The 1% method can keep your profit unnecessary low with one strategy, and already give you the margin call with another strategy. Better use the OptimalF method from the tutorial.

The script is no different for micro lots when you use Margin and Risk for setting the trade size. Only when you set Lots directly to a fixed number, the result will depend on the lot size. Lot size, leverage, pip value etc. is automatically determined by Zorro when connecting to a broker, so you normally need not care about it. The simulation is set up for micro lots by default.

Ok, thanks for your patience with this. I will attempt to use the optimalF function and see how it goes.

I have deposited £1000 and I am ready to roll with one of my own strategies. Am I right in thinking that I am better to set the risk level so that the capital required figure comes out at about £500 to £750 to allow some room for error?

This would automatically be taken care of if I was working at a % of my account so this is an approach that I will have to get used to.

OptimalF isn't working for me. I have set up a slider for my script that changes the margin between 1 and 20. It works ok down to about 5 but anything under that will not vary the capital required figure. Is this because it has reached the minimum margin amount to place a 0.01 trade and so can't go lower?

The capital required is a fraction over what I have available so I either need to be able to vary the script to trade with smaller amounts or deposit another few hundred quid.

JCL, thanks again for your patience with this. The tutorials and manual answer a lot of questions but the answers are not always clear for a beginnner especially when it comes to money management for a trader used to mt4.

Does lots = 1 trade 1 micro lot?

Yes, the Margin < 5 problem is that you've arrived at 1 lot, and a smaller trade size is not possible. If you set the MARGINLIMIT flag, Zorro will sort of emulate smaller lot sizes by trading less frequently.

Lots = 1 trades 1 microlot. It's always the lot size of your broker.

Ok, thanks

Hello, I'm sorry to resurrect an old thread here... but I have some questions regarding microlot trading that brought me here while searching for the answer.

I am looking at definitely using microlot trading when I start live with Zorro, and I see that you do recommend that also. However, I still haven't decided if I will begin with an IBFX microlot account (MT4) or FXCM (more questions on that later).

My question is about how to ensure that Zorro is configured for simulating the IBFX microlot account. This is a 5-digit broker, where 0.01 lot equals USD $0.01 on EURUSD. This is handy for testing strategies because I can just crank down the leverage to pennies while I'm testing.

According to my live IBFX microlot platform (EURUSD):
Digits: 5
Contract size: 10000
Swap long: -0.052
Swap short: 0.038
Margin initial: 10000.00
Margin maintenance: 10000.00

In reading the Zorro manual in the data import/export section, I believe AssetsFix.dta is the file I would need to modify. In several places you've mentioned that the default simulation mode is already set to microlot. However, I'm confused in looking at AssetsMicro.dta because I don't understand the values in the Margin and Lot columns. In the US, I believe the margin limit is 50:1 (not 10:1 as I read on your manual page). So I'm trying to figure out how to set Zorro to reflect 50:1 leverage for simulation purposes.

Also, I read somewhere that Zorro also defaults to 1 lot during simulation. Can you please confirm that a microlot configuration equates 1 lot to be 0.01? That is how I enter it in my platform if I want to risk $0.01 penny. I would like Zorro to use 0.01 broker lots as the minimum.

THANK YOU

PS: it could be that my IBFX account is actually a "mini" account (thus the 10000 contract size) but that they also allow microlot trading in the account.

Yes, 10000 contracts is a mini lot, not a micro lot. A micro lot is 1000 contracts.

AssetsFix.dta is set up for a micro lot EUR account with 100:1 leverage. Your IBFX account might give different test results. The easiest way to simulate your specific account is just generating an individual AssetsFix.dta.

Use the Download.c script for this. Enable the loop with all assets, click [Trade], and wait until the assets are downloaded, then click [Stop]. You now have a new Assets.dta specific for your account. You can find details about that procedure under "Data Import". Make sure before to remove the assets from the loop that are not supported by IBFX.

Great, I will work on this today!

One other question please... what is the recommended procedure if the assets in my broker are named in a nonstandard way? For example IBFX uses a suffix so all assets end in m for mini accounts like this: EURUSDm USDCHFm

Your loop in Download.c is specifically looking for "EUR/USD" so should I adjust all those to "EURUSDm" etc?

I'm guessing NOT, because I remember reading somewhere that when using MT4, you still pull the actual data from FXCM datafeeds, which probably needs to be in the FXCM format of "EUR/USD". Therefore, how can I adjust my data so that it is able to be used in my scripts from either broker (I haven't decided yet whether I will use FXCM or IBFX but want my scripts to be broker-neutral anyway).

I vaguely remember you mentioning a code snippet that needs to be placed somewhere (top of scripts?) to let Zorro know to swap names.

THANKS

Hi,

you can change asset names in Zorro.mq4. There's a function called "assetFix" where you can change the names of specific assets. For your example it would be:

if(Asset == "EURUSD") return("EURUSDm");