Can anyone explain me this?

[Ruben Blanco]

Hello,

I was trying some behaviors  and I got results that has no sense.

I created an EA for MT4 that opens 2 market trades to run it on tester, one buy and one sell with the lower spread allowed by the tester 2 points. The   65 points TP and the   65 points SL for buy are based on the Ask price and for sell based on Bid. I did that to lose 65 points or win 65 points on both trades. If for example I set the buy SL based on Bid, if that trade and the SL is hit, I will lose the spread too and I didn´t want that for this experiment.

Under this conditions, if the buy wins 65 points, the sell loses 65 points or if the buy loses 65 points the sell wins 65 points.

Why are the winning trades having less profit than losses the losing trades?

These two screenshoots show the two posible results, if the buy wins, or if the sell wins. In both cases the winning trades win 65 points or 92.80 USD and the losing trades lose 65 points or 115.20 USD.

Can anyone explain me the reason? Because it looks everything instead of fair.

    

[Keith Watford]

Commissions?

[William Roeder]

Did you make your stops relative to the Ask (for the buy)?

You buy at the Ask and sell at the Bid.

1. Your buy order's TP/SL (or Sell Stop's/Sell Limit's entry) are triggered when the Bid / OrderClosePrice reaches it. Using the Ask±n, makes your SL shorter and your TP longer, by the spread. Don't you want the specified amount used in either direction?

2. Your sell order's TP/SL (or Buy Stop's/Buy Limit's entry) will be triggered when the Ask / OrderClosePrice reaches it. To trigger at a specific Bid price, add the average spread.
             MODE_SPREAD (Paul) - MQL4 programming forum - Page 3 #25

3. The charts show Bid prices only. Turn on the Ask line to see how big the spread is (Tools → Options (control+O) → charts → Show ask line.)
   Most brokers with variable spread widen considerably at end of day (5 PM ET) ± 30 minutes. My GBPJPY (OANDA) shows average spread = 26 points, but average maximum spread = 134.

[Ruben Blanco]

Keith Watford:
Commissions?

The commissions should be applied for both trades, isn´t it?

[William Roeder]

Profit - commission is less profit. Loss - commission is more loss.

[Ruben Blanco]

William Roeder:
Did you make your stops relative to the Ask (for the buy)?

Yes, if you check the prices frm the screenshots, for the buy trade both stops are based on Ask, so TP will be Ask + 65 points and the SL will be Ask- 65 points.

For the sell, both are based on the Bid. TP = Bid - 65 points and SL  =  Bid + 65 points.

About the spread, I set it as 2 (fixed spread), the minimum allowed by the tester, but just to have both trades opened at same time, since both stops are based on the same price, no spread added to the SL.

Just check the prices in the screenshoot, in both cases the price difference is 65 points, but the profit is much lower than the losses.

[Ruben Blanco]

William Roeder:
Profit - commission is less profit. Loss - commission is more loss.

You are right, it is the commission.

Thank you very much.

[Keith Watford]

Ruben Blanco:

The commissions should be applied for both trades, isn´t it?

Yes, you are correct.

The only thing that I can think of is that the broker applies swap charges at midnight and your trades managed to squeeze in just before the swaps. 

I think that only your broker can give you the complete answer.

[nicholish en]

Keith Watford:
Commissions?

This is exactly correct, but with SWAP also. OP, you're misunderstanding how trading works. If you're simultaneously opening opposing orders then you're not doing anything other than handing the broker your money for no reason. If you had placed trades that way with any other instrument you would have bought 1.6 lot to open your position and then sold 1.6 lots to close it. You flattened your position right from the get go. This is how your trades worked in real life. 

#1 Buy market filled to open 1.6 @  1.19288

Net position = +1.6

#2 Sell market filled to close 1.6 @ 1.19286

Net position = 0.0; profit -0.00002

#3 Buy-Stop (market) filled to open 1.6 @ 1.19351

Net position = +1.6

#4 Sell-limit filled to close 1.6 @ 1.19353

Net position = 0.0; profit = +0.00002

NET PROFIT 0.0

The money missing from your account at the point went to swaps and commissions. That was completely avoidable and you could have had the exact same trade (same levels) if you instead placed a buy-stop order @1.19351 with a TP @ 1.19353.  Oh, and you would have actually profited because you didn't throw away (2 points + commissions + swap) on a worthless trade.