Bug report MT4 rev 600, signal following & lotsize calculation
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First of all, thank you for providing the MT4 platform and the Signal Following option, I love it.
Unfortunately I ran into 2 issues that are conflicting with the information (Video & Help file) that is supplied.
Please note: my MT4 system is running 24/7 uninterrupted. Next to that I have a second system that I use to remote monitor the performance.
Also note that my equity is around 410 GPB ($680) and I set a 35% useage limit on the signal setting dialog.
The signal I copied was Fenditest: https://www.mql5.com/en/signals/27755 (Balance 147,387.41 USD)
Issue 1: Incorrect lotsize calculation
Part from my journal of 27 feb 2014:
20:48:39.987 '103921': Signal - 'FendiTest' for 'xxxxx' subscription found, 2014.03.26 expiration, enabled
20:48:39.987 '103921': Signal - money management: use 25% of deposit, equity limit: 200.00 GBP, deviation/slippage: 0.5 spreads, copy SL/TP: enabled
20:48:39.992 '103921': Signal - connecting to signal server
21:04:08.466 '103921': Signal - different specification of symbol USDJPY.ecn, signal provider has maximal volume 1000.00, subscriber has 40.00
21:04:08.466 '103921': Signal - different specification of symbol GBPUSD.ecn, signal provider has maximal volume 1000.00, subscriber has 40.00
21:04:08.466 '103921': Signal - different specification of symbol EURUSD.ecn, signal provider has maximal volume 1000.00, subscriber has 40.00
21:04:08.466 '103921': Signal - signal provider has balance 147 387.41 USD, leverage 1:500
21:04:08.466 '103921': Signal - subscriber has balance 450.09 GBP, leverage 1:100
21:04:08.526 '103921': Signal - percentage for volume conversion selected according to the ratio of balances and leverages, new value 1%
If I interpret the information in the Help correctly about lotsize calculation, this is how my lotsize should be calculated:
35% of my balance is $238.21
Copier balance Signal balance ratio: 238,21 : 147,387.41 = 0.16%
Copier leverage Signal leverage ratio: 100 : 500 = 0.2
Actual calculated lot size ratio: 0.03%
How come the percentage is calculated to 1% ?
Signal trades in 5 and 10 lots per trade. My broker's minimum lot size is 0.01
Unfortunately because of the 1% trading is done in lots of 0.05 and 0.1
Because of this not all orders could be fulfilled.
This alone would be bad for money management, unfortunately I noticed another issue that has devastating effects and is different than specified:
Issue 2: Orders are NOT placed on the signal but appear to be held in a queue and are executed when there is enough balance/margin to do so
Yesterday (26 Feburary 2014) I noticed that because of the lotsizing and the open positions orders could not be processed. I manually closed quite some positions. The Help documentation states that currently open orders are not copied, only when a new order is opened at the signal provider, a new trade should be opened in my account. When I look at the order statement of the signal provider, no trades were placed between 26 feb 16:40 and 27 feb 00:21.
When I closed my orders manually it was around 22:56. Shortly after I closed the open orders, new ones were being placed. And are being placed there and then, at the market. Unrelated to the actual trading of the signal provider.
Below first the signal provider's trade log (partially):
2014.02.27 02:24:44 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.269 2014.02.27 05:45:26 102.414 1 415.82
2014.02.27 01:58:50 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.306 2014.02.27 02:39:39 102.318 117.28
2014.02.27 01:36:16 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.341 2014.02.27 05:45:29 102.414 712.79
2014.02.27 01:33:51 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.357 2014.02.27 05:45:32 102.414 556.56
2014.02.27 00:21:29 Sell 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.392 2014.02.27 01:36:33 102.348 429.91
2014.02.26 16:40:50 Sell 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.240 2014.02.27 11:17:47 102.215 -108.60 244.58
2014.02.26 16:35:57 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.202 2014.02.26 23:54:55 102.377 1 709.37
2014.02.26 16:34:51 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.226 2014.02.26 23:54:58 102.377 1 474.94
2014.02.26 16:26:26 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.205 2014.02.26 16:27:33 102.219 136.96
2014.02.26 16:26:18 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.213 2014.02.26 16:32:20 102.245 312.97
2014.02.26 16:26:06 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.224 2014.02.26 16:32:33 102.256 312.94
2014.02.26 16:16:15 Buy 10.00 USDJPY.ecn 102.242 2014.02.26 16:32:26 102.249 68.46
My journal file shows this, after closing orders, several new ones are opened instantaneously:
22:56:42.186 '103921': close order #6380357 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.492 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000 at price 0.000
22:56:42.293 '103921': request was accepted by server
22:56:42.506 '103921': request in process
22:56:42.508 '103921': order #6380357 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.492 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000 closed at price 102.371
22:56:42.508 '103921': remainder of order #6380357 was opened : #6380617 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.492 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:42.508 '103921': Signal - position corrected successfully
22:56:42.508 '103921': Signal - local position [#6380358 buy 0.10 USDJPY at 102.492] volume exceeds the signal one [#28899938 buy 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.406], trying to fix
