Hey there, fellow traders! If you've ever found yourself in a situation where you placed an order and had to dash off, don’t sweat it! The TradeProtector 1.0 EA is here to save the day. This nifty tool will automatically set your initial Stop Loss if you haven’t done it yet, and once your position hits a specified profit threshold, it kicks in with a proportional Trailing Stop.
The idea for this EA came to me after a not-so-great experience. I opened a position, and suddenly had to leave. I thought I’d done everything right by setting a reasonable Stop Loss, but then the market turned on me. I saw my position hit a sweet 40 pips in profit, only to have it reverse, triggering my initial Stop Loss and resulting in a small, yet frustrating loss.
Now, I’m not a huge fan of conventional trailing stops. They can be a bit of a double-edged sword. For example, let's say you’re riding a nice trend and you're sitting on a 120 pip profit after a few hours. If your trailing stop is set to 35 pips, a mere 38% retracement could wipe out that winning trade. That’s why I prefer using a proportional trailing stop, calculated using the formula:
ProportionalSL = | CurrentPrice - OrderOpenPrice | x Ratio - Spread
For instance, if I set the Ratio to 55%, I’d lock in about 15 pips profit. Better than nothing, right? Plus, if the trend keeps going, a 40% retracement (think 0.38 Fib level) won’t stop my trade in its tracks.
There’s also a feature I call 'Escape'. It’s switched off by default, but it’s handy to have. If your trade hits a significant loss, you might want to close it out with a minimal profit or a less painful loss. You can set a 'disturbing' loss level that triggers this function. If your trades are set up right, you probably won’t need it, but it’s nice to have in your back pocket!
So, here’s how to get started:
Load up this EA on an M1 or M5 chart and configure the following settings:
- logging=1 - Enable logging in the MQL4\Files directory;
- nTrailingStop [pips] - This sets your initial trailing stop until your trade hits a profit of nPropSLThreshold;
- nPropSLThreshold [pips] - Once this profit is achieved, the proportional trailing stop takes over;
- dPropSLRatio [decimal] - The multiplying factor (PropSL = Profit * dPropSLRatio - Spread);
- nUseEscape [1 or 0] - Activate this feature to close misplaced trades at minimal profit;
- nEscapeLevel [pips] - The loss threshold at which you want your trade to terminate upon reaching a new high;
- nEscapeTP [pips] - The take profit level in pips (you can set this to a negative value to indicate a loss you’d be willing to take if your trade has hit a significant negative pip value).
With TradeProtector 1.0, you can trade with more confidence, knowing you have a safety net in place. Happy trading!
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