Time based orders in MetaTrader 4

The short summary is that time based orders in MT4 are possible. You just need to keep in mind some of the technical limitations. MetaTrader 4 EAs work based off of incoming ticks. Whenever the bid/ask changes by a micro pip or more, that event triggers the EA to do something.

When the markets hum along at a rapid pace, this effect is not noticeable. When the quote flow slows down, however, it can cause the EA to sleep entirely through your trading window.

Many news traders want to bracket buy and sell stops around the price at 08:29 on NFP Friday. Everyone knows that a major news event is about to release. Trading slows down, as does the flow of quotes. The pending orders may not set in time if an incoming tick does not arrive in the 60 seconds between 08:29 and 08:30. This seems unlikely to many novice traders, but it happens frequently enough that we inevitably receive these types of questions whenever we program a time-based order placement EA.

The workaround typically satisfies most traders. EAs place an order at the first available tick within a certain time window. Using NFP as the example, the EA might seek to place bracket orders around the first tick between 08:29-08:32. The chances of making it 2 minutes past 08:30 without a single tick are low. And given that you are taking the first tick, the orders will succesfully bracket around the price the vast majority of the time. It is important to keep in mind how the backend works for those one-off events where the orders do not function as desired.

MetaTrader 5 addresses MT4′s time weakness by offering event driven programming. It is possible to rewrite MQL4 EAs into MQL5 and to demand an action at a precise moment in time. The MQL5 timer actively watches the clock. Regardless of what the markets do, the EA can know to wake up and do whatever action is needed. This is one of the few scenarios where converting from MQL4 into MQL5 comes with obvious advantages.

Automated Choice of Brokerage Company for an Efficient Operation of Expert Advisors

http://articles.mql4.com/508

Introduction

Very often we face situations when an Expert Advisor successfully operates with one brokerage company and is not profitable or even lossmaking on the other one. The reasons may be different. Different brokerage companies have different settings:

• Quotes. They slightly differ because of two factors - different data feeds and different filtration that smooths quotes. For some Expert Advisors this may be relevant. Situations may occur when an EA trades often with one brokerage company and rarely on another one.
• Slippage. It may differ much in different brokerage companies. This also may lead to worse characteristics of an EA because of lower expected profit. 
• Requotes. In some brokerage companies they are oftener than in others. In this case an EA will miss successful entering points because of large number of requotes.

http://articles.mql4.com/508

Color Changing Indicators in MetaTrader

Many custom indicators in MetaTrader use lines that change colors to indicate a change in trend or market condition. Those types of indicators are among the more common requests that we get for programming Expert Advisors. Unfortunately, these indicators often present problems. What you see on the chart is not necessarily what the indicator says.

Take a look at the image below or click the link to view it in full size. You'll notice that I included the data window for the indicator, which is SuperTrend. As we walk from left to right, the data window does not suddenly shift from Trend Up to Trend Down. Instead, it shifts with an in between period where the trend is both up and down.

While the visual effect is immediately obvious, the numbers do not clearly indicate the indicator's condition. In fact, it frequently happens where the indicator entirely misrepresents its true calculation. If the last bar was only green and the indicator says that the current bar is red-green, then we can safely assume that the indicator is switching from green to red.

When the indicator says it's red-green and the past bar was red-green, it gets more tricky. We are forced to keep looking back through time until a "clean" red or green value appears. This enables us to capture the indicator's real value.

It does not, however, make for a happy trader. Consider the case where the indicator plots red-green, red, red-green, red. Because of the way MetaTrader draws lines from point to point, the indicator actually appears as a solid red line - a long, beautiful sell signal, right?

In fact, its true calculated values are red, green, red, green. This glitch can make for some ugly surprises. This is especially so when traders expect to ride a down trend and the line appears as solid red, but the indicator (and thus EA) keeps flip flopping on the trade direction. You have to keep this in mind when building EAs around custom indicators.

Copyright Issues When Programming Expert Advisors

People frequently discover indicators on forums, trading groups, etc. Although most are bad, occasionally an indicator looks promising enough to use if for programming an expert advisor. Are you allowed to use the indicator that you found in an Expert Advisor?

The crux of the matter is what you intend to do with it. Intellectual property (IP) law has a concept called public domain. If you create an indicator and then share it on a public web site, then the file is presumably free for all to use. Essentially, you give away the copyright when you share it for all to see. The only caveat would be if the file or hosting page places an explicit restriction on how the file may or may not be used.

