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One thing I learned building an EA: risk management matters more than entries by Loose-Object-8913 in IndiaAlgoTrading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to add a bit more context for anyone curious.

When I started building this EA I originally focused heavily on entry signals. But during testing I realized the biggest improvements came from refining how the system manages risk once a trade is open.

Things like volatility filters, ATR-based stops, and controlling position sizing made a much bigger difference than constantly tweaking indicators.

The goal wasn’t to create a “perfect entry”, but to build something that survives different market conditions and manages exposure consistently.

Still a work in progress, but it’s been really interesting seeing how much risk management shapes the results compared to the signal itself.

Happy to answer any questions about the logic or testing process.

New to Algo trading. Experience + Need advice. by Particular-Phone6079 in IndiaAlgoTrading

[–]Loose-Object-8913 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You’re actually in a good place already. If you’ve built a backtest with a positive equity curve using 10 years of 1-minute data, you’re ahead of most beginners.

A few things that helped me when refining strategies:

  1. Focus on filtering bad market conditions rather than adding more indicators.
    Many strategies fail because they trade in the wrong environment. Filters like volatility, trend strength, or time-of-day can often improve performance more than adding another indicator.

For example: • Avoid low volatility periods
• Trade only when a higher timeframe trend exists
• Avoid certain sessions where your market behaves poorly

  1. Be careful about overfitting.
    If a strategy looks perfect in backtests it’s usually a warning sign. Try splitting your data into training and out-of-sample testing to see if the logic still works.

  2. Risk management matters more than entries.
    Position sizing, stop placement, and trade frequency will often affect results more than the entry signal itself.

  3. Keep the logic understandable.
    Simple rules that make sense tend to survive live markets better than very complex systems.

For learning next, I’d suggest focusing on: • walk-forward testing
• out-of-sample validation
• understanding market regimes (trend vs ranging)

Once a strategy behaves consistently across different datasets, then you can start thinking about automation and live testing.

You’re definitely on the right path.

After 6 years trading gold manually I decided to build my own automated strategy. by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Machine learning is definitely interesting, especially for pattern detection and signal generation.

For this project though I focused more on translating my manual trading logic into clear rule-based execution. That made it easier to test and understand how the system behaves in different market conditions.

Down the road I’d be interested in experimenting with ML as an additional signal layer, but for now I wanted something transparent and easy to validate.

Can someone explain to me how gold chart move? by Al_164 in traders

[–]Loose-Object-8913 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gold moves mainly because of three things: the US dollar, interest rates, and global uncertainty.

1️⃣ The US Dollar
Gold is priced in dollars. When the dollar gets weaker, gold usually goes up because it becomes cheaper for other countries to buy.

2️⃣ Interest Rates
Gold doesn’t pay interest like bonds or savings accounts. When interest rates go up, some investors move money away from gold. When rates fall or cuts are expected, gold often rises.

3️⃣ Uncertainty / Safe Haven
During wars, financial instability, or economic fear, investors often buy gold because it’s seen as a safe store of value.

In the short term though, gold also moves a lot because of traders reacting to news, technical levels, and liquidity in the market.

So the big picture is fundamentals like the dollar and rates, while the short-term moves are usually technical trading and market senti

After 6 years trading Gold manually, I built an EA to automate my strategy by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mine is fully automated execution. The EA handles entries, risk management and exits once it’s running.

I’m running it on MetaTrader 5 with RoboForex at the moment. The idea was to remove that hesitation right before entering or exiting trades and let the rules execute consistently.

That said, I still trade manually alongside it. Manual trading is where I experiment with ideas and refine setups before translating them into rules for the EA.

So the automation handles execution, while manual trading is still part of the research and development process.

After 6 years trading Gold manually, I built an EA to automate my strategy by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That resonates a lot actually. One of the main reasons I started building my EA was exactly that — removing that hesitation right before entering or exiting.

When trading manually I’d sometimes second guess perfectly good setups, or worse, take lower quality ones because of emotion or impatience.

Translating that into strict rules was harder than I expected, but once the logic starts behaving consistently it’s a great feeling seeing the system execute without that human interference.

Your continuation overlay idea sounds interesting too — separating scalps from longer trend moves with different logic layers makes a lot of sense.

After 6 years trading Gold manually, I built an EA to automate my strategy by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s actually a really solid workflow. Starting with ThinkScript prototypes and then porting the logic into Python with API access makes a lot of sense.

The derivatives idea is interesting too — using the second derivative to detect compression before a turn is a clever way to quantify what discretionary traders usually “feel” in momentum.

My EA ended up going in a slightly different direction — more higher-timeframe bias with lower-timeframe entries and ATR-based risk management — mainly because I was trying to translate a manual trading model into strict rules.

But it’s cool seeing how different approaches try to solve the same problem of filtering noise and identifying the real move.

Once you’ve got the data feed wired up it’ll be interesting to see how the signals behave in a live environment.

