MA Crossing Bot tutorial – Trading Strategies – 15 November 2023

This tutorial applies to the EA ‘MA Crossing Bot’ whose product page is accessible by clicking on the image below:

This product is not just an EA that will open orders when the crossing of 2 moving averages occurs. Indeed, the main advantages of this EA are:

• It includes additional filters (3rd MA, Pivot Points, other filters can be implemented on demand).
• It has a complete management of orders (closing on reverse signal, break even, trailing stop, closing before weekend, max lost or win / day …).
• It can work with all market watch symbols at once.

Below is the backtest of this EA for EURUSD (default settings) from 01/01/2020:

Detailed features are described on the product page. Below is the list of EA settings with explanations.

-====General settings====-

Symbols: symbols for alerts & trading (all or symbol on the chart)

There are several possibilities to choose which symbols should be scanned:
  – ‘Only symbol on the chart’ : you should use this option for backtests or if you want to apply the bot on the chart symbol ;
  – ‘All major forex pairs’ : the bot will scan all 28 major forex pairs (EUR/USD/GBP/CHF/AUD/NZD/JPY) ;
  – ‘Market watch’ : the bot will scan all market watch symbols ;
  – ‘Only symbols listed below’ : only symbols listed in the field below will be scanned

Symbols to scan or exclude: write here symbols to scan (‘Only symbols listed below’ mode) or to exclude (‘All major forex pairs’ and ‘Market watch’ mode)

Broker prefix (if necessary): only for brokers who use prefixes. For example, type m for mEURUSD

Broker suffix (if necessary): only for brokers who use prefixes. For example, type m for EURUSDm

If several symbols must be entered in this field, they must be separated by commas

Use Timer: define trading days and hours

Orders will only be opened on trading days. However, orders can be closed/modified even outside of the established time if at least one of the following parameters is enabled:
  – ‘Max % lost/day’ ;
  – ‘Max % win/day’ ;
  – ‘Close before weekend’ ;
  – ‘Close on reverse crossing’ ;
  – ‘Close order if price closes above/below a Ma’ ;
  – ‘Break even’ ;
  – ‘Trailing stop’.

Monday: alerts & trading on Mondays

Tuesday: alerts & trading on Tuesdays

Wednesday: alerts & trading on Wednesdays

Thursday: alerts & trading on Thursdays

Friday: alerts & trading on Fridays

Saturday (crypto): alerts & trading on Saturday (generally for crypto trading)

Sunday (crypto): alerts & trading on Sunday (generally for crypto trading)

Start time: start of the session

End time: end of the session

Indicators alerts: terminal and/or smartphone notifs

Trading alerts: terminal and/or smartphone notifs

-====Moving averages crossing settings====-

Timeframe: all MT4 timeframes

Warning! If you want to use the timeframe of the chart, use the value “CURRENT”!

If you use another value, the current chart timeframe will not affect the Ma calculation.

Crossing validated at: actual bar or as soon as the bar is closed

Recommended value: ‘as soon as the bar is closed’. An order will be opened if a crossover is detected during the current bar and if it is still there when the bar is closed.

Min bars after previous crossing: the crossing is validated if no crossing during the previous x bars

This setting is there to avoid market noise and a period of range. This means that if a cross occurs, the previous cross will be located. The EA will count the number of bars between the 2 crossings (current and previous). 2 solutions:

  – Number of bars < x: the order is not open;

  – Number of bars >= x: the order is open.

Reversed logic: buy and sell logic of the 2 MA crossing is reversed

     -=Moving average 1 settings=-

Ma1 period: period of the 1st  MA

Ma1 method: SMA / EMA / SMMA / LWMA

Ma1 applied price: CLOSE / OPEN / HIGH / LOW / MEDIAN / TYPICAL / WEIGHTED

Ma1 shift: shift of the 1st  MA

     -=Moving average 2 settings=-

Ma2 period: period of the 2nd  MA

Ma2 method: SMA / EMA / SMMA / LWMA

Ma2 applied price: CLOSE / OPEN / HIGH / LOW / MEDIAN / TYPICAL / WEIGHTED

Ma2 shift: shift of the 2nd MA

-====Filters settings====-

     -=3rd Moving average settings=-

Use a 3rd MA: checks if price is above (buy signal) or below (sell signal) this MA

Ma3 timeframe: all MT4 timeframes

Note: to avoid unnecessary backtests in optimization mode, the ‘Same than Ma1 & Ma2’ has been added to automatically provide the same timeframe for Ma3 than for Ma1 & Ma2.

Ma3 period: period of the 3rd  MA

Ma3 method: SMA / EMA / SMMA / LWMA

Ma3 applied price: CLOSE / OPEN / HIGH / LOW / MEDIAN / TYPICAL / WEIGHTED

Ma3 shift: shift of the 3rd  MA

     -=RSI settings=-

Use RSI: checks RSI value before opening an order

RSI Timeframe: all MT4 timeframes

RSI period: period of the RSI filter

RSI applied price: CLOSE / OPEN / HIGH / LOW / MEDIAN / TYPICAL / WEIGHTED

RSI shift: shift of the RSI filter

Min RSI value for a buy order: buy order is opened if RSI > this value

Max RSI value for a sell order: sell order is opened if RSI < this value

     -=Pivot points settings=-

Daily PP: checks if price is above (buy signal) or below (sell signal) daily PP

Weekly PP: checks if price is above (buy signal) or below (sell signal) weekly PP

Monthly PP: identical to the previous parameter for monthly PP

Note: the more filters implemented, the fewer orders will be opened. If you find that there aren’t enough open orders, try disabling some filters.