Personal use of an Expert Advisor does not pose a problem. This includes indicators that you purchased. The only legal reason that prevents you from using a commercial indicator in a personal EA is if the purchasing agreement for the indicator forbids creating derivative products, such as using the indicator to build a new EA.

Writing a commercial EA with a public domain custom indicator also meets the hurdle. You cannot take someone else's work and pass it off as your own; you must substantially alter or improve it before the work becomes yours. Turning an indicator into an automated strategy qualifies as a substantial improvement.

The thorniest issue pops up when you want to use a commercial indicator to create a commercial EA without the permission of the indicator's owner. Most people, myself included, would call this theft. The only way that you can do this legally and ethically is to secure an agreement from the indicator's copyright owner.

I am a programmer. If you're deeply concerned about this issue and want to ensure this information truly reflects US law, then I strongly suggest that you speak with an intellectual property attorney. The information above is for general information purposes and should not be construed as legal advice.

Here's a quick summary:

Create a private EA from a public domain custom indicator - Almost always ok, unless the indicator owner forbids it

Create a private EA from a commercial custom indicator - generally OK, unless your purchasing agreement forbids it

Create a commercial EA from a public domain custom indicator - generally OK, unless the indicator's creator forbids it

Create a commercial EA from a commercial indicator - never OK, unless you strike an agreement with the copyright owner

Central Banks coordinated move - lower USD Swap lines by 50 bp

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/global-markets/asian-shares-gain-on-central-banks-liquidity-move/articleshow/10939125.cms

TOKYO: Asian shares extended gains on Thursday after the world's six major central banks moved to tame a liquidity crunch for European banks by providing cheaper dollar funding. 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 1.3 percent, after U.S. stocks rallied 4 percent and European equities rose 2 percent on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei opened up 1.7 percent on Thursday. 

The U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the central banks of Canada, Britain, Japan and Switzerland said on Wednesday they would lower the cost of existing dollar swap lines by 50 basis points from Dec. 5, and arrange bilateral swaps to provide liquidity for other currencies. 

A move by China on Wednesday to cut the percentage of cash banks must keep as reserves also boosted sentiment. 

The central banks' move aims to thaw severe funding strains for European banks as lenders had been extremely reluctant due to concerns over the eurozone's ability to quickly resolve its debt crisis, and could warm investor stance towards risk. 

MF Global foreign branches to return funds

MF Global customers abroad may see their frozen funds at least partially returned in the near future, according to several reports this weekend. In the UK, clients subject to the asset freeze may submit claims in two weeks, while in Canada, a court has ordered MF Global’s trustee to begin making cash payments.

KPMG, the firm now responsible for MF Global’s UK branch, says that customers may submit claims beginning December 8. “This helps to create certainty around the number and size of claims with the intention of allowing a return of a proportion of client funds before March 30 2012,” explained Richard Heis, joint special administrator of MF Global UK. The amount clients can expect to recover will depend in turn on what KPMG receives from banks, exchanges, and other institutions. Approved claims will be paid within 14 days. This announcement comes on the heels of a US court order granting American trustees access to company funds. While MF Global’s American operations have been plagued by reports of missing millions (if not billions), these shortfalls are not expected to affect clients in the UK.

http://www.cftclaw.com/2011/11/mf-global-international-branches-return-funds/

Europeans prepare for Euro breakup, riots

REPORT: FRANCE, GERMANY PREPARE TO TAKE DRASTIC MEASURES...

Banks brace for breakup of euro...

RIOTS WARNED...

Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns

British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.

EES Hardware Development Survey

EES is developing a trading hardware appliance for traders and would like your feedback:

http://eesfx.com/portal/ees-fx/surveys?survey=1

Understanding RAM Timings

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Understanding-RAM-Timings/26

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_timings

Memory timings (or RAM timings) refer collectively to a set of four numerical parameters called CL, tRCD, tRP, and tRAS, commonly represented as a series of four numbers separated with dashes, in that respective order (e.g. 5-5-5-15). However, it is not unusual for tRAS to be omitted, or for a fifth value, the Command rate, to be added on. It also remains a common practice to advertise only CL. These parameters define, in clock cycles, the various forms of latency (responsiveness to random requests) that affect fundamental performance metrics of random access memory. Lower numbers indicate fewer clock cycles are needed, implying faster performance.

