My friends are organising a barcamp in Singapore on 21 Nov 2009. I have decided to join in the fun and hope to present the MQL4 automated forex trading to a group of fellow developers in other areas.
What is a barcamp? Essentially a conference where the contents are user-generated. It is usually open, participatory and contents used to be technical but nowadays there are more fun topics like "How to date a Japanese girl" (presented by a Japanese girl). Attendance can range from a few hundreds to a thousand. Barcamps are getting popular with a group of like-minded people hustling together to explore the changing world advanced through new IT technologies and ideas.
One has to fight for a slot so hopefully I can share something. Otherwise, there will always be a next.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
MQL5 ready for puiblic testing
It is going to be a busy period down the road now, with MQL5 being ready for public beta testing tomorrow (12 Oct 2009). MQL4 has become so popular that a lot of big time brokers have joined in. I am not sure if MQL5 will enjoy the same success.
First, MQL5 is object-oriented, so it will be a steeper learning curve. Most retail forex traders will find it harder to learn.
Second, the compatibilty with MQL4 is not maintained because the creators said the language concepts are just too different. They tried to keep the compatibility but they couldn't. So all EAs and indicators in MQL4 have to be rewritten in MQL5. We can only hope for someone to write a tool to do a conversion for us.
Third, there are just too much success in MQL4 to motivate people to migrate. The best thing happened so far is NFA's new rules which have rendered MQL4 useless so much so that some US brokers just gave up, or encourage traders to use the non-US operations.
We shall see. For me, it just means spending some time to study MQL5 and prepare for the day when brokers indeed stop using the MQL4 platform and force us to move on to MQL5.
First, MQL5 is object-oriented, so it will be a steeper learning curve. Most retail forex traders will find it harder to learn.
Second, the compatibilty with MQL4 is not maintained because the creators said the language concepts are just too different. They tried to keep the compatibility but they couldn't. So all EAs and indicators in MQL4 have to be rewritten in MQL5. We can only hope for someone to write a tool to do a conversion for us.
Third, there are just too much success in MQL4 to motivate people to migrate. The best thing happened so far is NFA's new rules which have rendered MQL4 useless so much so that some US brokers just gave up, or encourage traders to use the non-US operations.
We shall see. For me, it just means spending some time to study MQL5 and prepare for the day when brokers indeed stop using the MQL4 platform and force us to move on to MQL5.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
More Japanese indicators
Japanese are very innovative people, and you can see this from the progress of the nation. Step into Tokyo and you will discover that they are so willing to use IT and electronics in their everyday processes. It is not a "should I" but instead you will find IT/electronics quite embedded. Take for example the $10 haircut idea copied from Japan which is commonplace in Sinagpore now. Using a machine to collect the $10 notes in exchange for a token card before having your haircut solves the money collection issue by the bosses. No fraud, no miscounting and best of all the money is safe in a machine and no robber can come to clear the till.
OK, I digress. I just wanted to express my admiration of the Japanese and share their innovativeness even in trading. I talked about the Ichimoku cloud chart just a while back. Take a look at other Japanese invented indicators like Kagi charts, or Renko charts. Yet another way of looking at the prices without having to worry about the time factor. Renko candles are just bricks and boxes with no regard to time - just price action reactions. Apparently you can spot more trading opportunities using Renko than candlesticks, afterall the inclusion of open times, closing times, high and low are arbitrary formulated based on time frames. Change the time frame, and information from candlesticks change. Oh by the way, the often used candlesticks is also a Japanese invention.
Kagi charts are similar to Renko charts, paying no regard to time. Kagi charts are joining lines that look like steps depiciting highs and lows and changing of higher highs and lower lows.
Not that these indicators are important to me. I use EAs and hence don't even look at charts. So if we can have charts with no time factor, there must something to all these that is worth investigating more,
OK, I digress. I just wanted to express my admiration of the Japanese and share their innovativeness even in trading. I talked about the Ichimoku cloud chart just a while back. Take a look at other Japanese invented indicators like Kagi charts, or Renko charts. Yet another way of looking at the prices without having to worry about the time factor. Renko candles are just bricks and boxes with no regard to time - just price action reactions. Apparently you can spot more trading opportunities using Renko than candlesticks, afterall the inclusion of open times, closing times, high and low are arbitrary formulated based on time frames. Change the time frame, and information from candlesticks change. Oh by the way, the often used candlesticks is also a Japanese invention.
Kagi charts are similar to Renko charts, paying no regard to time. Kagi charts are joining lines that look like steps depiciting highs and lows and changing of higher highs and lower lows.
Not that these indicators are important to me. I use EAs and hence don't even look at charts. So if we can have charts with no time factor, there must something to all these that is worth investigating more,
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Clouds watching
Since I am now in Tokyo, Japan, basking in the beauty of the Land of the Rising Sun, it is only appropriate to write about a Japanese indicator called the Ichimoku Kinko Hyo developed in 1969.
When I first came across this indicator, I was not only fascinated to find out what the name means, but the colourful lines and meshes that seem to make this indicator mysterious.So what does Ichimoku Kinko Hyo means? Translated literally it means "one-glance balanced bars/chart" or non-literally, "chart equilibrium at a glance". It comprises of moving averages over a determined period and shifted moving averages. In short, it is really a trend indicator with support and resistance lines. Ichimoku Kinko Hyo or Ichimoku in short (or some like to it cloud charts) is commonly recommended for longer time frame trading such as daily or weekly. But some have shared success even at lower time frames. But I still think that one should stick a minimum of daily time frame.
It used to be difficult to find information about this indicator, but do a google now and you will find tons of them including books. So I shan't write much about this.
When I first came across this indicator, I was not only fascinated to find out what the name means, but the colourful lines and meshes that seem to make this indicator mysterious.So what does Ichimoku Kinko Hyo means? Translated literally it means "one-glance balanced bars/chart" or non-literally, "chart equilibrium at a glance". It comprises of moving averages over a determined period and shifted moving averages. In short, it is really a trend indicator with support and resistance lines. Ichimoku Kinko Hyo or Ichimoku in short (or some like to it cloud charts) is commonly recommended for longer time frame trading such as daily or weekly. But some have shared success even at lower time frames. But I still think that one should stick a minimum of daily time frame.
It used to be difficult to find information about this indicator, but do a google now and you will find tons of them including books. So I shan't write much about this.
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