Three Aspects of Manual Trading Automation. Part 1: Trading

Three Aspects of Manual Trading Automation. Part 1: Trading

Three Aspects of Manual Trading Automation. Part 1: Tradin

Introduction

Over the years of working at developments for the MetaTrader 4 trading platform, I have tried a lot of models and approaches to creating an automated workstation for a trader. The very first, most obvious solution was implemented in the set of trading scripts Mouse Only Trader which was generally quite successful. Having enhanced it with risk management calculations and money management functions, I came up with a quite functional tool called the Trading Mouse.

Billed by its developers primarily as a means of creating fully automated trading robots, the MetaTrader 4 trading terminal and its ergonomics appeared to be absolutely inadequate for people who need a comfortable work space. So I began to experiment with a graphical interface, while looking into the possibilities of using a mouse and keyboard directly on a trading chart. The outcome of the experiment was represented by two very fine-featured products: Trading Console and Buy/Sell.

Unfortunately, there was a reverse side to all their great features and user-friendliness - the Expert Advisors showed little response to rapid price changes and trade command execution. The terminal spent more time drawing the interface features, than trading. All attempts to actively trade using that seemingly user-friendly interface involved a fair amount of hassle (especially in piping and scalping).

Fig. 1. Interface variants.

Therefore, having reconsidered the requirements to the Expert Ad visor in the light of these facts, I created a Scalper that could offer maximum efficiency at minimum eye appeal. Unfortunately, it still had old faults in the form of mouse command processing or having to use the sensor screen of a tablet. As a result, it turned out to be an entirely niche product mostly intended for working on tablets. I managed to finally get rid of virtually all dwims only in the Simple Trader that provided basis for the Expert Advisor that I am going to introduce in this article.

I have intentionally described the evolution of my products to help you understand that the implementation of everything set forth in this article was not derived from the fact that the author could not do otherwise. It is just that after a lot of trial and error, I have settled on the most simple and reliable solution that I would like to share with you.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Before we start, let's first have a look at the operation of the Expert Advisor that will be considered further below. The video will give you an idea of the processes that take place in the terminal during trading. As a result, the article will be much easier to understand (something like: "ah, so that is how it is implemented!").

For better comprehension of the video, it will be enough to understand that there is an Expert Advisor that operates in the terminal and is controlled by dropping control scripts onto the terminal window. The Expert Adviser itself does not trade. It can only pull stop levels (Stop Loss and Take Profit) after receiving a relevant command from a trader. Script names clearly correspond to their respective actions, while their use is explained in tooltips.