Phoenix EA - 2nd Place at Automated Trading Championship!

[scorpion]

Thanks to Hendrick Stam for sharing this winning system and expert advisor. This EA (Phoenix 4 Contest) is currently 2nd place at ATC 2006 hosted by MetaQuotes.

Phoenix_4_CONTEST.mq4: running live at ACT 2006.
phoenix_ea_v5_6_03.mq4: the latest version.

Originally Posted by "Hendrick

It’s time to start a new thread about Phoenix. And let’s call it “Phoenix 2007”. Because Phoenix 2007 is not finished yet, you will find the latest version
(4.2) here to play with.

What’s the idea behind Phoenix 2007:

I’m one of these guys that believes that everything in this world is subject to some kind of natural law. The effects of these laws are known as patterns or cycles that seems to repeat themselves over and over again. Some of these patterns or cycles are well known: seasonal changes, day and night, the cycle of live and death, phases of the moon and so on. If you have knowledge of these patterns then you are able to predict the future. We all agree that after a summer there will be a winter. Is Forex subject to these laws too? Yes, I believe it is.

When we are studying our charts (the past) through Technical Analyses, we are trying to discover those repeating patterns, assuming that when these patterns are repeating themselves in the past they will do so in the future. Looking for patterns on charts has only one disadvantage: we can only discover patterns that are visible to the eye. And here comes my point: it’s my belief that there are a lot more patterns in Forex than the ones you can see on your charts! Let’s call them “hidden patterns”. And that’s where MT4 with its Strategy Tester comes on stage. By using the power of your PC and MT4 it seems that it’s possible to find those “hidden patterns”. You can’t see this patterns on your chart and they only reveal themselves to you as that special combination of settings that gives you the best Net Profit.

And that’s the idea behind Phoenix2007: keep on testing and changing until you have found this special combination of settings, that gives you a smooth up going balance-curve. There’s no doubt about it that this balance-curve will continue in the same direction for at least the coming four to eight weeks because the law that’s causing this won’t stop or change. Only thing to be done is backward test every 2 weeks to see if the settings are still up to date.

I know that some people will call this “curve-fitting” or “over-optimizing” an EA. And it seems that most of them thinks it’s not desirable. In my opinion there’s nothing wrong with “curve-fitting” in this case. More about this later.

I’ve made a special version of Phoenix for the “Automated Trading Championship 2006”.
Go to Participants - Automated Trading Championship 2006 if you want to follow the results. That little man in the second place “Hendrick” that’s me.

And now some “rules of the game”:

You can the change the code of Phoenix if you want to, but please don’t post it in this thread!

Some of you will going to test (I hope) Phoenix and will come up with different settings. It’s not that I don’t trust your settings but I really want to test these settings first in my own way. And if they are better I will replace the official settings with your settings. This to prevent that too many settings are circulated in the thread and in the end nobody knows which settings have to be used.

Warning:

The combination of pair, TimeFrame, TP, SL and other settings are in “balance”. If you change one of them without changing the other settings the balance will be gone and you will not get the results you want to have, So changing one of the settings means that you have to use your Strategy Tester to find another combination of settings to restore the balance again.

The following files are attached:

HowToUsePhoenix.pdf
An explanation about the settings of Phoenix

ModellingQuality.pdf
A short manual about how to get a 90% modeling quality when using the Strategy Tester of MT4.

Phoenix_EA_v4_2_01.mq4
The EA itself. Version 2007 will follow as soon as possible. The settings for the pairs are for now hard coded in the EA. Every time the settings changes, the last two figures at the end will change (so next time the EA will be renamed to Phoenix_EA_v4_2_02)

OfficialSettings2006_10_7.txt
The latest settings for Phoenix. Look at the date at the end (format YYYY_MM_DD). You have to copy and paste these settings in the EA or you can install the latest version of the mq4-file where I will change the settings for the pairs.

TR_pair_date.htm The latest test report for a pair.

Well, this is it. Let’s work all together to improve Phoenix!

==========UPDATES=========================
2006.10.9
New version Phoenix_EA_v4_2_02. Fix for problem with certain mini-accounts where the broker uses an "m" behind a pair (so USDJPYm instead of USDJPY).
2006.10.12
New settings GBPUSD, USDCHF
2006.11.3
Phoenix 5 is available
2006.11.5
New version 5.6.02 and update Phoenix guide
2006.11.6
New version 5.6.03 Fix for MicroAccounts

[scorpion]

You can follow Phoenix 4 performance at the contest.

Attached is the ultimate guide for this expert adviser and system.

[scorpion]

Looks like the Phoenix 4 is for USDJPY only. It is optimized to run for 3 months with USDJPY

[gazuz]

Hmm, well I might read about this over the weekend.. maybe I can borrow some ideas to mix up with mine...

[scorpion]

This system is composed of a set of five systems. It'll buy/sell only if all the systems agree.

System #1

Buy if price closes above High Envelope.
Sell if price closes below Low Envelope.

System #2

Buy if previous MA is above current MA
Sell if previous MA is below current MA

System #3

Buy if current OsMA is above current OsMA
Sell if current OsMA is below current OsMA

System #4

It's related to divergence. (rather complex to decipher)

System #5

Trade only during specified trading session. (Version 4 trades 24/5)

[luxinterior]

Here's another document that will help anybody using this EA.

Be sure to read the 'how to optimized' guide as you'll NEED to do it for your pair. It can take some time but it's definitely worth it (take a look at my back test with optimized settings I created). Not conclusive by any means but still fun to look at.

Hope it helps...

Lux

PS: Don't worry about the version number on the statment above. I'm only using the original competition one (setting 1) and the 'change' referred to in the title is for the other settings (2 & 3).

[iezcha]

Forward test in real acct using phoenix ea...and still running...

[scorpion]

Somebody claims this system is originally invented by our friend TraderSeven.

[iezcha]

did you mean it's not hendrick copyright??? how if hendrick winning the contest....hhhmmmm

[emeric33]

what are the settings used in the contest? Are they the default settings of the expert?