Hi JCL,

I've been testing Zorro for a while and am considering going live. I would appreciate if you can tell me:

1) By default does Zorro trade mini lots eg: 0.1 lot size? If I wanted to test on a micro account eg: 0.01 lots would that be possible? Would the risk % adjust to a small account and micro lots and be compatible with the FXCM micro lot broker?

2)Does it increase lot size as the account grows? eg: trades are taken as a percentage of lot size?

3) As you have a plugin which functions with FXCM would it be easy to update this to be compatible with any MT4 broker? Are there any plans to do so?

Thanks again for all your hard work.

Kind regards
Lee

The default account is a micro lot account. But you can simulate any account size as described in the manual under "data import".

The margin is NOT increased as the account grows. You must increase it manually and very carefully - increasing the margin too fast is the number 1 reason of margin calls with automated strategies.

By the way, it can be mathematically proven that setting the margin to a fixed percentage of the account balance will ALWAYS cause a margin call sooner or later - no matter how small that percentage is. This practice is one of the many reasons why private traders normally lose all their money. The margin must grow slower than the account. When your account has doubled, increase the margin only by a factor 1.4, not by a factor 2.

A MT4 plugin is planned for January 2013.

Hi JCL,

Thanks, the MT4 plugin will be a great addition.

I looked at the manual instructions for data import but couldn't edit or open the assetclass.dta file in a readable format.

So the default testing would use multiples of 0.01 lots then (micro?)

Regards
Lee

Hi JCL, just one last question, if I have backtested on an FXCM MT4 Micro account it would use 0.01 lot increments then? Also if you are looking to support interactive brokers in the future that as well as MT4 support would cover just about every market out there. Thanks again, apologies for the questions I just want to best understand risk before going live, Lee

Yes, a micro lot is 0.01 standard lots. The lot increment is always 1, as a lot is the minimum trade size.

As far as I know, a user is already writing an IB plugin.