, the next level of lot
would be a factor of 1.4 greater and so on. If Blessing did this and went all
the way up to 12 levels, there’s a possibility of a huge negative P/L (draw
down) and probably, Equity Protection might be hit (depends on your
tolerance). We need to know this math to trade smarter and safer with
Blessing. All this assumed a standard account. We can simply multiply these
numbers by 10 (if our account size was $500, the numbers above would be
divided by 10) for a nano account and we can see that we’re still within our
parameters for safe trading. Intuitively, we should have at least $500 on
a nano account to trade Blessing safely.
With these numbers in mind we can see that if we want the base lot to be
.01, we back out a contract size of .2385 or $2385 ($2500 for rounding
sake) minimum required on a standard account and $239 ($250) on
a nano account. To safely trade Blessing we will double that figure. If the
formula calculates the lots less than .01, then Blessing will fix the minimum
lot size at .01 so we can try any amount we desire all the way down to $10!
It is still recommended that Blessing trade with a minimum of $5,000 for all
the reasoning previously stated. Knowing that we need a minimum of $500
for a nano account and $5000 on a standard account, the base lot will come
out to be .02 so we need a way of “adjusting” the base lot back down to .01
to truly be safe with Blessing. To that end, a Lot Adjustment Factor LAF is
added to affect this end and is described later.
Linear Lot Size
Blessing also has the capability of selecting a “different” method of next lot
multiplication. Recent studies have shown that even with the safety feature
of safe level vs. Multiplier calculation, Blessing has troubles in the out lying
levels. The higher the number of trades out, the higher each subsequent lot
may become creating an even larger drawdown than expected. Linear lot
size was developed to slow the lot size increase.
Using a Multiplier of 1 will increase each subsequent level of trade by adding
the base lot to the last lot size. Certainly, this will have an affect on
profitability and decrease drawdown but it will provide a user with a safer
way of increasing their lot size with each level of trade placed. If
the Multiplier is set to less than 1 then the lot size at every level will be equal
to the base lot, i.e it will not increase at each additional level.
Lot Adjustment Factor
We now have an idea of how much we can actually trade safely and an even
a better idea of how much we actually need to trade. $5000 on a standard
account and $500 on a nano account is what we need to trade one pair using
this trading strategy. What if we wanted to trade $50,000 or $500,000?
Using the chart above, the contract size is 5 contracts and 50 contracts
respectively on a standard account. The base lot size would be .2 lots and 2
lots respectively but maybe we don’t want to trade even that much! First of
all, good for us since we have done something correct in our lives to have
this much money to trade FOREX. Or, maybe we are managing a large
account for a group of people. Whatever the case may be, we may not want
to trade even the smallest/safest contract from the table.
Now, all of us who have traded demo accounts for a while have seen a demo
blow up. Why is that? Because Martingale trading is inherently dangerous for
the reasons we read about earlier and when we are new to this strategy, we
want to see bigger gains. So, on our $500 account, we put in a nano lot of .5
lots. We can see how dangerous this thinking can be. Maybe we only have
$50 on a nano account. Doing the math, Blessing will blow that account in
short order because the smallest nano lot contract we should be trading is
.05. The trade levels with a Martingale will kill this account fast. If we put
Blessing on many charts on a $500 account, Blessing will kill it. We simply
must do the math to see.
Portion Control
We touched on the portion set feature previously. This feature gives our
trading even more control than previously imagined. Not only will it identify
to Blessing that we want to take our account and divide it proportionally to
calculate the proper lot size but it also manages EP even better.
Portion control controls not just the base lot calculation in money
management, it sets the amount of our account we want to trade with this
pair. It does this by dividing your account into “portions”. We can use any
portion number we desire. 100% would be the whole account, 50% would be
half of the account, and 33% would be a third and so on. This has a great
potential for us in so many ways.