Moody's cuts Hungary to junk HUF down 1.8%

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/25/idINIndia-60726220111125

(Reuters) - Credit rating agency Moody's cut Hungary's debt to "junk" grade late on Thursday, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Viktor Orban's unorthodox economic policies and prompting his government to denounce the move as a "financial attack".

Moody's lowered Hungary's sovereign rating by one notch to Ba1, just below investment-grade, with a negative outlook, only hours after rival Standard & Poor's held fire on a flagged downgrade after Budapest said it would seek international aid.

Germany, Euro on death watch

Investors began to fear the worst for the euro after unusually weak demand at an auction for bonds from Germany, the region’s largest economy. One analyst went so far as to put the currency on a “death watch.”

AP

Germany sold just 60 percent of the 6 billion euros in 10-year bunds it brought to auction, about the weakest demand seen for the country’s debt in the currency’s 16-year history, economists said. The rejection of debt from Europe’s safe harbor marks a new stage for the crisis.

“No bunds wanted equals no Euros wanted equals the Euro death watch,” wrote Mark Steele, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets. “We have seen many poor German auctions. This is not the issue. The issue is how badly the euro is doing after the weak auction.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45418399/print/1/displaymode/1098/ 

"Disastrous" bond sale shakes confidence in Germany

(Reuters) - A "disastrous" German bond sale on Wednesday sparked fears that Europe's debt crisis was even starting to threaten Berlin, with the leaders of the euro zone's two biggest economies still firmly at odds over a longer-term structural solution.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-eurozone-idUSTRE7AM0VR20111123

Soil is the hot commodity

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/21/us-farmland-idUSTRE7AK0EA20111121

(Reuters) - It took just 31 minutes for Donald Ellingson's family to end an agrarian tradition that had survived more than a half-century, by auctioning off 153 acres of rich Iowa farmland.

Five years after their father's death, Ellingson's three children had grown weary of the demands of running a farm. Their tenant farmer had retired, and finding a new one was tough. The youngest of them was 60 -- too old, they agreed, to return to a life of risky finances and long work days.

EES Partner - ADVFN Free financial news & data services

GERMANS TRY TO KILL OFF POUND

BRITAIN will soon be forced to scrap the pound and join the euro, one of Germany’s most senior figures said yesterday.

In a chilling threat to UK sovereignty, German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble predicted that all Europe would one day use the single currency. “It will happen perhaps faster than some in the British Isles currently believe,” he said. 

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/284656/Germans-try-to-kill-off-pound

Stamford and the World's Largest Trading Floor

Washington Boulevard at Interstate 95 is Connecticut’s version of Wall Street at Broad.

This is where UBS, aka the Union Bank of Switzerland, sits on one side of the street, a short walk from the Stamford train station into Manhattan. On the other side is RBS, aka the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The trading capital of Connecticut is now all up in arms, it seems, because UBS is talking about moving out.

UBS' 103,000-square-foot trading floor in Stamford.

Denizens are warning that the city will “become a ghost town,” if the Swiss bank moves its operations – including its 103,000-square-foot trading floor – into New York City.

Merkel’s CDU Votes to Allow Exits From Euro Area

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party voted to offer euro states a“voluntary” means of leaving the currency area.

CDU delegates meeting in the eastern German city of Leipzig for their annual party congress today backed a motion on the euro that included a clause permitting euro exits without exclusion from the European Union. They rejected an amendment that would have sought to change voting at the European Central Bank so that it is weighted according to economic size.    

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-14/merkel-s-cdu-votes-to-allow-exits-from-euro-area.html

CIA following tweets

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day.

At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms — anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-cia-following-twitter-facebook-081055316.html

Oakland rally turns violent

CHAOS IN CALI...

'Occupy' Rallies Turn Violent...

Police Tear Gas Oakland Protesters...

Mob Runs Wild in City Streets...

Shut Down Port, Attack WHOLE FOODS, ATMs...

Cops, Protesters Clash in Seattle...

FBI interested in regulatory probe of MF Global

(Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is interested in the investigation of MF Global Holdings Ltd, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.

The person declined to give details. Regulators said on Monday that the company reported possible "deficiencies" in customer futures segregated accounts.

