trade metrics

[hayseed]

what is your average trade length in hours..... do you have a rough idea......

there is a very good reason for question...... in and of itself, average trade length might be just another number..... but when combined with other trade metrics, which i'll add later, average trade length can shine light on my areas that need improving...... it should lead to more questions all of which might help me improve further......

the script below, goes in scripts folder..... it will return your average hours per trade..... in the account i checked, mine was 20 hours.....

forex is not a random dart throwing game for me...... it's a serious venture and one where i'm always looking to improve on......

perhaps it's the same for you......

so, what's your average trade length.....h

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[Enivid]

Wow! I voted >48 hours, but after running the scripts, it turns out that it's 3.04 hours for my chart pattern trading account (which doesn't seem right) and 0.46 for my news trading account (which seems right).

Are you sure it is working correctly? What time period does it look back at? Does it take into account pending orders?

 

[hayseed]

Are you sure it is working correctly? What time period does it look back at? Does it take into account pending orders?

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hey enivid...... yes it was including pending orders, thanks for pointing my error out...... i corrected and added the selectable time span to look at below..... had to change my vote also....

this is a reduced version of a large ea that looks at all trades , including pendings, sorts them by type and evaluates them...... because it is so large, thought i would slowly introduce it in steps..... first just being overall hours per trade.....

olexandr topchylo, aka better, won the 2007 metaquotes contest..... he said once, most people have trouble taking a loss.... i'm in that group.....

used to think my average winning pips per trade was excellent..... the picture changed when i calculated my hours per trade.....h
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[Enivid]

OK, it is now 425 hours for my chart pattern trading account and 0.45 hour for my news trading account.

 

[hayseed]

we learn what interests us.......

when is a order an order..... any open order, buy or sell, held over the weekend will incur the additional hours over the weekend..... pending orders held over a weekend, buy/sell limits/stops, will not....

don't be blind to the negatives, so if i speak of winning know there is a flip side to that coin.....

for me, knowing the hours per trade is important, so is winning pips per trade..... there is nothing wrong with an average trade length of 72 hours..... if my average winning pips per trade is 10, i ask why and look for ways to improve..... using indicators that plot all my trades can help....

the chart below shows the trade averaged 60 hours making aver 37 pips...... so it took me 20 4hr bars to make the atr of 1......

better entrys would have lessened my time spent under water....h
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[hayseed]

the chart above and below uses the indicator 'history expanded'..... can't recall why i named it that.....

i placed those sells and also the ones below on a 60 minute alma buy signal intentionally..... trades placed against the trend, even the small 60 minute, are almost destined to run longer than those placed with the trend.....

this second group shown below lowered my average hours per trade but did not harm the average pips per trade........ still, with the alma attached it's clear my entrys would have been far better had i placed sellstops on the alma sell signal.......

alma is just an example......

it's almost a given, targets based on a single full 4hour atr will take a few bars to hit...... so if the eurnzd 4hour atr(20) is 40, trades running 12 hours would not concern me....... but if trades run several days for a single 240 atr, usually something is amiss unless your counter trend trading.....

next week i'll place the trades with the trends for comparison.......h
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[hayseed]

Nice... Do you mind sharing the script that calculates those stats here?

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hey enivid..... the stats on right are from the history indicator..... also placing the mouse pointer over each trades line will give you the pips, profit and lot size for that order...... lime lines for winning trades and red lines otherwise.....

the stats on the left are what's next in the trade metrics ........ yes for sure i will post it...... and more......h

 

[DT77]

8 hours. Thought it would be less but some of my trades just hang around forever and skew the figures

 

[hayseed]

8 hours. Thought it would be less but some of my trades just hang around forever and skew the figures

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hey dt..... the small account being used here was opened 7 days ago for this thread ........ so the total number of trades is small and lengths are short..... that will change.....

years ago when swap was huge and jpy pairs trended for months, some of my trades ran for months..... swap is low now on what i trade it's little concern..... my focus is more on trend alone......

with many different styles of trading there is probably no common ground for length and pips......

my goal in this account here is to look for ideas to lower my trade time while not harming the pips won.....

open to suggestions......h
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below is the russian trade report indicator, goes in indicator folder......

 

[hayseed]

trading with the trend is by no means a guarantee of success......

trading against the trend is by no means a guarantee of failure.....

the iexposure indicator is included with the platform..... the alma is not.....

below is my modified version which colors the symbols lime if both the 1440 and 240 almas are going up..... red if both are going down..... aqua otherwise..... so if i'm selling the eurusd with both hands and the symbol is lime,,,,,,, well you get the picture......

included in the window name will be your account balance along with the margin level as of when the indicator was added to the chart..... so don't expect those figures to update by tick, bar or trades.....

it also has account profit alerts along with individual symbol profit alerts..... for me, those alerts are of value all day but esp at night...... they help in planning for best case scenarios.....

the alarmhour is just that..... by default the hour is 25.... changing it to your platforms server time hour desired , it will alert.....

the main idea here is to let me know when my trades are not aligned with the market...... subtle reminders , even as simple as colored symbols, seem help shorten my trades length...... and disappointment....h
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[joshepthetrader]

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hey dt..... the small account being used here was opened 7 days ago for this thread ........ so the total number of trades is small and lengths are short..... that will change.....

years ago when swap was huge and jpy pairs trended for months, some of my trades ran for months..... swap is low now on what i trade it's little concern..... my focus is more on trend alone......

with many different styles of trading there is probably no common ground for length and pips......

my goal in this account here is to look for ideas to lower my trade time while not harming the pips won.....

open to suggestions......h
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below is the russian trade report indicator, goes in indicator folder......

Thanks for share the source code,