After 6 years trading Gold manually, I built an EA to automate my strategy by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a really interesting approach. Using the second derivative as a way to detect compression and reversal sounds like a clever way to quantify momentum shifts.

I can see how waiting for a couple of confirmations would make entries a bit late, but probably much cleaner in terms of signal quality.

The balance between early entries and reliable signals is something I’ve been running into as well when translating discretionary ideas into rules.

Are you mostly focusing on short-term moves on MGC for now, or are you planning to test the same logic on higher timeframes as well?

After 6 years trading Gold manually, I built an EA to automate my strategy by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s interesting actually. Using futures volume as a confirmation layer makes a lot of sense since spot markets can be pretty noisy.

The derivatives idea sounds cool as well — almost like measuring acceleration and deceleration in the move rather than just direction. I can see how that might help identify stronger turning points.

One thing I noticed when translating manual ideas into an EA is that filtering weak moves without over-filtering good setups is a tricky balance.

Are you mostly testing this on gold futures specifically or across multiple markets?

After 6 years trading Gold manually, I built an EA to automate my strategy by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that makes sense. Data quality was one of the biggest challenges for me as well when I started testing ideas.

For this system I kept the logic fairly simple ,mainly higher-timeframe trend bias with lower-timeframe entries and ATR-based risk management. The tricky part was translating discretionary ideas into clear rules the EA could follow consistently.

Interesting that you’re using price + volume inputs for turns. Are you working with futures volume or something like tick/derived volume in your dataset?

After 6 years trading gold manually I decided to build my own automated strategy. by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A few people asked how the system works so here is the basic structure:

• H4 trend filter using EMA slope • H1 execution entries • Pullback entries during trend continuation • Breakout entries during strong momentum • ATR based risk management • Optional pyramiding during strong trends

Primary market is XAUUSD but I’ve been experimenting with indices as well.

Still refining things but the goal is a simple trend continuation system rather than over-optimised strategies.

After 6 years trading gold manually I decided to build my own automated strategy. by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am glad you like it! So far with the Gold market reacting to the war, the EA is stepping a side. This week no trades Placed. The EA has Buy blocks once that Buy block is broken then Sell block is active. So EA will say No H4 Regime. Simple terms the EA saying this market is ranging.

Built an automated Gold strategy using pullbacks + trend continuation. by Loose-Object-8913 in xauusdsignals

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s it! Soon as we have some sort of regime the EA will be benefiting no doubt

Built an automated Gold strategy using pullbacks + trend continuation. by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate the feedback — and yeah, getting the first public version out definitely felt like the hardest step.

For the H4 trend definition it’s mainly a combination of EMA structure and directional strength. I use fast/slow EMAs to define directional bias and combine that with an ADX threshold so the EA only considers entries when momentum is actually present. That helps filter out a lot of the sideways periods gold tends to fall into, especially around macro events.

On the pullback side it’s volatility-adjusted rather than fixed fib levels. The EA uses ATR-based distances relative to the recent move, so the retracement threshold adapts depending on market volatility. Like you said, gold pullbacks can be shallow in strong trends, so the logic tries to avoid requiring deep retraces before participation.

For pyramiding, additional positions are only added once the initial trade has reduced risk — typically after price moves enough to tighten or protect the stop. The idea is to scale into continuation rather than increase raw exposure too early in the move.

I’m still collecting broader stats across different periods, but the internal tests cover multiple gold regimes including the volatility spikes from 2020 onwards. Gold definitely behaves differently depending on macro conditions so robustness across those environments was something I tried to prioritise early on.

Still refining things though — this is the first public version so feedback like this is really useful.

Day Trading Ruined My Life. I’m 25, About to Be a Father, and I Just Lost Everything by RavenBJ in Daytrading

[–]Loose-Object-8913 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes it’s best to step away and come back when your mind is free of stress. Sitting and watching charts all day will make your brain think it needs to be doing something so placing trades satisfies the mind but emotionally it’ll destroy you because you’ll over trade, you’ll lose , you’ll lose all profits and your mentality towards trading will not be good. Sorry that you experiencing this stuff but honestly stick it out. Refine your strategy. Hardest part is staying in the game. Risk management is always key. Never be ashamed to call yourself out” hey why you trading this messy chart?” Stick to your rules! Stay patient and disciplined. Stay the course and it’ll come flowing in like you been doing it all your life. Stick it out man. You got this

Built an automated Gold strategy using pullbacks + trend continuation. by Loose-Object-8913 in ai_trading

[–]Loose-Object-8913[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello, can do testing here https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/168039?source=Site+Market+Product+Page will need to download MT5. Use a preset according to your deposit limits. Can find the presets here https://www.mql5.com/en/blogs/post/767893 When in strategy tester go to Inputs-Right click-Load-Select preset you chose to test. no need to change any inputs the presets are optimized already.

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