MF Global, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, is the biggest U.S. casualty of Europe's debt crisis, and the seventh-largest bankruptcy by assets in U.S. history.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/02/us-mfglobal-fbi-idUSTRE7A076720111102

MF Global near collapse - IB most likely suitor

MF Global Holdings Ltd., the futures broker run by Jon Corzine, was suspended from conducting new business with the New York Federal Reserve today after posting a record loss.

The firm’s board met through the weekend in New York to consider options including a sale to avert failure, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. It was stopped from doing new business with the New York Fed until it shows it’s able to fulfill its responsibilities as a primary dealer, according to a statement on the regulator’s website. Trading in MF Global’s stock was also halted.

Pressure is mounting on Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey and U.S. senator, after MF Global declined 67 percent last week and its bonds started trading at distressed levels amid its disclosures of bets on European sovereign-debt. MF Global was in discussions with five potential buyers for all or parts of the company, including banks, private-equity firms and brokers, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

“While the pieces are attractive, figuring out potential buyers is a lot harder,” Robert Rutschow, an analyst with CLSA Credit Agricole Securities in New York, said in an Oct. 28 note to clients. “In the current environment, banks can’t even go to the bathroom without permission from their regulator, let alone buy a brokerage firm that was looking to grow proprietary trading and expand risk-taking activities.”

Interactive Brokers

The most attractive part of the New York-based firm is its retail futures brokerage, which could fetch $500 million to $600 million, he said. MF Global hired Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP for a London affiliate, a person said. The law firm currently represents Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which in 2008 filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

MF Global may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as today and sell assets to Interactive Brokers Group Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported on its website, citing a person familiar with the matter it did not identify. Interactive Brokers would likely make an initial bid of about $1 billion during a court-supervised auction after the company files for Chapter 11, the newspaper cited the person as saying.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-30/corzine-s-mf-global-faces-pivotal-days-as-firm-considers-sale-bankruptcy.html

Yen Falls Versus Dollar Amid Speculation Japan Intervened in Markets

The yen plunged against the dollar and euro amid speculation Japan intervened in markets to weaken its currency.

The yen sank 3.2 percent to 78.30 per dollar as of 10:34 a.m. in Tokyo. It lost 2.8 percent to 110.38 per euro.

Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said earlier today he’s ready to take “determined” steps in the currency market if needed after the yen rose to a fresh post-World War II high against the dollar.

He told reporters in Tokyo today that speculative activity is strong in the currency market, adding that the yen’s moves don’t reflect Japan’s economic fundamentals.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-31/yen-falls-versus-dollar-amid-speculation-japan-intervened-in-markets.html

EES FX listed on CNS Latency chart

See EES FX on CNS Latency chart - 1ms to trading server

Hedge funds a super gamble

Philip Falcone grew up in the mining town of Chisholm, Minnesota, population 4976. The youngest of nine children who lived in a three-bedroom house, Falcone excelled at ice hockey and played for Harvard.

After college, a burgeoning career as a professional hockey player was cut short by injury and he then cut his teeth in the markets as a trader at Barclays Capital.

Now, Falcone is best-known as a "billionaire New York hedge fund manager". Geared to the gills like most hedge funds, his Harbinger Capital Partners made a poultice in the bull market; in Australia, too. Falcone's most notable play being a 16 per cent stake in Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals which reaped him hundreds of millions in profit when he sold down two years ago.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/hedge-funds-a-super-gamble-20111014-1lp2n.html#ixzz1c6PM4n4s


Hedge Funds

Greeks move €228billion into Swiss banks

Greece in flames over cuts (while fat-cats secretly shift €228billion into Swiss banks accounts)

• Wealthy are moving euros through foreign subsidiaries in Cyprus
• 50,000 people descend on Athens as 48-hour general strike begins
• Hundreds of flights and ferries cancelled as workers walk out
• Greek parliament will vote on fresh austerity measures tomorrow

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050895/Greek-fat-cats-secretly-shifted-200bn-euros-Swiss-bank-accounts.html

Greek protesters clashed with police in central Athens after Prime Minister George Papandreou vowed to push through a further round of austerity and appealed to Europe to cut Greece’s debt load at an Oct. 23 summit.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/papandreou-presses-austerity-as-strikes-hold-greece-hostage-.html

Multiple Time Frames or Pairs in an Expert Advisor

Many strategies incorporate multi-timeframe analysis in their decision making process. Consider the example of a moving average cross strategy. The most basic version says to buy when a fast moving average crosses above a slow moving average. Multi-timeframe analysis involves jumping to a chart of a longer period to consider the setup there, as well.

