Entry Values

Okay, so you've got Entry Rules, and they say "yes, you may enter a trade", or "no". Yes or no. If there's a "not sure" in there, "maybe", "it could be", it's not an objective trading system. I'm only interested in objective trading systems (due to my inability to trade subjective ones).

Now we need an exact price at which we will be entering the trade. These are pretty easy. Normally.

For example, "the high of the most recently completed bar". Your Entry Rules say "enter the trade", and your Entry Value says "...when the price hits the high of the most recently closed bar".

Some people like to add a bit, so they know the price has a bit of momentum. For example, "the high of the most recently completed bar, plus 1 tick". Or plus 2 ticks, or 5 ticks, or whatever.

Notice though, that we don't have a direction for the trade yet. Sometimes your Entry Rules will specify the direction, like "enter a long trade if the bar closes above the 20-bar moving average". And then the Entry Values specify exactly where to open that long trade.

Or, sometimes the Entry Rules simply allow you enter a trade, and the Entry Values specify the direction. For example, the Entry Rule is "enter a trade when the RSI with period 14 goes above 70". And if the price hits the high of the most recently completed bar, you enter long at that price. If the price hits the low of the bar, you enter short at that price. In this case your Entry Rules have told you that the price is about to move, but it doesn't know in which direction. Your Entry Values answer the direction question.

Sometimes though, the price is already above (or below) the price that your Entry Values say to enter. What to do then? Do you pass on any trade where you can't get your intended price? Do you get in at any cost? Do you get in, but only if the price hasn't gone "too far"? In that case you need to specify what "too far" means. 20 pips? 50? 100? Backtest.

This page displays all currently available trading rules in our Automated Trading Machine. We're always adding more.