This tutorial applies to the EA ' MACD Trading MT5' whose product page is accessible by clicking on the image below:
This product allows you to receive alerts and/or place orders according to your MACD strategy. The main advantages of this EA are:
- It includes additional filters (moving average, RSI and Pivot Points filters).
- It has a complete management of orders (break even, trailing stop, closing before weekend, max lost or win / day ...).
- It can work with all market watch symbols at once.
Below is the backtest of this EA for EURUSD (default settings) from 01/01/2020:
Detailed features are described on the product page. Below is the list of EA settings with explanations.
-====General settings====-
Symbols: symbols for alerts & trading (all or symbol on the chart)
There are several possibilities to choose which symbols should be scanned:
- 'Only symbol on the chart' : you should use this option for backtests or if you want to apply the bot on the chart symbol ;
- 'All major forex pairs' : the bot will scan all 28 major forex pairs (EUR/USD/GBP/CHF/AUD/NZD/JPY) ;
- 'Market watch' : the bot will scan all market watch symbols ;
- 'Only symbols listed below' : only symbols listed in the field below will be scanned
- 'Only symbol on the chart' : you should use this option for backtests or if you want to apply the bot on the chart symbol ;
- 'All major forex pairs' : the bot will scan all 28 major forex pairs (EUR/USD/GBP/CHF/AUD/NZD/JPY) ;
- 'Market watch' : the bot will scan all market watch symbols ;
- 'Only symbols listed below' : only symbols listed in the field below will be scanned
Symbols to scan or exclude: write here symbols to scan ('Only symbols listed below' mode) or to exclude ('All major forex pairs' and 'Market watch' mode)
Broker prefix (if necessary): only for brokers who use prefixes. For example, type m for mEURUSD
Broker suffix (if necessary): only for brokers who use prefixes. For example, type m for EURUSDm
If several symbols must be entered in this field, they must be separated by commas
Use Timer: define trading days and hours
Orders will only be opened on trading days. However, orders can be closed/modified even outside of the established time if at least one of the following parameters is enabled:
- 'Max % lost/day' ;
- 'Max % win/day' ;
- 'Close orders before weekend' ;
- 'Close on reverse crossing' ;
- 'Close order if price closes above/below a Ma' ;
- 'Break even' ;
- 'Trailing stop'.
- 'Max % lost/day' ;
- 'Max % win/day' ;
- 'Close orders before weekend' ;
- 'Close on reverse crossing' ;
- 'Close order if price closes above/below a Ma' ;
- 'Break even' ;
- 'Trailing stop'.
Monday: alerts & trading on Mondays
Tuesday: alerts & trading on Tuesdays
Wednesday: alerts & trading on Wednesdays
Thursday: alerts & trading on Thursdays
Friday: alerts & trading on Fridays
Saturday (crypto): alerts & trading on Saturday (generally for crypto trading)
Sunday (crypto): alerts & trading on Sunday (generally for crypto trading)
Start time: start of the session
End time: end of the session
Indicators alerts: terminal and/or smartphone notifs
Trading alerts: terminal and/or smartphone notifs
-====MACD settings====-
MACD Strategy: the MACD strategy used to receive alerts and/or place orders
At the moment, 2 strategies are available with the EA. Other strategies will be implemented based on customer requests. The 2 strategies are as follows:
- MACD crosses signal line:
-> Buying condition: the main MACD line is below the zero line and it crosses the MACD signal line from bottom to top
-> Selling condition: the main MACD line is above the zero line and it crosses the MACD signal line from top to bottom
- MACD crosses zero:
-> Buying condition: the main MACD line crosses the zero line from bottom to top
-> Selling condition: the main MACD line crosses the zero line from top to bottom
Alternative buy and sell orders: avoids placing 2 consecutive buy orders or 2 consecutive sell orders
Timeframe: all MT5 timeframes
Warning! If you want to use the timeframe of the chart, use the value "CURRENT"!
If you use another value, the current chart timeframe will not affect the MACD calculation.
Fast period of the MACD: period for fast average calculation
Slow period of the MACD: period for slow average calculation
Signal period: period of the MACD signal
MACD applied price: CLOSE / OPEN / HIGH / LOW / MEDIAN / TYPICAL / WEIGHTED
-====Filters settings====-
-=Moving average settings=-
Use a MA: checks if price is above (buy signal) or below (sell signal) this MA
Ma timeframe: all MT5 timeframes
Ma period: period of the MA
Ma method: SMA / EMA / SMMA / LWMA
Ma applied price: CLOSE / OPEN / HIGH / LOW / MEDIAN / TYPICAL / WEIGHTED
Ma shift: shift of the MA
-=RSI settings=-
Use RSI: checks RSI value before opening an order
RSI Timeframe: all MT5 timeframes
RSI period: period of the RSI filter
RSI applied price: CLOSE / OPEN / HIGH / LOW / MEDIAN / TYPICAL / WEIGHTED
RSI shift: shift of the RSI filter
Min RSI value for a buy order: buy order is opened if RSI > this value
Max RSI value for a sell order: sell order is opened if RSI < this value
-=Pivot points settings=-
Daily PP: checks if price is above (buy signal) or below (sell signal) daily PP
Weekly PP: checks if price is above (buy signal) or below (sell signal) weekly PP
Monthly PP: identical to the previous parameter for monthly PP
Note: the more filters implemented, the fewer orders will be opened. If you find that there aren't enough open orders, try disabling some filters.