Let’s go through a few examples and you’ll see what we mean. We have
$2000 on a nano account and we want to trade Blessing on this account on
4 pairs. We know that we need a minimum of $500 to trade one pair so we
are set with our $2000. If we know each of these pairs are stable, we simply
place Blessing on each pair, set the StopTradePercent in each instance
to 10 and set the PortionPC to 25. Blessing, on that pair, will calculate the
proper lot size for that pair and use EP on that pair alone! How does it do it?
Blessing knows the profit for its pair. From that it will know its portion of
account balance to use (portion set 25). From that, Blessing can determine
the pair’s own equity (its own P/L) and compare it to the allowable account
portion you gave it (PortionPC).
Example:
$2000*25% = $500 allowed to use on that pair
Blessing current pair profit = $30
Blessing current pair equity = $530
EP logic:
500 – 530 > 50% * $500 (will close trades on that pair if this logic is true!)
If that pair went crazy and lost $300, it will close those trades and stop
trading that pair because the account portion you told it was 25% and $500
- $300 = $200 and $200 is not greater than $450 ($500 - 10%) so Blessing
stops on that pair. Here’s the beauty of this strategy. One pair may earn
more than another and they all contribute to total account balance. Blessing
on that pair uses total account balance to determine its account portion so it
is a living function.
Right now we’re sure you’re saying, “what if I lose right away”? You’ve set
your protections in each instance of Blessing and it determines whether it
continues to trade based on the account balance you have set. Everything
just stops. “What if I have a volatile pair that I like and want to trade?” you
ask. Change the portion size on that pair to a lower number and it will
multiply the account by that lower percentage thus using a lower balance for
its trading.
Example:
Pair 1 $3000*25% = $750 allowed to use on that pair
The numbers all don’t add up to $3000 though. It doesn’t matter because
through portion control, we are allowing that pair access to that amount. If
there is overlap, our gut tells us the EURUSD is the safest so we give it the
portion of 50% while the AUDUSD is the most volatile so we give it the
portion of 17%. What about expert advisors other than Blessing?
We must do the math before we even begin to trade and set our controls
based on our assessment of the volatility of each pair and each expert
advisor. One account with 5 pairs and 3 expert advisors could yield this:
$5000 base nano account
Blessing is going to be used on 3 pairs
EA 1 will be used on one pair
EA 2 will be used on another pair
Total of 5 pairs
Here’s an example:
Our Stop Trade Account Balance is $500 (automatic calculation).
Blessing starts to trade big and it’s been working great so our balance is up
to $800.
Blessing continues to trade but unfortunately the basket hits a -$400 P/L
and closes all trades because we set our protection at 50%
Our account balance is now $400, below $500 so Blessing stops trading.
In a different example, if our account balance were up to $1001, the loss
would have been -$500.
Blessing would have continued trading because our balance is $501.
Equity Protection (EP) is simply a must with this trading routine. Can we
trade Blessing on multiple pairs? Sure, if our portion balance is multiplied by
the number of pairs we trade. This is the safest way to trade! Blessing has
shown in backtesting that the total number of trades out at any one time
has not used a significant portion of our margin nor has the P/L been
significantly negative.
Account Protection
Equity Protection was a way of protecting your account from complete blow-
out. Blessing needs to use large portions of your account to trade but testing
has shown that Blessing rarely goes beyond 50% of your account balance
when proper settings were used. If 50% is hit, the basket is closed and your
account is now 50% lighter than before but without Account Protection,
Blessing would keep trading. Account Protection puts a stop to Blessing while
you figure out what happened.
The Stop Trade Percentage you enter in the menu takes your account
Balance, subtracts this percentage value, and sets this as your Stop Trade
Balance. On a $10,000 account, your Stop Trade Balance is set at $9,000
(assuming 10 is used in the menu set item). This balance remains at $9,000
until the account gains 10% (menu set number). At $11,000, the Stop Trade
Balance is then reset to $9,900. Should you hit an Equity Stop Loss
protection, your account would drop to $5000, below your Stop Trade
Balance of $9000 and you would get a warning window popping up stating
that you have dropped below your Stop Loss Balance.
