Challenge automated trading with MT4!! Let's get started! EA Life | Episode 7: Things to be careful about in EA operation and operating techniques [Masamasa Kakizawa]
Shizawa Masanobu Profile
Kakizawa Masanobu. Since 2009, he has been developing automated FX trading systems, providing many systems such as EasySniper and MultiAgent to brokerages and users. At Infostock Securities’ automated trading service “SISTRE 24,” the provided strategy MultiAgent achieved an overwhelmingly strong performance and reception to win the 2016 Annual Award. Also, at Himawari Securities’ automated trading service “Etore,” the provided strategy “Hikae Venus” maintained the No. 1 number of users for more than a year in 2013–2014. The user count exceeds 700. Currently, he offers Dream Agent FX, an evolved form of MultiAgent.
In this series, we focus on FX automated trading systems, particularly EA (Automated Trading System) that runs on MetaTrader 4 (MT4), and have professional trader Masanobu Kakizawa guide you through the knowledge and know-how to operate them. If you are considering operating an EA, or are already using one, please refer to this as well.
*This article is a reprint and revised edition of FX攻略.com’s December 2018 issue. Please note that the market information written here may differ from current market conditions.
Letting automation handle everything to the end is essential
Hello everyone. Last time, under the title “How to Create an EA,” we introduced how to build an EA for MT4 and, in particular, the essential MT4 auxiliary tool “MetaEditor.” In this seventh part, as the final stage of EA basics, I would like to discuss “things to be careful about in EA operation and trading techniques.”
Key cautions and techniques in EA operation can be broadly categorized into four: “do not involve human judgment,” “EA operating environment,” “fund management,” and “portfolio management.” I will explain these in order.
First is “do not involve human judgment.” This means once you start automated trading, you should not manually close or alter the positions held by the EA at will based on your own judgment. Of course, if events occur that destabilize the overall market, that is another matter, but in principle, automated trading should be completed by automation alone.
Automated trading follows a fixed trading logic and continuously executes trades faithfully. Therefore, the law of large numbers applies, and by performing pre-simulations, you can see the direction of performance to some extent. Fundamentally, through such simulations, the developer should have prepared an EA that is expected to win, and provide it to you; however, if you manually close positions, this assumption of “trading mechanically” collapses, and you may end up with unexpected performance. Unless you have considerable market intuition, please leave automated trading to run automatically to the end.
