I first became interested in Point and Figure trading two decades ago when I was trading equities. Prior to the advent of the personal computer it was necessary to create and maintain P&F charts by hand using graph paper but this work required very little time each day. I had good success and was pleased with the method.
If you are not familiar with P&F theory, do a search on the Internet. Investopedia has a good basic article on the subject. There are also several books dealing with P&F which can be found at your local library. It's probably not a good idea to go further in this thread without a basic understanding of P&F fundamentals so please do not neglect doing this research.
I've been trading the spot Forex market for two years and had often thought that there might be a way to implement this excellent filtering method (which is what P&F charting basically is) for the Forex market using MT4. I did some research and tried several very interesting indicators but ultimately decided to write my own. I abandoned the concept of actually creating the X's and O's on the chart (although this is possible in MQL4) for an approach that is more appropriate for the way MT4 functions.
A little about my background might be in order. I'm a retired computer programmer with more than four decades of experience. I've forgotten more progamming languages than most people know but have relatively little experience in MQL4 so if you are a guru in this language, please correct any errors in the coding of the indicators posted here and send me an explanation of what you have done and why - I enjoy learning new things.
Below you will find one MT4 indicator and an MT4 expert advisor. They are:
P&F.mq4 - will draw the P&F levels on the chart. Entry points are indicated by up or down arrows.
P&F_Expert.mq4 - I very nearly did not post this EA because of the many misconceptions about the results that can be expected from EAs. I DO NOT RECOMMEND TRADING THIS EA WITH REAL MONEY. My purpose in writing it was to enable optimization of the parameters used in the P&F.mq4 indicator. I have some experience with trading robots and will only say that at least one more thing than you can possibly imagine will go wrong when you begin to use one. My ultimate plan is to make this expert work well enough so that I can allow it to trade when I sleep (I live in the Chicago area and miss many great trades that begin during the Europe/London sessions) but the EA posted here is NOT ready for that. Once again, if you are an MQL4 guru and would like to improve my code, please share your expertise.
How to use the indicator:
Copy P&F.mq4 to the Metatrader \Experts\Indicators folder while MT4 is not running. When MT4 is started the indicator will be available to be added to your charts. I haven't included a template because everyone likes their own color scheme.
The blue lines on the chart are the equivalent of the highest/lowest columns of X's and O's that would be shown on a traditional P&F chart. The black dotted line shows the point where the trend will reverse and a new column of X's or O's will begin. The green/red arrows indicate the bar where the reverse line is crossed.
A few caveats...
I'm definitely not anti-social - just very busy, so PLEASE don't ask me "how do I put an indicator on a chart" type questions. Answers to questions like these can be found in MT4 Help or in the Beginners Q&A Forum. Also, try not to PM me - if you have a really good question ask it in the forum. Someone else may have a better answer than I do.
I have no intention of modifying the P&F.mq4 indicator to provide Alerts of any kind. They aren't useful to me and I would rather spend my time implementing ideas that may make this method more profitable.
If you are determined to scalp using this method, be aware that I have not found any combination of parameters that will return a profit on timeframes less than M15. This does not mean that pips can't be made by scalpers with the right amount of market savvy. Use your own judgement.
I've tested this method pretty thoroughly on EURUSD with timeframes of M15 and H1. There are indications that it will also work with other currency pairs. If you discover something that works well, please share with all of us. You'll need to experiment with stop level, box size and reversal bars to find what works. This can be done the hard way using P&F_Trader or the easy way using P&F_Expert with the MT4 optimizer.
I haven't posted any charts. The reason is that I would prefer to see if there is any interest in this method before I spend any more time on sharing it. All the other threads I've found (on this forum, and on others) have died out after a few posts. I'm not sure why - perhaps it's not flashy enough or has too few indicators.
If you are not familiar with P&F theory, do a search on the Internet. Investopedia has a good basic article on the subject. There are also several books dealing with P&F which can be found at your local library. It's probably not a good idea to go further in this thread without a basic understanding of P&F fundamentals so please do not neglect doing this research.
I've been trading the spot Forex market for two years and had often thought that there might be a way to implement this excellent filtering method (which is what P&F charting basically is) for the Forex market using MT4. I did some research and tried several very interesting indicators but ultimately decided to write my own. I abandoned the concept of actually creating the X's and O's on the chart (although this is possible in MQL4) for an approach that is more appropriate for the way MT4 functions.
A little about my background might be in order. I'm a retired computer programmer with more than four decades of experience. I've forgotten more progamming languages than most people know but have relatively little experience in MQL4 so if you are a guru in this language, please correct any errors in the coding of the indicators posted here and send me an explanation of what you have done and why - I enjoy learning new things.
Below you will find one MT4 indicator and an MT4 expert advisor. They are:
P&F.mq4 - will draw the P&F levels on the chart. Entry points are indicated by up or down arrows.
P&F_Expert.mq4 - I very nearly did not post this EA because of the many misconceptions about the results that can be expected from EAs. I DO NOT RECOMMEND TRADING THIS EA WITH REAL MONEY. My purpose in writing it was to enable optimization of the parameters used in the P&F.mq4 indicator. I have some experience with trading robots and will only say that at least one more thing than you can possibly imagine will go wrong when you begin to use one. My ultimate plan is to make this expert work well enough so that I can allow it to trade when I sleep (I live in the Chicago area and miss many great trades that begin during the Europe/London sessions) but the EA posted here is NOT ready for that. Once again, if you are an MQL4 guru and would like to improve my code, please share your expertise.
How to use the indicator:
Copy P&F.mq4 to the Metatrader \Experts\Indicators folder while MT4 is not running. When MT4 is started the indicator will be available to be added to your charts. I haven't included a template because everyone likes their own color scheme.
The blue lines on the chart are the equivalent of the highest/lowest columns of X's and O's that would be shown on a traditional P&F chart. The black dotted line shows the point where the trend will reverse and a new column of X's or O's will begin. The green/red arrows indicate the bar where the reverse line is crossed.
A few caveats...
I'm definitely not anti-social - just very busy, so PLEASE don't ask me "how do I put an indicator on a chart" type questions. Answers to questions like these can be found in MT4 Help or in the Beginners Q&A Forum. Also, try not to PM me - if you have a really good question ask it in the forum. Someone else may have a better answer than I do.
I have no intention of modifying the P&F.mq4 indicator to provide Alerts of any kind. They aren't useful to me and I would rather spend my time implementing ideas that may make this method more profitable.
If you are determined to scalp using this method, be aware that I have not found any combination of parameters that will return a profit on timeframes less than M15. This does not mean that pips can't be made by scalpers with the right amount of market savvy. Use your own judgement.
I've tested this method pretty thoroughly on EURUSD with timeframes of M15 and H1. There are indications that it will also work with other currency pairs. If you discover something that works well, please share with all of us. You'll need to experiment with stop level, box size and reversal bars to find what works. This can be done the hard way using P&F_Trader or the easy way using P&F_Expert with the MT4 optimizer.
I haven't posted any charts. The reason is that I would prefer to see if there is any interest in this method before I spend any more time on sharing it. All the other threads I've found (on this forum, and on others) have died out after a few posts. I'm not sure why - perhaps it's not flashy enough or has too few indicators.
Attached File(s)
P&F_Expert.mq4
4 KB
|
3,249 downloads
P&F.mq4
3 KB
|
3,755 downloads
Old Benjamin was right