Skipping x candles after closing a deal (using pause ?)

[wiptheman]

Hi All,

I'm trying to have my EA pause after a deal was closed so that he does not re-open a position for "x" amount of candles.

I tried to achieve that using  the pause function but when back testing it seems like the pausing is not applied. 

Is there another way I could do that, that would work with back testing ? 

 

input bool     Pause=1;                   // Allowed to Pause after close
input int      PauseTime=6;               // Pause Length in Hours


//--- After deal Pause 
      if (Pause){    
      PauseLength = (PauseTime * 60000);
      Sleep(PauseLength);
      EAStatus="Taking a Pause";  
      }
   EAStatus="Trading";  

[Simon Gniadkowski]

wiptheman:

Hi All,

I'm trying to have my EA pause after a deal was closed so that he does not re-open a position for "x" amount of candles.

I tried to achieve that using  the pause function but when back testing it seems like the pausing is not applied. 

Is there another way I could do that, that would work with back testing ? 

Don't use Sleep() to perform this kind of function,  Sleep() cannot work in the Strategy Tester.  Instead save the time to a variable (e.g.  LastOrderTime) and only place new Orders when the required time has passed . . 

Note: This is not Copy & Paste code,  please read understand and do your own implementation.

datetime LastOrderTime;
bool OKToTrade = true;

// last order placed here
OKToTrade = falsee;

// set the variable to remember when the last order was placed
LastOrderTime = TimeCurrent()


//  check if the required time has elapsed
if(TimeCurrent() > LastOrderTime + PauseLength) OKToTrade = true

[wiptheman]

Hi Raptor !!

Thanks a lot for your help !

 Based on your suggestions I created the follow code. But as per below screenshot my int with "PauseTime" is not being added properly to LastOrderTime. 

I'm pretty sure this is a "format" problem ? PauseTime should also be a datetime or just time ? 

input int      PauseTime=6;               // Pause Length in Hours 

Print ("Last order Time is: ",LastOrderTime);
Print ("Last order Time + Pause is: ",LastOrderTime + PauseTime);

    if (Pause){    
    
      if(TimeCurrent() > LastOrderTime + PauseTime){ 
      EAStatus="Trading"; }
    
      else{
      if(TimeCurrent() < LastOrderTime + PauseTime){ 
      EAStatus="Taking a Pause"; 
      return;
         }
      } 
   }  
      
   EAStatus="Trading";  

 

[phi nuts]

wiptheman:

Hi Raptor !!

Thanks a lot for your help !

 Based on your suggestions I created the follow code. But as per below screenshot my int with "PauseTime" is not being added properly to LastOrderTime. 

I'm pretty sure this is a "format" problem ? PauseTime should also be a datetime or just time ? 

 

See what doc says about datetime (... the number of seconds elapsed since January 01, 1970), so if you want to add 37 minutes, do this :

datetime thirty_seven_minutes = 37*60;

Print(TimeCurrent() + thirty_seven_minutes);

You know, you can just continue from your last topic Sleep EA during a fix time of the day

[Simon Gniadkowski]

wiptheman:

Hi Raptor !!

Thanks a lot for your help !

 Based on your suggestions I created the follow code. But as per below screenshot my int with "PauseTime" is not being added properly to LastOrderTime. 

I'm pretty sure this is a "format" problem ? PauseTime should also be a datetime or just time ? 

TimeCurrent() returns a datetime so for simplicity make everything a datetime.  As phi.nuts   points out a datetime is the number of seconds since Midnight 1st Jan 1970 but you might want to consider that definition only applying to a datetime that represents a date.  The distinction is an important one . . .

datetime thirty_seven_minutes = 37*60;

 is not a date unless it is meant to represent 1st Jan 1970 00:37  but is a valid datetime none thee less as it is a number of seconds,  using very meaningful variables names will help make your code clear and easy to document.  If your variable is a date use date in the variable name,  if it is a number of seconds, minutes or hours use sec, min or hr in the variable name.

To express 6 hours use a datetime set to  6 * 60 * 60,  in mql4 this was easy we could say 6 * PERIOD_H1 * 60 but the mql5 constants don't mean the same thing. 

[wiptheman]

Hi phi.nuts!!

You did it again :) Here is the working code in my case if someone needs it it. And yes I could have continued on my other topic!

   datetime PauseTime = PauseHours*3600; 

     if (Pause){    
    
      if(TimeCurrent() > LastOrderTime + PauseTime){ 
      EAStatus="Trading"; }
    
      else{
      if(TimeCurrent() < LastOrderTime + PauseTime){ 
      EAStatus="Taking a Pause"; 
      return;
         }
      } 
   }  
      
   EAStatus="Trading";