MetaQuotes is about to release the MetaTrader 5 trading strategy tester ( MetaTester 5 ). One of the big improvements of the new tester is the possibility to create individual calculation frameworks ( agents ) to increase the speed of trading strategies optimization / calculation. On the local computer, each agent represent 1 logical processor core, so for example if you have a quad-core cpu, you can have 4 agents running. The agents can be also installed on remote computers in your local network or other Internet-connected computers around the world. This means that you can create a distributed computing (grid computing) project with as much cpu power as you want. This concept is similar to the popular SETI@home or Folding@Home projects.


The installation of (remote) agents is very simple, according to information from MetaQuotes, all you need is to use MetaTester.exe (a single file, nothing else is required) and install agents as services according to the number of cores or one by one. A separate access password is set for each agent, to ensure that only authorized users connect to it. The client terminal on the central computer plays a manager role and coordinates all the (remote) agents. Each agent opens one local TCP port and waits for connection from the manager client terminal. You can configure all the connections in your router/firewall if it's necessary. The connections will be encrypted and protected by password to ensure maximum security. Once you have everything configured, the entire system will operate in automatic mode. If an agent will interrupt his work, his task will be transferred to the next available agent.


The new Metatrader 5 strategy tester will be much faster than in MT4 because the tester will function as a standalone application. Also, there will be a x64 version of the Metatrader 5 terminal & tester and the MQL5 code will be automatically compiled to native x64 code with access to all available memory. This means that you can use computers with dozens of gigabytes of memory. However, the strategy tester does not support Nvidia CUDA platforms because they are slow in processing of general purpose algorithms, and this is any program on MQL5. Instead of CUDA, every cpu that uses SSE2 (Pentium 4 or higher) is supported.

MetaQuotes will also launch a service on the MQL5 community website where computer power for remote agents will be sold. Everyone will be able to sell it, for example, you can sell your quad core cpu power from 1 to 6 AM. You can also buy the computer power direct form the MQL5 website. For it's services, MetaQuotes will take a small fee from the money which go to the seller.

Of course, the security measures will be also great:

* Fully encrypted compressed traffic network protocol between the client terminal and the agent;
* Access by password;
* Ability to specify a list of the IP addresses allowed to connect to the client terminal;
* Only local agents can use the DLL libraries with the appropriate authorization in the terminal;
* The EA's code wich is passed to the remote agent is never stored on the HDD of the agent and is passed in a modified form, it is impossible to dump;
* A remote agent does not know the name of the EA and does not save the results of calculated data to it's HDD;
* The agent program is also good protected from disassembly or modification.

According to MetaQuotes, the Metatrader 5 strategy tester will be soon available. Probably March/April 2010.

Read more about Metatrader 5 Agents

This is the second article in a 5-part series about the Metatrader 5 Fibonacci Tools. In this article we are going to customize the Fibonacci Fan settings within Metatrader 5 so it can better identify major support and resistance levels. The customized Fibonacci Fan can be used also as a powerful stand-alone trading system.

In Metatrader 5 you can find the Fibonacci Fan tool under the menu Insert -> Objects -> Fibonacci -> Fibonacci Fan. First, place the Fibonacci Fan anywhere on the chart and go to the properties window:


Now, add 2 more levels: 0,764 and 0,854. After adding the new levels, the fan should be like this:


The main Fibonacci Fan levels are:

1: 0,382 - Signal Level
2: 0,5 - Mid-way
3: 0,618 - magnetizes the Target Level
4: 0,764 - Correction Level
5: 0,854 - Target Level

You can customize the description of within the Metatrader 5 Fibonacci Fan levels properties like this:



There are 3 basic models of the price movement within the Fibonacci Fan levels.

1. Rebound model, when the price is repelled ( bounces off ) from the current target level (0,854)
2. Bolt model, when the price, before reaching the current target level bounces off a level of the Fibonacci Fan with a higher priority ( higher timeframe )
3. Breakthrough model, when the price is breaking through the current target level, because it is attracted by a level of the Fibonacci Fan with a higher priority ( higher timeframe )






The price runs from the target level of the last Fibonacci Fan to the target level of current Fibonacci Fan.

A - previous fan
B - current fan
A1 - current target level (0,854)
B1 - support level and the target level for the future fan C-C1.

On the chart above you can see the Rebound model and the Breakthrough model in action. Usually, within the Bolt and Breakthrough model, the price reaches high volatility when it is reversing its course.


Target Level: After the price reversal, the target is set on the target level (0,854) of the previous Fibonacci Fan ( previous wave ). If we look at current EUR/USD position, the target for the major wave will be around 1.3000 end July/begin Augustus this year. Another important instrument are the Fibonacci Arcs, with this tool we can clarify the target level within a certain time period, it is the crossing of the Fibonacci Fan's target level (0,854) with the Fibonacci Arc's 0.764 level. I'm going to write about the Fibonacci Fan & Fibonacci Arcs combination in the next article.

There is a wonderful indicator that is build for Fibonacci Fan trading, Fiba +, currently it is available only for Metatrader 4. You can download it below with the indicator template. It draws the main Fibonacci Fan levels as described above and gives them priorities. Recommended time-frame for this indicator is H4.



Another important this is the Fibonacci Fan Mirror. You can create it buy reversing the price value in the properties windows of the Fan that you want to mirror:



The Fibonacci Fan Mirror can be used to identify resistance levels for the current price move within the current Fibonacci Fan. For example, if the price bounces off the 0,618 level of the fan mirror, the target level of the mirror becomes a major resistance. You can also use the Fibonacci Fan Mirror for placing stop loss or lock positions ( however as we know, in Metatrader 5 it's not possible :( ), the stop loss level should be placed above the mirror's target level 0,854. I'm going to write more about this in future articles.