If you wanted to continue trading on this pair, you would have to remove
Blessing from the chart to reset the internal variables of Blessing then
reapply Blessing to the chart once again. Again, this is designed to protect
you from Blessing if it just wasn’t Blessing's day.
ShutDown and Emergency Close All
Blessing does not send Take Profits or Stop Losses. What happens if you lose
your internet connection? Blessing can not monitor its trades for profit but
worse, you have several trades open at your broker without a stop loss.
That’s where the power out stop loss protection feature comes in, and is
used when UsePowerOutSL is set to true.
We don’t want POSL to interfere with the logic of our grid trader while, at
the same time protecting our trades and our hard earned money should our
internet connection fail so how is this done?
POSL is calculated base on our EP value to not interfere with Blessing's profit
taking logic. It is based on the formula:
POSL = PortionBalance X (MaxDDPercent + 1)/100)/(pipvalue X Total Lots)
Where pipvalue=MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_TICKVALUE);
Initially, when Blessing starts, it places a BUY or SELL trade at .01 lots. If
you do the math, you can see a rather large POSL is calculated. So, while
small lots are open, the POSL sent is no larger than 600 pips, or whatever
value you set in POSLPips.
As more trades are added to the basket, each trade is modified with the
newly calculated POSL thus synchronizing all open trades with a common
stop loss. This POSL gets tighter and tighter as more trades are placed which
keeps all open trades in line with your Equity Stop Loss Protection plus 1%.
An additional 1% is added to the MaxDDPercent to avoid interfering with
Blessing's profit taking logic yet protect your open trades with a stop loss
should your internet connection fail. This is a very powerful feature for
protecting your hard earned cash. If you elect to not use this feature, no SL
will be sent to the broker. Since Blessing is a Grid trader, the logic does not
depend on a SL.
Profit Taking
Blessing monitors the total number of open trades and calculates a potential
profit for that basket and keeps an internal modification of all orders to the
trades that are out and “synchronizes” all of the “Take Profits” (TP) to the
same value. If more trades are out, the TPs are sync’d closer and closer to
the actual price making the reverse required for a profit less of a movement.
Additionally, we can now turn on a Profit Trailing Stop (TS) feature.
Additional to this profit trailing stop feature, Blessing now has a way of
moving the TPs once profit trailing stop is set. In other words, once the
basket becomes positive and profit trailing stop is set, you can now tell
Blessing to move the TPs by the number of pips set in MoveTP. This gives
the basket a new profit potential and will move the profit trailing should the
profit trend continue. This gives you the potential of moving the profit
trailing stop taking advantage of any run that may occur. You tell Blessing
the number of times this move can occur with TotalMoves. This is another
powerful feature of Blessing allowing Blessing to take profits in two more
ways, the traditional take profit way with moves or a profit trailing stop way.
Using UseStopLoss it is also possible to set a stop loss on every basket. The
stop will be set at the value set in SLPips. The Stop Loss function will not be
active if SLPips is set to 0.
Profit Potential and TP Adjustment
Blessing lays a grid to garner a profit. With all of the features in Blessing,
some features might compete against others to yield what might be called a
“negative profit potential”. This can occur in many different ways.
Profits or the potential for a profit is easy to calculate based on the value of
a pip, the number of lots out and how far a trade needs to run to garner a
profit. The previous section talked about a way to manage positive profit
potentials and even set profit trailing stops but what do we do about
negative profit potentials?
Negative profit potentials from a grid can occur is the market is trending fast
against the grid and doesn’t have enough time to set out the next LEVEL
LIMIT trade. Because the EntryDelay function is slowing this placement
down, the market may move such that once the LIMIT trade is placed and
hit, the take profits are sync’d and the profit potential yields a negative
amount. We need a way to correct for this and Blessing does this
automatically. Blessing calculates the grid break even point and adds a profit
target to the break even value then adjusts all Take Profits against this
target. The profit potential is measured against a known Profit Target
internally calculated by Blessing.
