Size Of Lots Not Impacting Buy Size in MT4

[Moonkay]

Hi All,

My EA is currently working in MT4 and trading as I want, currently buying as % of Equity (30% of $1500).

I've got the How Much set up as an input parametre, however when I change this (say to 50%) in MT4, the lot sizes don't change.

Updating the Initial Deposit in MT4 higher or lower does change the lot size, so I don't think the issue is size lot rounding.

Thanks

[l'andorrà]

@moonkay Can you please share your project to take a look at it?

[Moonkay]

Sure thing, please find below:

https://fxdreema.com/shared/9DWH38QFc

Thanks

[XYON126]

@moonkay Hello @Moonkay ! I have looked at your EA and I was surprised by two comments you make:
1º You comment that you apply 30% of $ 1500 and it works perfectly.
2nd That you change it, you set it to 50% and it does not act.

Regarding the 1º, I am very surprised that the MT4 allows it with 30% the result is very high and unless you have a false Brocker or with a very doubtful regulation 30% does not allow you to open any operation and much less with 1500 $, at most 1 maximum operation until it is closed and if it goes into losses you lose 30% which is a lot until the point of account closure.

Regarding the 2nd, how do you change it? Modifying the EA parameters from the MT4? If so, it is logical that there will be no operation you exceed multiplied by 10 the maximum of the Free Margin and you will never open a trade even if you have $ 1,000,000; Another thing is if you are applying 3% and 5% then first verify that you have a positive Free Margin higher than what you will have, as a general rule MT4 or I will not open the operation or in Brocker little serious they open it with the maximum stipulated to be able to open the operation (5% below the Free Margin) and thus close the account when you enter losses.
On the other hand, if your intention is to change the lot and make it more practical for you, I would advise you to put 2 buttons, one to enter the% or the lot you want and another to apply it, something similar to the panel that comes by default in the MT4 and so you can configure it to your liking.

I hope I have helped you and clarified unknown issues by many traders about the maximum amount and the lot.

[Moonkay]

Hi @XYON126 ,

Thank you very much for your reply! I understand your second point but am a little confused by the first. Will do this mathematically below but what i want this to do is :

If i have $1500 in my account, put 30% ($450) into a buy when my desired parametres are met. Are you saying this is too low an amount of money for a buy to be placed, or more so that I would be investing too large an amount of my equity and as a result the buy would be cancelled?

Examples below of my updating Lot Size in MT4 (Via Expert Properties Inputs), even putting to 3% does not fix the issue.

Set to 30% of equity

Set to 50% of equity

Set to 3% Equity

[XYON126]

@moonkay
Hello! Regarding the $ 450, yes, that amount with an account of $ 1500, no legal and serious Brocker will allow you to do it, in the operations window (demo and real, not Backtest) as you see in the photo there are 3 operations, one of 4Lots, another of 5Lots and another of 0.02 in an account of € 3000, and with a magenta box what is the percentage of Free Margin and in € and another Margin that is the free amount that the Brocker allows you at most in an exchange losses Note that with 4 and 5 lots that is approximately 10% and 11% with only 1 or 2 pips you are in losses of € 250, normally for a winning trade you leave a Stop Loss of a minimum of 15 to 20 pips, which is that is, you are risking with a 10% lot (4 lots) € 1500 but you only have a Margin of approximately € 1000 at the moment the trading line hits the stop loss if the Margin is less than the risk of the account you closes and all capital is lost, so risking more than 1% of Capital per operation is not or more advisable, since in a short moment it will lead to the ruin and loss of the account, the traders with a lot of experience risk a maximum of 0.5% or 0.8% per operation and a maximum of 10% of total losses in a month, with You will keep these data and you will get what traders who have been earning money for a long time but make no mistake, never more than 20% of the account, whoever tells you that they earn more is cheating you or wants to scam you because it is statistically impossible even if you win one 10% trade as the next 10 or 20 trades you will lose almost everything and this is the true reality.

[Moonkay]

Thanks @XYON126 , you were completely right. Using the backtester in MT4 it must have been defaulting to the largest possible size my broker would allow, (probably around 1-2% or so). When i've updated to 0.01 or 0.05 i can see the changes in size.

Thank you very much!

[TipsyWisdom]

Freeze 1% of Equity is the way to go.

[TipsyWisdom]

@Moonkay
That is the amount of money per tick. So every time the pair moves in a direction 1 mark, 1 trade, (1 pip), you are either going to be gaining or losing 1%.

[XYON126]

@jsauter86 Exactly, for more information I am attaching a table that will clarify the Stop Loss and Take Profit, the% A are the winning operations, the% F are the operations with losses, as you can see, the Ratio(Relacion Riesgo/Beneficio (R) is very important but also the statistics, since Ratio(R) The higher the lower chances of the operation being a winner and naturally if the Ratio is negative (in red) in the medium term you lose 100%

https://www.yogile.com/5c68n1izx7l#21t

[TipsyWisdom]

not sure what that is, I use 3 days performance in my trading and thats about all I used. price action only even when estimating take profit.