Example:
The 20 period SMA (fast) crosses above the 50 period SMA (slow) on the M15 chart.
Now jump to the H1 chart. Is the fast SMA greater than the slow SMA on that chart, too? If so, then the trade is allowed. If not, the EA skips the signal and waits for another one.

The technique has the potential to work if your strategy offers some type of statistical advantage. Moving averages sometimes work when applied using a trader's discretion of general market volatility. If you leave an MA cross strategy on a chart unattended, however, my expectation is that you would have no better chance than trading at random. Adding another layer of analysis will not change the fact that the basic premise offers no advantage.

MetaTrader does not restrict Expert Advisors to reading information from the applied chart. When you program an EA to trade on EURGBP M5 chart, you may also read price information from the EURGBP M1, EURGBP H1 or any other chart available. You can even read information on multiple pairs.

Some traders like to watch correlated currency pairs. EUR/USD and USD/CHF typically share a -90% correlation. When EURUSD goes up, USDCHF typically goes down. Exceptions do occur, and those traders tend to look for exceptions on the expectation of them ironing themselves out. Expert Advisors make this fairly simple to handle. You just program the question, "What's the last closed price of EUR/USD M5 and USD/CHF M5?" The code gives you the answer, then the EA can make decisions with it.

EES Hybrid Trading Model (video)

Video explaining the "Hybrid" trading concept
http://eesfx.com/portal/support/support-videos/72-hybrid-trading-model

Violence necessary to achieve protesters goals: journalist

Occupy L.A. Speaker: Violence will be Necessary to Achieve Our Goals

Citizen journalist Ringo captured this speaker at the Occupy Los Angeles camp a few days ago letting the cat out of the bag: After dismissing nonviolence as a dead end, he admits that for the Occupiers to achieve their goals, violence and bloodshed will be necessary:

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/10/11/occupy-l-a-speaker-violence-will-be-necessary-to-achieve-our-goals/

Occupy New York chant:“You Can Have Sex With Animals.”

Also read: “Occupy Wall Street and the Delusions of the Left”

How to Flush your Windows DNS Cache

Click start and run, type command.

Then type: ipconfig /flushdns

http://www.whatsmydns.net/flush-dns.html

Computer Deal of the Day

Wall St. Protests continue

Wall St protest expected to swell... 

Unions lend muscle...

College Walk Out Planned; 'Anonymous' Releases Threat Against NYSE...

Occupy Wall Street 'Stands In Solidarity' With Obama Front Group...

BIDEN: 'The bargain has been breached with the American people'...


Herman Cain to protesters: If you're not rich 'blame yourself'...

Senate to Vote on China Currency Manipulation Bill

While China has purposely devalued it’s currency, hurting the value of the U.S. dollar over the last decade, neither the Obama or G.W. Bush administrations have actually taken the step to formally designate China as a currency manipulator in any annual reports in the past decade. Failure to designate China as a currency manipulator prevents the U. S. government from being able to apply tariffs on Chinese imports or start investigations into currency manipulation. Senate Democrats will now introduce a bill on Monday that will try to push the issue of China’s currency manipulation, and supposedly open the door for U.S. companies to seek tariffs against Chinese imports if they are found to be artificially keeping their products cheap through keeping it’s currency devalued. Considering our current recession, provoking a trade war with China is a very dangerous thing according to many political insiders, including Jon Huntsman, the former ambassador to China and current presidential candidate who told Fox news, " You take action against China, you can expect them to rebut that action with commensurate tariffs," he said. "During a recession, you don’t want a trade war." 


http://conservativedailynews.com/2011/10/senate-to-vote-on-china-currency-manipulation-bill-monday/

China expressed strong objections on Tuesday to a bill in the United States Senate that would threaten higher tariffs on some Chinese goods in response to what the bill’s sponsors call China’s policy of keeping its currency artificially depressed to give its exports a price advantage.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/world/asia/china-criticizes-senates-currency-manipulation-bill.html

BIS report: High Frequency Trading in the FX market

High-frequency trading (HFT) has increased its presence in the foreign exchange (FX) market in recent years. A discussion is emerging about its benefits and risks, though the assessment is often hampered by difficulties in identifying and quantifying HFT as distinct from other forms of automated trading. It is crucial to have a clearer understanding of what HFT is (and is not) and what it does (and does not do) before assessing its implications from a policymaker's point of view.