This target is based on a Base Target which is the value of one trade of the
base lot value multiplied by total number of trades in the basket. Blessing
checks the grid automatically so if the market does move quickly, the
potential for profit will always be available.
Once Blessing has set its grid, and started opening trades, it is at the mercy
of the price. If the price moves too far in the wrong direction, it will cause a
drawdown on your account. One way of avoiding a high drawdown is by
hedging the open trades.
Unfortunately, the NFA have banned hedging for brokers in the US, so any
hedge trades need to be opened on a correlated pair. A correlated pair is one
in which any movement in the price of one pair, is closely matched by the
movement of the other pair, whether in the same direction (Positive
Correlation) or in the opposite direction (Negative Correlation).
To use the hedge, enter the Symbol of the pair to be used EXACTLY as
provided by your broker, or if you are using the same pair, leave it blank.
Blessing will automatically decide whether the pairs are positively or
negatively correlated by calculating the correlation coefficient using the daily
historical data over the number of days specified in CorrPeriod.
There are two methods for opening hedge trades. The first is based on the
current drawdown of the open trades, and the second is based on the level
of the open trades. To choose between them, set [[DDorLevel]] to 'D' or 'L'.
If you choose to base the hedge on drawdown, set HedgeStart to the
drawdown percentage at which the hedge should open its first trade. The
default percentage is 20%. If the hedge is based on levels, then HedgeStart
should reflect the level to start the hedge, e.g. 8.
The number of hedge lots opened is based on the total open lots in the
basket, adjusted by a hedge lot Multiplier. If Blessing opens a new trade in
the basket, then another trade will be opened in the hedge, using the same
lot Multiplier. The hedge trades will be closed in one of two ways. If the net
profit from the basket and hedge trades reaches the profit target set by the
take profit, then all trades will be closed.
The other method is by way of a trailing stop. This will trail the price until it
reaches break even, or the hedge trades are stopped out for a loss. At break
even you have the choice of halting the trailing stop, or letting it carry on, so
the hedge will stop out at a profit. If the trailing stop is allowed to carry on,
you can choose to have the stop reduce as the price moves, which will lock
even more profit in the hedge trades.
Note that if the stop is set at 0, then the hedge trades can only close if the
profit target is reached.
If the hedge is based on drawdown, then to stop a new hedge trade being
opened as soon as the previous one has closed, the hedge start percentage
is increased by a re-entry percentage. If based on levels, a new hedge trade
will only open if Blessing opens a new trade in the basket at the next level.
When a basket of trades is open, and the price keeps going against it, the
oldest trades in the basket will increase the overall drawdown. The open
price of these trades are on the 'wrong' side of the current break even point,
and will always close at a loss. In order to reduce the drawdown if the price
runs in the wrong direction, Blessing now has an option to close these trades
after a certain level if UseCloseOldest is set to true.
Because the losses incurred closing trades at higher levels can become
excessive due to the increased lot size, Blessing can limit the number of
trades closed in this fashion with CloseTPPips.
If trades have been closed through the Hedge function, or the Close Oldest
Trade function, they will probably have been closed at a loss. Blessing will
automatically recoup these losses by adjusting the Take Profit of the
remaining open trades, unless RecoupClosedLoss is set to false.
Early Exit Feature
Setting UseEarlyExit to true allows you to reduce the profit potential if the
basket has been open for some time, or if there are many trades open.
There are actually two strategies involved, and you can choose to use either
of them individually, or both together.
The first strategy is a reduction in profit over time. You can specify how long
to wait before this strategy starts with EEStartHours, and what percentage
of the profit you are willing to sacrifice for each hour the trade is open
with EEHoursPC. There is also an option to reset the start time and reduction
percent when a new trade is opened by setting EEFirstTrade to true.
