Demo Account
The final step is to attach your portfolio EA to both the Demo and Live Accounts — i.e. the same portfolio EA is attached to both accounts. The portfolio EA is created by Portfolio Maker, which combines individual strategies generated / optimized by Forex Strategy Builder Professional. Portfolio Maker is required because it inserts the code that knows how to access the shared database created by the Sidekick expert advisor (SidekickEA.ex4).
The image below shows the input settings for the portfolio EA when attached to a Demo account. Please use the default settings. This is because you want the portfolio EA to trade without any restrictions in the Demo account. The first input setting “Use Sidekick to monitor Demo Account” should be false.
Live Account
The image below shows the input settings for the portfolio EA when attached to a Live account. In this case the input settings are important since the code needs to know which shared database to access.
- Use Sidekick to monitor Demo Account: true
- Demo Account Number to monitor: [account number used to create the shared database]
- Which policy to use? [we recommend ‘Consecutive Wins’]
There are currently 4 “policies” (or rules) you can choose from. When a strategy in the Live Account detects a signal it checks the shared database to determine whether the policy has been satisfied. If ‘yes’, then a new position is opened — otherwise, the signal is ignored. The 4 policies are:
- Policy #1: Minimum Win Ratio for the most recent 10 trades
- Policy #2: Minimum Consecutve Wins
- Policy #3: Win Ratio OR Consecutive Wins
- Policy #4: Win Ratio AND Consecutive Wins
Though you are free to experiment, we recommend using Consecutive Wins. In the FAQ page we briefly describe why that is our preference, along with additional comments about MT4 Sidekick and Portfolio Maker.