This report examines the facts about HFT in FX, including its definition, effect on other market participants, behaviour in normal and stressed times, and key differences with HFT in equities. It also identifies issues pertaining to market functioning, systemic risks, and market integrity and competition that may warrant further investigation. This report was prepared by a study group chaired by Guy Debelle, Assistant Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

JEL classification: F31, G14, G15

http://www.bis.org/publ/mktc05.pdf

BIS Report HFT Trading Systems

Trader Rastani tells BBC collapse is imminent, Goldman rules the world, be prepared

Common Money Management Formulas

All of the EAs that we program at OneStepRemoved.com generally use one of three types of money management. I don’t really like that term, though. I believe that position sizing formula is generally more accurate.

The options are:

Fixed Lot Size

Use a percentage of available margin

Lose a certain percentage of the account balance whenever the stop loss is hit.

Most MetaTrader users are accustomed to using fixed lots. It’s far and away the most common method found in commercial EAs. If you’ve watched any of the videos on this site or spoken with me, you know that I generally have a low opinion of most commercial EAs. Just because everyone does it does not mean that it’s a good idea!

Whenever a customer order mentions the idea of using a Risk input to control the lot size, it typically means to use a selected percentage of the available margin. Say, for example, that you trade a $10,000 account on 1% margin (100:1 leverage) and want to use 2% of available margin on any given trade. If you have no open positions, then the margin to use is $10,000 * 2% = $200.

The lot size is the outcome of the following formula:
Lots = Margin to Use / Margin Required per standard lot

Going back to our example, you simply plug in the numbers:
$200 / $1000 per standard lot (100:1 margin) = 0.2 lots, which is 2 mini lots.

The MQL4 code for this is
double lots = (AccountFreeMargin() * Risk) / MarketInfo( Symbol(), MODE_MARGINREQUIRED);

The advantage to this method is that the lot size remains consistent barring a dramatic change in available margin. I don’t actually see that as an advantage, but many traders like seeing the same lot size on most trades.

The disadvantages are numerous. If you like to trade on high leverage and trade many different instruments, you can easily get yourself into a margin call. If your strategy calls for placing a stop based on price action, the amount lost will vary depending on where the stop is placed. Some trades might lose $20 while others lose $100.

double lots = Risk * AccountEquity() / MarketInfo(Symbol(), MODE_TICKVALUE) / Stop;

My favorite method is to select my lot size based on the equity loss if my stop is hit. If I risk 0.5% on a $10,000 account and my stop loss is 20 pips away, then desired lot size is
lots = 0.5% * $10,000 / $10 per tick per standard lot / 20 pips = 0.25 lots, or 2.5 mini lots

The lot size decreases whenever the stop loss distance increases, and vice versa. A 60 pip stop loss would require a lot size of
lots = 0.5% * $10,000 / $10 per tick per standard lot / 60 pips = 0.083 lots, or 0.8 micro lots after accounting for rounding.

The varying lot size drives most traders crazy. I believe such rationale ignores the logic of trading. Trading is a statistical outcome, a distribution of events that theoretically returns a net result greater than zero. We call this profit in daily life.

If your trading system is x% accurate and you know the profit factor is greater than 1, why on earth a trader would haphazardly bet different dollars amount on every trade is beyond me. The effect is no different than randomly choosing to bet $10 on this trade and $100 on the next. The random, system-less method of choosing position sizes for your trading system would overwhelm the nice, even distribution that you’re expecting from the signals.

Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked

Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

Robert Stolarik for The New York TimesProtestors gathered in Lower Manhattan for what some called the United States Day of Rage.

For months the protesters had planned to descend on Wall Street on a Saturday and occupy parts of it as an expression of anger over a financial system that they say favors the rich and powerful at the expense of ordinary citizens.

As it turned out, the demonstrators found much of their target off limits on Saturday as the city shut down sections of Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall well before their arrival.

By 10 a.m., metal barricades manned by police officers ringed the blocks of Wall Street between Broadway and William Street to the east. (In a statement, Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman said, “A protest area was established on Broad Street at Exchange Street, next to the stock exchange, but protesters elected not to use it.”)