-====Trading settings====-
-=General settings=-
Allow trading: if false, only alerts are operational
Magic number: must be unique if other EA are running
'Max open orders', 'Max % lost/day' and 'Max % win/day' are calculated from the magic number. For example, if you have 3 EAs with the same magic number, the total number of orders opened will be the sum of the orders opened in those 3 EAs.
Max open orders: max number of orders opened simultaneously (if 0, no max)
Max lost/day (in % of equity): if max value is reached, the EA open orders are closed and no other order is opened until the next day (if 0, no max)
The calculation is based on equity and not balance. In order to speed up the backtests, the calculation is done every hour during backtests, instead of every minute for a real trading session.
Max win/day (in % of equity): if max value is reached, the EA open orders are closed and no other order is opened until the next day (if 0, no max)
Same remark than for 'Max lost/day (in % of equity)'.
Max drawdown (in % of equity): if max value is reached, the EA open orders are closed and the EA is closed (if 0, no max)
Same remark than for 'Max lost/day (in % of equity)', but the calculation is done every 5 minutes (for backtests and real trading sessions).
Close orders before weekend: close all EA orders on Friday
Closing time before weekend: if ‘Close orders before weekend’ is ‘true’
Use money management: if ‘true’, lot size in % balance
Fixed lots size: lot size per order (if ‘Use money management’ is ‘false')
Lot size in %: % balance per order (if ‘Use money management’ is ‘true’)
Max spread: max allowed spread to open an order (if 0, no max spread)
Warning: if the value of the spread is too low, no order will be opened! To avoid any problem, it is recommended to set the value '0' for the backtests.
Max slippage: max allowed slippage to open an order
Same remark as 'Max spread'.
-=SL & TP settings=-
SL in pips, points...: stop loss x pips above/below current price in 'normal SL' mode and above/below the chosen Ma in 'Ma SL' mode
TP in pips, points...: take profit x pips above/below the current price at the opening of the order regardless of the 'SL mode' chosen
-=BE/TS/Grid settings=-
Break even: if ‘true’, break even is activated
Break even profit in pips, points...: triggers the break even from a certain profit in pips, points...
Trailing stop: if ‘true’, trailing stop is activated
Trail profit in pips, points...: triggers the trailing stop from a certain profit in pips, points...
Trail distance in pips, points...: distance in pips, points... between trailing stop and price
Trail step in pips, points...: step in pips, points... for the trailing stop
Open additional orders: an additional order is opened each time the profit reaches a step
Max additional orders (by symbol) : 'Open additional orders' must be 'true'
Fixed lots size (additional orders): if ‘Use money management’ is ‘false'
It is better to have smaller lots than for main orders.
Lot size in % (additional orders): if ‘Use money management’ is ‘true'
It is better to have smaller lots than for main orders.
Profit step in pips, points... to open an additional order: each time the profit reaches this step, a new order is opened
SL in pips, points... of additional orders: SL in pips, points... of the additional orders
TP in pips, points... of additional orders: TP in pips, points... of the additional orders
Additional Notes :
- Before using the 'All major forex pairs' mode, verify that the 28 major currency pairs are present in the “Market Watch” tab of MT5.
- It is recommended to use multi-symbol mode for alerts only. When a profitable method is found on a symbol, it is better to apply it in ‘only_symbol_on_the_chart' mode.
- The EA works for all types of symbols but in some cases (depending on the broker), adaptations on SL and TP have to be done with certain types of symbols (other than forex and indices). In this case, settings in pips or points have to be multiplied by 10 to match the correct value. Example: for a stop loss of $10 on the Oil symbol the 'SL in pips, points...' parameter must take the value 100 and not 10 (x10). Tests can be carried out in backtest to find the right value.
Major forex pairs :
EURUSD / GBPUSD / USDCHF / AUDUSD / USDCAD / USDJPY / NZDUSD
EURGBP / EURCHF / EURAUD / EURCAD / EURJPY / EURNZD
GBPCHF / GBPAUD / GBPCAD / GBPJPY / GBPNZD
AUDCHF / CADCHF / CHFJPY / NZDCHF
AUDCAD / AUDJPY / AUDNZD
CADJPY / NZDCAD
NZDJPY
