As you know we just released version 1.4 of Crescendo.

What are the most important features in it?

1. More currencies
   Crescendo now runs on 5 currency pairs: the original GBPUSD, GBPJPY plus EURUSD, USDCHF and USDJPY. This will help you depend less on performances of a single pair. But that also requires a more conservative approach to lot size specially if you are intentioned to use them all.
2. Trailing
   Trailing is meant to try to try take advantage of strong trend by letting the profits go until there’s a retracement large enough to close the trades in profit. This is a very important feature that usually leads to more stable performances.
3. New Trend Score algos
   This is one of the aspects I worked more on. I tried many different approaches and the ones that are released with this new version are really new and powerful. So much that they are becoming more and more the real core of the strategy. The new algos range from using speed and acceleration indicators applied to the same timeframe but with different periods, to use the well known Parabolic SAR to score the trend on 5 different timeframes. There’s no “better” algo than other. They all proofed to be good but some work better with lower frequency values, other with certain pairs, etc. So there’s no “absolute winner” for now
4. Check of Trend Score for additional entries
   This simple option is a really important change to the strategy. While until now, we were just checking at trend score for the first trade, with that option set to true Crescendo will only open optional additional positions only if the trend is coming back to the original entry one.
   An example: let’s say that we entered long with a trend score of +3. Then the price goes against us and starts to go down. So much that the trend score falls below 0 and goes negative. The EA will open additional long trades only when the trend score comes back positive (by default from +1 and above, but you can choose the minimum “magnitude”).
   This is made to avoid opening positions in the “wrong” direction when the trend is clearly against the original one. That helps keeping the draw down low and helps us in using some sort of martingale strategy to speed up the recovery. We can use martingales quite safely as we are opening new orders only when the trend is back to what it should.
5. Entries filtering
   To avoid entering when the trend is over or not yet strong enough, we can use OB/OS indicators. There are 4 different approaches to that. Again, no absolute winner here as well. Depends on frequency and on the currency pair. You can also filter additional entries as well, not only the initial one.
6. Automatic avoiding trading in low volume periods
   I decided to add that option and set it by default to true after I saw so many max DD reached last Christmas. There are periods of the year when there’s not enough volume to guarantee that the price moves as usual… “breathing” as I say or more commonly in “waves”. During those periods of the year prices go in apnoea and can go only in one direction for weeks. This can lead to large DDs if you are in the wrong direction and can take weeks or months to come back to normal. Crescendo now can automatically stop trading (opening additional sets of trades, but it’ll manage existing ones if any) from about the end of July to beginning of September and from around mid December to mid January. Dates are hard coded into the EA.
7. Compounding
   This option has been one of the most requested and I can easily understand why. But Crescendo is not a normal EA so I had to find a way to develop a compounding strategy that won’t rise the risk of trading. We should use the money earned with it to build safety. So the compounding strategy that I developed works in steps. When Crescendo reaches a certain level of gain it’ll start rising the initial lot size by a part of the potential. That way you’ll compound by increasing the lot size, but also you’ll reduce the risk of your trades the more and more you trade with it.

That’s it. This is a general overview of the most important changes and improvements made with this new version. I hope you’ll like them and will help you in being profitable.