22:56:42.510 '103921': close order #6380358 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.492 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000 at price 0.000
22:56:42.616 '103921': request was accepted by server
22:56:42.829 '103921': request in process
22:56:42.831 '103921': order #6380358 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.492 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000 closed at price 102.368
22:56:42.831 '103921': remainder of order #6380358 was opened : #6380619 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.492 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:42.831 '103921': Signal - position corrected successfully
22:56:42.831 '103921': Signal - copy position [#29138569 sell 10.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.240]
22:56:42.831 '103921': Signal - symbol USDJPY.ecn mapped to USDJPY
22:56:42.833 '103921': order sell market 0.10 USDJPY sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:42.940 '103921': request was accepted by server
22:56:43.153 '103921': request in process
22:56:43.366 '103921': order was opened : #6380620 sell 0.10 USDJPY at 102.368 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:43.366 '103921': Signal - position [#29138569 sell 10.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.240] copied successfully
22:56:43.366 '103921': Signal - copy position [#28476238 sell 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.086]
22:56:43.366 '103921': Signal - symbol USDJPY.ecn mapped to USDJPY
22:56:43.368 '103921': order sell market 0.05 USDJPY sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:43.474 '103921': request was accepted by server
22:56:43.687 '103921': request in process
22:56:44.269 '103921': order was opened : #6380621 sell 0.05 USDJPY at 102.368 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:44.269 '103921': Signal - position [#28476238 sell 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.086] copied successfully
22:56:44.269 '103921': Signal - copy position [#28900061 buy 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.405]
22:56:44.269 '103921': Signal - symbol USDJPY.ecn mapped to USDJPY
22:56:44.271 '103921': order buy market 0.05 USDJPY sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:44.378 '103921': request was accepted by server
22:56:44.591 '103921': request in process
22:56:44.593 '103921': order was opened : #6380622 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.391 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:44.593 '103921': Signal - position [#28900061 buy 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.405] copied successfully
22:56:44.593 '103921': Signal - copy position [#28900449 buy 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.388]
22:56:44.593 '103921': Signal - symbol USDJPY.ecn mapped to USDJPY
22:56:44.594 '103921': order buy market 0.05 USDJPY sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:44.648 '103921': request was accepted by server
22:56:44.861 '103921': request in process
22:56:45.232 '103921': order was opened : #6380623 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.391 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
22:56:45.232 '103921': Signal - position [#28900449 buy 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.388] copied successfully
22:56:45.235 '103921': Signal - synchronization finished successfully
22:56:45.286 '103921': Signal - ping to signal server 47 ms, to trade server 66 ms
23:04:21.133 '103921': Signal - signal provider closed position #28900449 buy 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.388
23:04:21.703 '103921': close order #6380623 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.391 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000 at price 0.000
23:04:21.809 '103921': request was accepted by server
23:04:22.022 '103921': request in process
23:04:22.235 '103921': order #6380623 buy 0.05 USDJPY at 102.391 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000 closed at price 102.382
23:04:22.235 '103921': Signal - signal provider position #28900449 buy 5.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.388 closed
23:21:06.324 '103921': Signal - signal provider added position #29186050 sell 10.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.392
23:21:06.324 '103921': Signal - symbol USDJPY.ecn mapped to USDJPY
23:21:06.846 '103921': order sell market 0.10 USDJPY sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
23:21:06.901 '103921': request was accepted by server
23:21:07.114 '103921': request in process
23:21:07.327 '103921': order was opened : #6380662 sell 0.10 USDJPY at 102.386 sl: 0.000 tp: 0.000
23:21:07.327 '103921': Signal - signal provider position #29186050 sell 10.00 USDJPY.ecn at 102.392 copied
Please check out these 2 issues.
If the lotsize percentage can not be lower than 1%, we need to know. As this limits our choices when a signal provider has a large balance and/or leverage compared to your account.
I am certain that when these 2 issues are solved (more accurate lotsizing and executing orders only based on actual trade signals of the signal provider) then I would not have lost 50% of my account in a day. Instead I would have been profitable, just as the signal provider, who is doing a very good job by the way. In the current situation it is not safe for me to copy this provider, unless I increase my account with so much money that it can handle the 1% ratio. Only this signal provider is growing at such an enourmous rate, that by the time I have funded my account (if I had the money) they would be trading in 15 or 20 lots.
Any help, fix or patch is appreciated. If it would be possible to manually set a rate (below 1%, let's say in 4 decimals) then the copiers would be extremely profitable.
If it helps I can send the journal log file, just let me know.