setting stop loss on an MA

[kelvinlau2]

Hi I'm having trouble setting my stop loss on the MA of each bar observed... currently i have my code as such:

SetStopLoss("LONG1", CalculationMode.Ticks, EMA(40)[0], false);
SetProfitTarget("LONG1", CalculationMode.Ticks, 300);

can u please tell me how to phrase it correctly? And what if I want to shift it to, say, 100 ticks below the 40 EMA?

[Radical]

Try using CalculationMode.Price instead of .Ticks.

[kelvinlau2]

thanks for coming back, but changed to CalculationMode.Price and couldn't get it to work... zero trades initiated in the backtest the moment I add in the SetStopLoss line

[Radical]

What exactly is the problem you're having? I'm pretty sure

SetStopLoss("LONG1", CalculationMode.Price, EMA(40)[0], false);

should give you a working stop order. Do you have the EMA(40) added to your strategy?

[kelvinlau2]

so i'm testing a simple trade as the code below:

When I run the backtests, it runs fine without the SetStopLoss line (i.e. it goes long when my conditions are met), but when I add in the stop loss, i get all zeroes (no trades done )


protected override void Initialize()
{
SetProfitTarget("LONG1", CalculationMode.Ticks, 200);
SetStopLoss("LONG1", CalculationMode.Price, EMA(40)[0], false);


CalculateOnBarClose = true;
}

/// <summary>
/// Called on each bar update event (incoming tick)
/// </summary>
protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
// Condition set 1 LONG
if (EMA(20)[0] > EMA(40)[0]
&& CrossAbove(RSI(Close, 14, 3), 60, 10)

EnterLong(10000, "LONG1");

}
}

[Radical]

Have you tried adding the EMA in Initialize() before you set the stoploss, like this?

protected override void Initialize()
{
Add(EMA(40));
SetProfitTarget("LONG1", CalculationMode.Ticks, 200);
SetStopLoss("LONG1", CalculationMode.Price, EMA(40)[0], false);

CalculateOnBarClose = true;
}

If that doesn't do it then I'm not sure what the problem is. I'm not very good at this though so I'm sure someone else will be able to figure it out tomorrow.

Edit: Another thing to try would be to see if it works if you put the SetStopLoss() line in OnBarUpdate() instead of Initialize(), or maybe also try putting it in OnStartUp() instead of Initialize().

[kelvinlau2]

Edit: Another thing to try would be to see if it works if you put the SetStopLoss() line in OnBarUpdate() instead of Initialize(). <--- ah, it works now

thanks alot~ first time trying to code a strategy, been ripping my hair out