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SNS_BREAKOUT_BOXES

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:02 am
by snscott
BREAKOUT BOXES INDICATOR

First, I want to make it abundantly clear right up front that I did not originate this trading strategy. Nor is all the code in this indicator entirely 100% uniquely mine.

I mentioned on the 2% chat last week that I had created this indicator and some people expressed intrest in getting it, so here it is (a week later than I originally promised). I first read about the strategy that gave birth to this indicator at Forex Factory in the thread:4H Breakout

This indicator was created to complement or assist with the "Asian Session BreakOut" strategy, which is also known by many other names or titles across the various Forex Forums.

It is essentially two indicators in one. First, it will highlight the high and low extremes of the Asian Session beginning with the Sydney open on Sunday Night (US Time) or whatever time/day you specify as the beginning of your Asian Session.

The weekly box remains highlighted for you all week.

Secondly, the indicator will draw another box for the Asian Session each day. This DAILY box redraws every day. Again, the start and end times for the daily session you want to ?box? is user definable.

Zoomed out view of the entire week of of October 26th through the 30th:

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Here is a shot zoomed in on a DAY box:

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You can optionally have it "color shade" the profit zones if you want:

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And it has a simple gauge to remind you of the timer periods covered, and the range/size of each box:

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THE TRADING SYSTEM (in a nutshell):

To summarize the trading strategy that is covered in MUCH more detail in the Forex facory thread mentioned above:

It has been noticed by some number crunchers (who spend way more time staring at charts than I do) that how the Asian Session goes on the first day of the week can actually be a pretty reliable indication of how a pair will trade for the remainder of the week. You simply wait for the price to ?break out? of one side of the box or the other and then you enter the market in that direction. If price breaks out below the low of the box, you enter SHORT, or if the price breaks out past the high of the box, you enter LONG.

Over time, this strategy has been (and continues to be) tweaked some here and there, and so there are no ?hard and fast rules?, only observations and suggestions really.

It should be noted here that this system seems to work ?best? or hold accurate the most often, with the JPY pairs. But keep in mind there are never any guarantees. In the screen shots that follow, I was using the indicator on the EURUSD pair.

Another key factor with this strategy is that it is a once or twice a week signal system . Generally, you set your ENTRY ORDERSc (not MARKET ORDERS) for going both LONG and SHORT along with the recommended STOP LOSS positions for each (explained more in the indicator manual and at the FF thread) once the Asian Session box is completed Monday morning and then you leave it alone the rest of the week.

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VERSION HISTORY

v1.1 - added ability for user to customize appearance of the info gauges (per request)

v1.2 - modified to use SNS_ObjectLibrary.mqh and adjusted DEFAULT end times

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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:20 am
by snscott
I've come to the conclusion that it makes much more sense to put each of my indicators in a separate thread rather than jumble them all into one single "SNS INDICATORS" thread.

And I am going to start uploading the associated files bundled as a single zip rather than as individual MQ4 and EX4 and library and manual PDF. That just is a cleaner, better way to do it.

:!: By the way, I would like to leave these indicators available ONLY here on Kreslik, so like TRO's, please do not upload them to any other forums.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:13 pm
by RockHardTen
Steve,

Thanks for the indi. Don't know if it's meant to work this way or not but, the daily box wasn't showing up until I messed with the settings. After I set the weekly gauge to corner 2 then the daily box and the gauge showed up.

Thx again

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:51 pm
by snscott
RockHardTen wrote:Steve,

Thanks for the indi. Don't know if it's meant to work this way or not but, the daily box wasn't showing up until I messed with the settings. After I set the weekly gauge to corner 2 then the daily box and the gauge showed up.

Thx again


Yeah "corners" in MT4, in my humble programmer opinion, were implemented goofy and are not straight-forwardly easy to work with. Depending on the corner selected, it changes how the X/Y offset values are used which is a real pain in the butt.

I'll take a look at it.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:15 pm
by RockHardTen
Steve,

trying to change the line width of the boxes and when i change the input i think is supposed to do it, it changes the weekly open line.

Thx

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:39 pm
by snscott
RockHardTen wrote:Steve,

trying to change the line width of the boxes and when i change the input i think is supposed to do it, it changes the weekly open line.

Thx

Looking at the code, I think the property you're changing is a hold-over from an older version of the indi that drew the box as a frame rather than as a colored-in box. What you probably are wanting to change is the Entry.Width property which is the size of the line for the "buffer zone" frame around the session period.

But, this gives me an idea about making how it draws the session box configurable as either a frame or a solid box. Hmmm.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:42 pm
by RockHardTen
scratch that last comment, sorry