Instructions for use are included early on in the code. You strip out what you do not want and add any extras that you do want.
I am not claiming to be some sort of coding genius. Far from it; there are professional coders at FF whose work makes me look silly. I am a pianist who has learned to code in pursuit of some wealth to make up for the wealth I do not derive from the job I love so much. En route, I have picked up a few coding skills that I offer to anyone who can make use of them.
Advice I offer to beginner coders is:
- comment everything. A chunk of code whose purpose seems so screamingly obvious that it cannot possibly justify the time commenting, will take you an hour to decipher in two months time. Guess how I know.
- learn the basics then start a project. Start with something simple, such as the trigger being the cross of a slower ma by a quicker one. Perhaps make this the setup, and the trigger is x candles heading in the right direction. Involve some management features and perhaps some sutomatic lot-sizing for money management. My code is open source so anyone can pinch it freely, but better for you if you work out your own salvation because you will understand better what is going on.
- Develop your own methods of presenting on-screen information that tell you what is going on inside the code as well as providing valuable feedback.
- As you master each individual step, try to make it into a universal function that you can add to your own shell ea, from which you can code a new bot in minutes - no point in re-inventing the wheel every time you have an idea and want an ea to try it out, This is how my shell ea evolved and I am still adding to it.
- Once you have the basics, delve into drawing trend lines etc on the charts via your code. To get started, type ObjectCreate into the mql4 editor, highlight it and press F1 for help; this will present the list of commands used to create and manipulate shapes on your charts, confusingly known as 'objects'.
- Remember Google. When stuck, google the problem. If it is solvable, then someone out their has both solved it and posted the solution.
Feel free to use the code here in any way that suits you, so long as you distribute your code free of charge to the users. Charge for using it, and I will sue the socks off you.
Shell user guide
This is a user guide template that you can use to quickly create a user guide if you want to release your EA here at FF. It contains a brief description of most of the EA functions, so you remove those you do not want and add in anything new. Inside the zip is the Open Office document that you can edit to produce your own pdf.
OpenOffice is freeware and every bit as good as any of its paid-for rivals. Download it from http://www.openoffice.org/
Private EA coding
I receive may requests to code EA's. I will do so free of charge so long as I am able to share the EA and trading system here at FF. Most of what I have learned to do as a coder, I have learned from contributors here. Sharing my work with them is my way of giving back in return for what I have gained. I need to have some interest in the project to take it on; a period of successful live trading with the system guarantees my interest.
I will also code EA's for traders who want their EA kept private. For this, I charge a fee of $100 payable into my Paypal account. I charge so little because I am not a professional programmer. EA's I code for you will have bugs that we will have to hunt down and eradicate. I may easily misunderstand the brief that you send me. I shall need your patience as I work towards the difference between what I think you have asked for, and what you have actually asked for.
Should you need a more professional programmer, then contact hanover. He will charge a lot more (I seem to recall him quoting a development fee $70 per hour somewhere) but will send you code that is an accurate and bug-free representation of your brief.