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MetaTrader 4 - Trade Simulator

Demo Trading can be

an extremely boring activity for the new trader.

You may have to wait for hours

to get the ideal trading opportunity

and wait many hours more to close the trade.

Due to this, many would be traders

lose interest in trading.

The LHF Trading Simulator

is a program with with you can simulate trades

at a faster than normal market rate.

You can speed up market movements or slow it down.

Practice your trading the quick way!

When learning to trade, there's no substitute for experience. A trader who has spent many months trading a live market will have a feel for the market that is almost impossible to explain.

They will see the pitfalls in some situations by just recognising similar price action. If you have this experience, you will know exactly what I'm talking about, if you don't have it yet, you wont.

A live market is very different from looking back through charts or back-testing.

When you backtest, you can see the bars that are coming, and there is no real stress involved. It's easy to see what signals would have worked, and which ones did not.

When it comes to trading for real, you can't see what's coming, and that is a very different dynamic indeed.

Using this tool, you can trade a few months in only a few hours and then easily print out the results, and see how you well you did. You can also make mistakes and recognize them in a safe situation.

Granted it's not as real as using live money but its 10 times more realistic than back-testing. If you treat it as a challenge, it actually creates a pretty realistic view of how well you could potentially do with any system or method.

Using a Trade Simulator may be the second best learning aid there is.

Number 1 is live trading but that can be expensive!

Download the LHF Trading Simulator here.

Save the zip file on your computer and unzip it to a folder.

If you do not have an unzip program, you can download and use 7zip for free here:

Install the LHF Trading Simulator as follows:

Copy the LFH_Trading_Simulator_3.ex4 file to the folder:

C:\Program Files\MetaTrader - FX Clearing\experts .

Copy the script files to the folder:

C:\Program Files\MetaTrader - FX Clearing\experts\scripts .

Installation is finished!

NB: You will need to close Metatrader and run it again before the program will see the new EA.

Using the LHF Trading Simulator:

Creating a Template

If you’re going to use the Trading Simulator to practice trade a system you are working on, then I suggest that you must create a template of the chart you have already set up. It is much easier to just load the template into the simulator, than having to set the chart up from scratch each time.

You can create a Template in one of three ways:

a. To create a template, just right click on the chart (that is completely set up) with all the indicators, and select Template on the pop-up menu, then select Save Template. Give it a name you will remember.

b. Click on the Menu bar on Charts and select Template on the pop-up menu, then select Save Template.

c. Click on the Template Icon on the Icon bar. Select Save Template.

Now you can go back to the Template menu, and load the template on another chart, and within the simulator chart.

Activate the Strategy Tester.

You can activate the Strategy Tester in one of three ways:

a. Click on the Strategy Tester Icon on the Icon bar.

b. Click on the Menu bar on View and select Strategy Tester.

c. Press Ctrl + R together (= CTRL R)

The tester window will open at the bottom of the screen:

You can drag it to any new position by clicking on the blue bar where you read Tester and dragging it to the new position while you are holding down the left mouse button.

Select the LFH-Trading_Simulator_3 as your Expert Advisor.

Now you can select the pair and the timeframe as above.
You can also choose to trade between two dates.
Visual Mode MUST be checked.
Make certain that Optimization is not checked.

Before you begin I suggest turning the speed down to around 10.

Using the Simulator

Click on start and you will see the chart loading before your eyes.

Once the chart has loaded, right click on it to load the template you set up earlier.

You can also click on the Template icon to load a template onto the graph.

Click on the Run button (indicated here with the Red Arrow) to start the Simulator.

Now you should see the bar moving up and down slowly as the strategy tester feeds tick data slowly into the chart.

To speed this up, move the slider to the right.

I find it works best on around 30,31 or 32. However you will have to slow it down to enter trades or adjust stops. It’s best just to play with this for a while to get the hang of it.

To stop the bars disappearing off the chart, click on the Auto Scroll and Chart Shift at the top of the window.

Entering Trades

You will need to have the Navigator open. (it may already be open).

To open it choose View, Navigator;

Once it is open you can separate it from the application if you wish by dragging it by the bar at the top.

We only need the scripts section so I have closed all the other sections as above.

To open a Market Buy order

First slow the chart down, it could move 10 pips in the time it takes to move the mouse.

Alternatively you can hit the pause button.

Now Double Click on the Simulator Buy Open or drag it onto the graph:

Choose an initial stop size (in pips) and Target size (in pips) and a trade size.

The stop and target can be adjusted later:

Click OK

Now you should see an entry line (dotted green), a green target line and a red stop line as below.

If you do not see the dashed line in the middle (entry line) then open the Tools Options in the drop menu above and choose Show Trade Levels as in the picture below:

Now it should look like the chart above.

Moving the Stop and Target levels

Double click on the Green (target) or Red (stop) lines and simply drag them to new positions. The stop or target is now moved:

Closing a buy order

Simply double click on the Simulator Buy Close script.

You can close all of the trade or only part of it, by changing the lot size below.

Sell Orders

Do exactly as above but choose the sell equivalent to the buy orders.

To Open a Stop Sell or Stop Buy Limit order

This is in fact a STOP order, so don’t be confused by the word limit in the name.

These orders are only triggered once the price reaches that level. They are useful if you are testing a breakout system, and you wish to add an order before the market reaches a certain level.

In this case we are going to drag the script to the chart, and drop it exactly where we want the order to be.

If we are setting a sell stop we drop it below market, if we are setting a buy stop we add it above market.

Drag and Drop

Now you will be offered some options:

Set the Stop, target and trade size.

CancelOther is used if you are simulating a straddle where you have a buy stop, and a sell stop each side of the market. If one is triggered, it will cancel the other, unless you set both to false.

You will now see a yellow line on the chart. When the market reaches that level, it enters the trade:

To remove these lines just use the Simulator Limit Stop (Buy or Sell) scripts.

Viewing your results

Once you have completed trading the system you can view your results by clicking on the Results Tab

OR on the Graph tab to see a visual chart.

Viewing each trade

As the trade is running you will see the trade stats at the bottom of the screen:

Current Bar Time

The date and time in the bottom corner represents the current bar date and time.

I hope you will enjoy using this tool. I know for a fact that it will improve your trading more than you may realize at first.

I will suggest that you spend at least an hour in the simulator per day.

Johan

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Disclaimer

Risk Disclosure: Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to invest in foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.