Has anyone coded this? It's so simple I'll be amazed if it's not been attempted.
On MT4, the simple idea is to scalp for 1 pip, in whatever direction the market is moving, and immediately that trade is closed, to open another trade in the same direction. When price goes the other way, do the same in the other direction, thus you're picking up 1 pip winners each time the market moves by 1 pip. So, at minimum, you'll always have 1 trade scalping a Buy trade for 1 pip and 1 trade scalping a Sell trade all the time.
When the market moves away from one of your open trades you'd want to have the option of whether to wait until price returns to that trade and it becomes a winner, or to open a 2nd trade in the same direction. Feasibly, you could have 2, 3, 4 etc. trades open in each direction, depending on your attitude to risk and the size of your trading bank. So the EA would need to have a trigger point at which a 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. trade would be opened when price is away from the original trade.
Of course, there are some obvious flaws to this approach:
1. Draw down: Very quickly, the EA will open a trade that's at the high/low of the market, that won't reach even it's 1 pip target. So you'll always have draw down on at least 1 trade in each direction. However, of course, that is off-set by the 1 pip winners you'll be picking up in the other direction, especially if you've got multiple trades running in each direction. This won't be a problem in a ranging market as price will come back and start the cycle again. But once you open a trade in a trending market you will soon get a substantial draw down on one trade.
2. Slippage. In a rapidly moving market, the EA won't be able to open and close trades quickly enough to catch each pip of movement. However, if you use an ECN broker this occurrence may be reduced.
3. Margin requirements. With too small a bank and with the inevitable trade that continues to go against you in one direction, if you have too aggressive an amount per pip your account will be blown out. No strategy comes with zero risk, and here's the risk to this strategy.
4. The spread. Practically, you could only run this strategy on a pairing with the lowest spread. EURUSD is the obvious choice.
However, with good money management and using a micro account, you could start with the minimum stake per pip and build it up. I'm UK based and use a spread betting platform and don't use micro accounts so forgive my fuzziness here, but just say as an example, the minimum stake on a micro account is $0.10 a pip. With an initial bank of $100 you could stand a draw down of 1000 pips (which would be more in practice, as you'd be picking up winners on the other side all the time the price was going against you). To reduce your risk, you'd probably want room for a draw down of, say, 1000 pips per open position.
In practice, the initial target would be to double the size of your account and withdrawn your original funds. Then, trade freely with the profits you've gained.
I'm no programmer but if anyone has developed this I'd be fascinated to give it a go.
On MT4, the simple idea is to scalp for 1 pip, in whatever direction the market is moving, and immediately that trade is closed, to open another trade in the same direction. When price goes the other way, do the same in the other direction, thus you're picking up 1 pip winners each time the market moves by 1 pip. So, at minimum, you'll always have 1 trade scalping a Buy trade for 1 pip and 1 trade scalping a Sell trade all the time.
When the market moves away from one of your open trades you'd want to have the option of whether to wait until price returns to that trade and it becomes a winner, or to open a 2nd trade in the same direction. Feasibly, you could have 2, 3, 4 etc. trades open in each direction, depending on your attitude to risk and the size of your trading bank. So the EA would need to have a trigger point at which a 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. trade would be opened when price is away from the original trade.
Of course, there are some obvious flaws to this approach:
1. Draw down: Very quickly, the EA will open a trade that's at the high/low of the market, that won't reach even it's 1 pip target. So you'll always have draw down on at least 1 trade in each direction. However, of course, that is off-set by the 1 pip winners you'll be picking up in the other direction, especially if you've got multiple trades running in each direction. This won't be a problem in a ranging market as price will come back and start the cycle again. But once you open a trade in a trending market you will soon get a substantial draw down on one trade.
2. Slippage. In a rapidly moving market, the EA won't be able to open and close trades quickly enough to catch each pip of movement. However, if you use an ECN broker this occurrence may be reduced.
3. Margin requirements. With too small a bank and with the inevitable trade that continues to go against you in one direction, if you have too aggressive an amount per pip your account will be blown out. No strategy comes with zero risk, and here's the risk to this strategy.
4. The spread. Practically, you could only run this strategy on a pairing with the lowest spread. EURUSD is the obvious choice.
However, with good money management and using a micro account, you could start with the minimum stake per pip and build it up. I'm UK based and use a spread betting platform and don't use micro accounts so forgive my fuzziness here, but just say as an example, the minimum stake on a micro account is $0.10 a pip. With an initial bank of $100 you could stand a draw down of 1000 pips (which would be more in practice, as you'd be picking up winners on the other side all the time the price was going against you). To reduce your risk, you'd probably want room for a draw down of, say, 1000 pips per open position.
In practice, the initial target would be to double the size of your account and withdrawn your original funds. Then, trade freely with the profits you've gained.
I'm no programmer but if anyone has developed this I'd be fascinated to give it a go.