There is also a indicator for Metatrader 4 that draws Fibonacci Fan Mirrors automatically, it works in combination with the Fibo + indicator, download it below:

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Downloads:
Download the Fibo + indicator
Download the Fibo + indicator template
Download the Fibo Fan Mirror indicator

Check out this great blog about MQL programming and Metatrader 5 related stuff: http://mqlmagazine.com The authors of the blog are Bogdan Caramalac and Bogdan Baltatu, professional traders and MQL programmers from Romania. The blog has many great articles, for example: Tick events in MQL5: complicated for now, but functional or Quoting – A new activity in MT5

About their blog:

MQLmagazine.com is a web magazine for MetaTrader users and MQL programmers, covering automated trading in forex, futures, options and equities.

Metatrader 5 – A Probably New Beginning For Everything

This was the title of my last post in my former blog on the vamist.ro website – the romanian forex community. At that time I was announcing my decision to move my blog on a brand new domain – my own. However, things changed and there had come the decision to write a magazine. But what kind of magazine ? Well, there are plenty magazines for traders. Take a look at the ones better known – CurrencyTrader , Futures & Options Trader… They target most of the time the strategical type of trader. The one that takes long term trades that span on months. This is why most of their analysis are floating around market forecasts. Of course, around these, different platform commercials and explanations of “forex” terms.

The retail forex market is around for some good years. In the so-called “western world”, these markets became known and called for retail traders right from beginning. But here, in Romania, where the authors are located, forex is still not too much known. However, we will not make a forex magazine. As I said, forex was what was offered to beginners at that time.

Things have started to change a bit a few years ago, when forward steps have been made by several brokerages, that started to offer futures and equities under MetaQuotes’ most acclaimed platform, Metatrader 4. But it wasn’t the time of a revolution in retail trading. Because Metatrader 4 was not designed – although it is the best retail trading platform – to trade the manner professional traders think and do it. Therefore, several trading strategies that were known to professional traders and , in general, to the hedge fund world, have remain hidden from the sight of retail traders.

Even more, brokerages commercials and forums accentuated the traders indoctrination that forex was the ultimate market that could have been traded. Lots of trading strategies and markets were hidden : pair trading strategies, quoting, forex arbitrage (although it was tackled at that time by a few, including myself) , forex / futures arbitrage, commodities arbitrage, and finally option strategies. Option strategies still are, at this time, the realm of derivatives quants. Even professional option traders don’t trade the way they might think – because either the platforms can’t do it and the NFA regulations restrict it. Here are some facts about trading platforms and regulations:

- most of them do not have a backtesting module;
- most of them do not support even exchange traded options, not speaking about exotics;
- most of them do not offer automation for options, and that including the well-known TradeStation and OptionStation;
- option stations may not support any other assets – example RAN Order and IKON.
- the ones that have a backtesting module may not backtest multiple assets;
- data feed is dependant on either broker or data provider; so you may have, or not, what you desire to trade;
- they might offer their own scripting language or API ; professional platforms might offer only FIX specification and leave automation on the hands of extremely skilled C++ programmers;
- under NFA regulations you cannot trade in a forex account anything else besides forex, gold and silver. Anything else, including forex options or real futures, trade in a separate account;
- under NFA regulations you cannot trade CFDs (broker manufactured assets that mimic real market, being tailored to small investors);
- under NFA regulations you can trade futures, equities, and options in the same account;
- and finally, under NFA regulations, you cannot hedge – that is, you cannot be long and short at the same time on an instrument ; even more, positions open and close in a FIFO manner.

Unfortunately, Metatrader 4 didn’t score too much either ; a limited platform, extremely latent , which can’t backtest anything but strategies trading one asset and with no implementation of options. As a result, anything quite constructive that could have been built in theoretical conditions (i.e. textbook strategies) could not be backtested or not even implemented at all.

But with the emergence of the new MetaQuotes’ flagship platform, Metatrader 5, things have started to change. At the time this article is being written, Metatrader 5 is in open beta. The “Strategy Tester” module (which is well known by some of our readers and will be also presented in future articles) is not present in the platform. It is our belief that the Strategy Tester will allow development of multiasset strategies. Multiasset backtesting is needed in a lot of situations. I might even say that all successful trading is multiasset trading. You might ask why. And the answer is simple. All [successful] trading is a form of arbitrage. Some will argue and say that very good trading systems don’t arbitrage – but when you look at a sheet with trades and see a good percentage of profitable trades that are not offset by bad trades, somehow the system knew to buy something cheap and sell something expensive, so it does nothing else than a price-value arbitrage. But one-asset markets are just too random for the unexperienced trader to handle. After all, what is of value is the multiasset approach, because markets can’t be too efficient overall. Correlations are broken, parity relations are broken, add to this the magic of options, and look at the big picture : markets become full of opportunities! Now don’t ask why they got into the crysis : they had too much money, way too much money in order to make enough using opportunities. After all, we’re not interested in universal strategies that apply to everyone. But in strategies that apply to US, THE SMALL GUYS.

So, given that the new Metatrader 5 comes with new features, like multiasset backtester, option trading and event-based programming, we decided it was time for a magazine for all things MetaTrader. Of course, with the accent on MQL programming. The magazine will be addressed to all categories of MetaTrader users: absolute beginners that never heard of trading and are making the first steps in the world of markets, MetaTrader traders that use the terminal , and finally all categories of MQL programmers – task specific programming and also complex strategies design and programming.

Source: Mqlmagazine.com