Turtle Trading EA 4.0

Metatrader Expert Advisor (MT4/MT5)

  • Overview

    This expert advisor implements the original Dennis and Eckhardt trading system, commonly known as The Turtle Trader. It trades exactly like the original turtles did, and can be used by experienced traders to capture trends in up or down markets.

    • Easy to use and supervise
    • Fully configurable strategy settings
    • Fully configurable trading settings
    • Works for ECN/Non-ECN brokers and 2-3-4-5 digit symbols
    • Works for CFDs and forex instruments

    The strategy trades two complementary systems, a main and a failsafe system:

    • System one trades 20-day breakouts and closes deals at 10-day breakouts
    • System two trades 55-day breakouts and closes deals at 20-day breakouts

    The basic principles of the strategy are the following:

    • Trades are filtered based on the outcome of the last signal
    • Trades are pyramided up to 4 trades, at intervals of ATR(30)/2
    • The trailing-stop is applied for all trades using Ask/Bid +/- ATR(30)*2
    • The risk per trade decreases 10% for every 20% drawdown in the account

    This EA implements the default settings of the original turtle traders, but much has changed in financial markets since then. In order to achieve profitability, the trader will have to apply its best judgement about what to trade and optimize the settings in the strategy tester.

    Who were the Turtle Traders?

    The Turtle Trader legend began with a bet between American multi-millionaire commodities trader, Richard Dennis and his business partner, William Eckhardt. Dennis believed that traders could be taught to be great; Eckhardt disagreed asserting that genetics were the determining factor and that skilled traders were born with an innate sense of timing and a gift for reading market trends. What transpired in 1983-1984 became one of the most famous experiments in trading history. Averaging 80% per year, the program was a success, showing that anyone with a good set of rules and sufficient funds could be a successful trader.

    In mid-1983, Richard Dennis put an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal stating that he was seeking applicants to train in his proprietary trading concepts and that experience was unnecessary. In all he took on around 21 men and two women from diverse backgrounds. The group of traders were shoved into a large sparsely furnished room in downtown Chicago and for two weeks Dennis taught them the rudiments of futures trading. Almost every single one of them became a profitable trader, and made a little fortune in the years to come.

    The entry strategy

    The Turtles learned two breakout variants or "systems". System One (S1) used a 20-day price breakout for entry. However, the entry was filtered by a rule that was designed to increase the odds of catching a big trend, which states that a trading signal should be ignored if the last signal was profitable.

    But this filter rule had a built-in problem. What if the Turtles skipped the entry breakout and that skipped breakout was the beginning of a huge and profitable trend that roared up or down? Not good to be on the sidelines with a market taking off!

    If the Turtles skipped a System One 20-day breakout and the market kept trending, they could and would get back in at the System Two (S2) 55-day breakout. This fail-safe System Two breakout was how the Turtles kept from missing big trends that were filtered out.

    The entry strategy using System Two is as follows:

    • Buy a 55-day breakout if we are not in the market
    • Short a 55-day breakout if we are not in the market

    The entry strategy using System One is as follows:

    • Buy a 20-day breakouts if last S1 signal was a loss
    • Short a 20-day breakouts if last S1 signal was a loss

    The Turtles calculated the stop-loss for all trades using the Average True Range of the last 30 days, a value which they called N. Initial stop-loss was always ATR(30) * 2, or in their words, two volatility units. Additionally, the Turtles would pile profits back into winning trades to maximize their winnings, commonly known as pyramiding. They could pyramid a maximum of 4 trades separated from each other by 1/2 volatility unit.

    The exit strategy

    The Turtles learned to exit their trades using breakouts in the opposite direction, which allowed them to ride very long trends.

    The exit strategy using System Two is as follows:

    • Exit long positions when the price touches a 20-day low
    • Close shorts positions when the price touches a 20-day high

    The exit strategy using System One is as follows:

    • Close long positions if/when the price touches 10-day low
    • Close short positions if/when the price touches a 10-day high

    Money Management

    The initial risk allocation for all trades was 2%. However, aggressive pyramiding of more and more units had a downside: if no big trend materialized, then those little losses from false break-outs would eat away even faster at the Turtles' limited capital.

    How did Eckhardt teach the Turtles to handle losing streaks and protect capital? They cut back their unit sizes dramatically. When markets turned around, this preventive behavior of reducing units increased the likelihood of a quick recovery, getting back to making big money again.

    The rules were simple. For every 10 percent in drawdown in their account, Turtles cut their trading unit risk by 20 percent. This of course applies for bigger numbers: the unit risk would be decreased by 80% with a 40% drawdown!

    What to trade

    What you trade is critical. It may just be the most important issue and it is the only discretionary decision you'll have to make. Here is the catch: you cannot trade everything, but you cannot trade only one market either. You need to be in position to be following enough markets that when a market moves you can ride it, as diversification is the only free lunch you get. It allows you to spread your potential targets of opportunity broadly across currencies, interest rates, global stock indices, grains, meats, metals and energies.

  • Input parameters

    When loading the expert to any chart, you will be presented with a set of options as input parameters. Don't despair if you think they are too many, because parameters are grouped into self-explanatory blocks.

    Turtle Trading Settings
    The original turtles traded two breakout periods with a very especial trading filter: they would ignore a trade if the last signal was profitable. This group of parameters allows you to set your own breakout and stop periods, and to enable or disable the filter at will.
    Adding to positions
    Once a trade was taken, the original turtles would pile up three more positions on top on the first one, by adding an additional trade every time the market moved in their favor 50% of the ATR of the last 30 days. This group of parameters allows you to disable or customise this behavior.
    Stop-loss Settings
    The initial stop-loss for all trades is, by default, two times the Average True Range of the last 30 days. You can set your own stop-loss using this group of parameters.
    Money Management
    For every 10 percent in drawdown in their account, the turtles cut their trading unit risk by 20 percent. In this group of parameters you can disable this behavior, and customize the common money management parameters.
  • ? FAQ
    What timeframe should I trade with this Metatrader4 Expert Advisor?
    This expert advisor must be attached to daily charts.
    I have loaded the expert into the chart and I don't see anything!
    Look for a smiling face at the top
    What happens if I change the breakout periods or the stoploss settings?
    Nothing at all: feel free to experiment on breakout lengths or the initial stop

Screenshots

Turtle Trading EA EA for Metatrader
Turtle Trading EA EA for Metatrader
Turtle Trading EA EA for Metatrader
Turtle Trading EA EA for Metatrader
Turtle Trading EA EA for Metatrader
Turtle Trading EA EA for Metatrader

Videos

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