Ideas for pre-market spread spike stop-out avoidance?

[Gwydaer]

Hi there,

Just a thread to gather ideas on how to avoid EA's stopping out and re-entering themselves during the increased spreads of pre-market.

I currently have an EA that runs on the 4H, and it has a trail stop of 1 X ATR when it is in a trend. However this will at some stage end up getting stopped out by the large pre-market spreads (my broker is generally pretty good good with spread widening). If it does gets stopped out, it will then automatically re-enter itself at the disadvantaged larger spread due to an immediate on event "trade closed" re-entry signal.

I've been trying to think of ways to work around this problem but have hit a wall each time.

I've thought of adding:

1. A time filter; so that the EA doesn't re-enter the trade at a disadvantage, however I'd have to then trade manually manually once spreads are lower because the on event-"trade closed": signal to re-enter is gone the second the trade gets stopped out in the large spread time period. (I.e. the signal for the robot to re-enter is gone).

2. A spread filter: This has the same issue as #1 and can prevent trade re-entries in this period if spreads are too high- results in manual trading because the EA signal to re-enter on event: trade closed is gone.

3. Manually modify the SL so that it isn't at risk of the higher spreads. This one I'm unsure about. If I modify an on-tic event trailing stop to protect a spread widening stop out, will this break the EA? Because it is on-tic, i'm guessing the EA placed trail stop would instantly revert back to where it should be placed if it was to be manually altered, in which case it would get stopped out on the next tic...

It's a tricky problem to have, any ideas? I might have to message you in private & sort you out for potential fixes to this @l-andorrà if you have the time.

[jstap]

@gwydaer I would say that your spreads likely widen on US market close? If so you are as well widening SL at these times, time filter, pink for each trade, modify stops, then tree to reset back at the preferred time, as for trailing stop use time filters to deactivate during these times.

[Gwydaer]

This sounds like a great idea, so add a time filter for that hour period, temporarily adjust the spreads by +45 pips to account for maximum spread, and then have them revert to former levels at the appropriate time. How do you mean by pink for each trade? I need to try and have a stop placed on all trades at all times rather than any full deactivation

[jstap]

@gwydaer In HERE is how I would do it, haven't tested but should work, when trail reactivates it should go back to your settings, you will likely need to set the time you want to use.

[Gwydaer]

Ah legend thanks! I'll have a play around with this, it's a bit more sophisticated then the tree I was in the process of setting up

[jstap]

@gwydaer You can use this separate to your buy/sell tree.

[l'andorrà]

@gwydaer I usually a combination of those three options. Depending on the symbol and your broker one will always be more efficient than the other. You will need to test as jstap suggested.