If both strategies are used together, there is a possibility that the total
reduction percent could go over 100%, i.e. the basket could close at a loss.
Therefore Blessing has an option to prevent this from happening by
setting EEAllowLoss to false.
Recover Broker Costs
Blessing now lets you decide what your magic number will be. It has both
automatic and manual capabilities. You can now trade the same pair on the
same account and even the same time frame if you like! You simple need to
change the EANumber, i.e.: Blessing on USDJPY/H1 with an EANumber of 1
and Blessing on USDJPY/H1 with an EANumber of 2 will trade completely
independently.
This feature is not without concern. There are rumors that brokers shut off
expert advisors that perform too well. Whether or not Blessing performs
well, we still have a security risk by sending trade comment information to
the broker. We do want to track that trade though so how do we do it?
The TradeComment is now a user settable feature via the menu. We put in
whatever we want to secure that trade and still track it in our MT4 platform.
Type in words, numbers or anything else and you have trade security and
tracking available.
Trade Management
The worst thing that happens to all of us is having a trade placed incorrectly
or inappropriately by our EAs. Blessing incorporates many features to
prevent missed or poor trades from happening. Blessing has trade
management functions to help prevent or eliminate those problems. They
are not user selectable. Every time an order is placed, modified or closed,
Blessing checks that request for viability and continues to attempt to do the
request until all else fails.
One control a user has is to adjust the Slip variable for BUY/SELL orders or
orders that Blessing closes, which will prevent the trade from being executed
if the Broker's price changes.
Blessing will also prevent a trade being opened if the spread is higher
than MaxSpread.
Optimizing Blessing
Blessing will now talk to you via email! Emails must be enabled in the MT4
platform (Tools - Options -Email) for this option to work. Simply
set UseEmail to trueto turn this feature on and Blessing will tell you its
status in reference to the Draw Down size. It will also tell you when a basket
of trades closes if you have turned on the ShutDown variable. You don’t
have to watch your trading platform any more because Blessing will tell you
when it’s closed the basket. The EmailHours variable is designed to stop
multiple emails being sent if the price ranges around one of the DD levels.
However if a bigger Draw Down is hit, an email will be sent no matter what.
Debug Printing
There have been a lot of contributors to the success of Blessing. Many and
varied code additions require constant debugging to ensure Blessing runs
smoothly and without error. We have built in a series of checks that will help
us debug Blessing. This allows us to view the journal to check on conditions
in certain areas of Blessing. This feature is neither wanted nor desirable for
the average user. Simply turning Debug off will turn off all extraneous
messages printed in the journal.
There is one area where a user might find turning Debug on useful. If a user
has their own personal grid, they might want to know what it looks like
before trading. All a user need do is to set in their grid parameters in the
array and set Debug to true. Run Blessing in a tester platform then open the
Journal and see your grid parameters! This is a great confirmation before
using these parameters on a live account.
Chart Overlay
Recently added are lines for Break Even, Take Profit and Profit Trailing Stop
if displayLines is set to true. You now have a visual indicator to watch price
move toward or away from lines. The Break Even line is colored blue.
Blessing doesn’t close on this line but it does tell you your basket has at
least broken even. The Take Profit Line is colored gold. This is how far the
price needs to move to close the basket. If you have
the MaximizeProfit turned on, an additional line will be added to the chart
representing your profit trailing stop. The price will have to move between
the blue and gold lines in the correct direction for this to occur. If you
happen to see two gold lines, you are in the money!
There are many options for changing the colours, font size, line
spacing, display ratio, X coordinate, and Y coordinate.
Conclusion
Blessing is a very unique and powerful 24/5 trader. Several features make
Blessing safe and profit taking is very powerful. The math is simple and
money management will increase the base lot size as we get a higher
balance. Make sure the EP is enabled. 50% is a great amount to use. Turn
on portion control and limit that pair’s access to the total account.