-====Trading settings====-

     -=General settings=-

Allow trading: if false, only alerts are operational

Magic number: must be unique if other EA are running

‘Max open orders’, ‘Max % lost/day’ and ‘Max % win/day’ are calculated from the magic number. For example, if you have 3 EAs with the same magic number, the total number of orders opened will be the sum of the orders opened in those 3 EAs.

Max open orders: max number of orders opened simultaneously (if 0, no max)

Max % lost/day: if max value is reached, the EA open orders are closed and no other order is opened until the next day (if 0, no max)

The calculation is based on account balance + open orders benefits. In order to speed up the backtests, the calculation is done every hour during backtests, instead of every minute for a real trading session.

Max % win/day: if max value is reached, the EA open orders are closed and no other order is opened until the next day (if 0, no max)

Same remark than for ‘Max % win/day’.

Close before weekend: close all EA orders on Friday

Closing time before weekend: if ‘Close before weekend’ is ‘true’

Use money management: if ‘true’, lot size in % balance

Fixed lots size: lot size per order (if ‘Use money management’ is ‘false’)

Lot size in %: % balance per order (if ‘Use money management’ is ‘true’)

Max spread: max allowed spread to open an order (if 0, no max spread)

Warning: if the value of the spread is too low, no order will be opened! To avoid any problem, it is recommended to set the value ‘0’ for the backtests.

Max slippage: max allowed slippage to open an order

Same remark as ‘Max spread’.

     -=SL & TP settings=-

SL mode: stop loss can be placed x pips above/below current price (normal SL mode) or x pips above/below an Ma (Ma SL mode)

In ‘Ma SL mode’, SL is placed below the Ma for a buy order and above the Ma for a sell order. For a buy order, if the Ma is above the price, the order is not opened. For a sell order, if the Ma is below the price, the order is not opened.

Ma for SL (Ma SL mode only): if ‘Ma SL mode’ is chosen, the SL is x pips above/below the Ma chosen in this parameter when the order is opened

SL in pips: stop loss x pips above/below current price in ‘normal SL’ mode and above/below the chosen Ma in ‘Ma SL’ mode

TP in pips: take profit x pips above/below the current price at the opening of the order regardless of the ‘SL mode’ chosen

     -=Additional closing settings=-

Close on reverse crossing: close the order if the 2 MA cross in the other direction (only for ‘previous_bar’ mode)

Min number of bars to close an order on reverse signal: for ‘Close on reverse crossing’ mode, an order is closed only if there is a minimum of bars between the order opening and the reverse signal

If the crossing was not convincing, another crossing in the other direction may occur during subsequent bars. This parameter prevents the order from being closed too early.

Open an order on reverse crossing: opens a new order if another order just closed with the ‘Close on reverse crossing’ parameter

Close order if price closes above/below a Ma: close order if ask < Ma (buy order) or if bid > Ma (sell order)

Close order if price closes above/below this Ma: MA to use for the previous parameter

     -=BE/TS/Grid settings=-

Break even: if ‘true’, break even is activated

Break even profit: triggers the break even from a certain profit in pips

Trailing stop: if ‘true’, trailing stop is activated

Trail profit: triggers the trailing stop from a certain profit in pips

Trail distance: distance in pips between trailing stop and price

Trail step: step in pips for the trailing stop

Open additional orders: an additional order is opened each time the profit reaches a step

Max additional orders (by symbol) : ‘Open additional orders’ must be ‘true’

Fixed lots size (additionnal orders): if ‘Use money management’ is ‘false’

It is better to have smaller lots than for main orders.

Lot size in % (additionnal orders): if ‘Use money management’ is ‘true’

It is better to have smaller lots than for main orders.

Profit step in pips to open an additional order: each time the profit reaches this step, a new order is opened

SL of additional orders: SL in pips of the additional orders

TP of additional orders: TP in pips of the additional orders

• Before using the ‘All major forex pairs’ mode, verify that the 28 major currency pairs are present in the “Market Watch” tab of MT4.
• It is recommended to use multi-symbol mode for alerts only. When a profitable method is found on a symbol, it is better to apply it in ‘only_symbol_on_the_chart’ mode.

Major forex pairs :

EURUSD / GBPUSD / USDCHF / AUDUSD / USDCAD / USDJPY / NZDUSD

EURGBP / EURCHF / EURAUD / EURCAD / EURJPY / EURNZD

GBPCHF / GBPAUD / GBPCAD / GBPJPY / GBPNZD

AUDCHF / CADCHF / CHFJPY / NZDCHF

AUDCAD / AUDJPY / AUDNZD

CADJPY / NZDCAD

NZDJPY