Organizers, promoters and supporters called the day, which had been widely discussed on Twitter and other social media sites, simply September 17. Some referred to it as the United States Day of Rage, an apparent reference to a series of disruptive protests against the Vietnam War held in Chicago in 1969.

The idea, according to some organizers, was to camp out for weeks or even months to replicate the kind, if not the scale, of protests that erupted earlier this year in places as varied as Egypt, Spain and Israel.

Bill Steyert, 68, who lives in Forest Hills, Queens, stood near the barricades at Wall Street and Broadway and shouted, “Shut down Wall Street, 12 noon, you’re all invited,” as tourists gazed quizzically at him.
Talking to a reporter, he elaborated, “You need a scorecard to keep track of all the things that corporations have done that are bad for this country.”

Nearby, Micah Chamberlain, 23, a line cook from Columbus, Ohio, held up a sign reading “End the Oligarchy” and said he had hitchhiked to New York. “There are millions of people in this county without jobs,” he said. “And 1 percent of the people have 99 percent of the money.”

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/wall-street-protest-begins-with-demonstrators-blocked/?pagemode=print

A Breakthrough in Algorithm Design

Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have devised an algorithm that might be able to solve a certain class of linear systems much more quickly than today's fastest solvers.

http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/9/122799-a-breakthrough-in-algorithm-design/fulltext

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~ninamf/papers/md_ml_jcss.pdf

http://theory.cs.cmu.edu/

CM Rwanda?

http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2011/september/sept15_rwanda.html

Quantitative Analysis of Real-Time Systems Using Priced Timed Automata

http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/9/122806-quantitative-analysis-of-real-time-systems-using-priced-timed-automata/fulltext

World's central banks flood market with dollars

LONDON (AP) -- Five of the world's top central banks acted jointly Thursday to provide unlimited dollar loans to banks, a move aimed at easing the growing tensions in the eurozone's financial sector and shielding the global economy from its jitters.

The European Central Bank said it will coordinate with the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank to offer three-month dollar loans to banks through the end of this year. There was no separate statement from the Fed.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=CAOAK&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Computer-based attacks emerge as threat of future, general says

The general in charge of U.S. cyberwarfare forces said Tuesday that future computer-based combat likely will involve electronic strikes that cause widespread power outages and even physical destruction of thousand-ton machines.

Army Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command, also said that massive losses of private and public data in recent years to computer criminals and spies represent the largest theft in history.

Threats posed by cyber-attacks on computer networks and the Internet are escalating from large-scale theft of data and strikes designed to disrupt computer operations to more lethal attacks that destroy entire systems and physical equipment.

“That’s our concern about what’s coming in cyberspace - a destructive element,” Gen. Alexander, who is also the director of the National Security Agency, the electronic spying agency, said in a speech at a conference on cyberwarfare.

Returning Greece to the Drachma

To the Drachma

The standard of living reached in Greece since it joined the European Union means austerity will be inadequate to rebalance the economy. Returning Greece’s currency to the drachma, on the other hand, would allow market forces to set the country’s wage levels, induce other indebted European Union members to reform without Continental prodding and thus solidify the euro.

Greece’s gross domestic product per capita of $30,400 in 2008 was close to the European Union average. It was caused not by an exceptional surge in productivity, but mostly by huge subsidies and extensive borrowing. Greece’s continuing current account deficit, estimated by The Economist at 8.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2011 despite a severe recession, indicates that it remains deeply uncompetitive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/business/returning-greece-to-the-drachma.html

From Spiegel, with the article recreated in its entirety as the implications for the EUR, the eurozone, and crony communism as massive:

German Finance Minister Prepares for Possible Greek Bankruptcy

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who is reportedly doubtful that the country can be saved from bankruptcy, is preparing for the possibility of Greek insolvency. Officials in his ministry are currently reviewing scenarios for handling such a situation, exploring what it might mean for the rest of the euro zone. Under the first scenario for a Greek bankruptcy, the country would remain in the euro zone. Under the other, Athens would abandon the common currency and reintroduce the drachma.

The European bailout mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), is playing a key role in those considerations. Soon the EFSF is expected to be given new powers agreed to by European leaders at a special euro crisis summit in late July. Two instruments at the EFSF's disposal are at the forefront of the Finance Ministry's scenarios.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/goodbye-euro-hello-drachma