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Trailing Stop FrCnSar Strategy

Overview

The Trailing Stop FrCnSar strategy ports the MetaTrader toolkit shipped as TrailingStopFrCnSARen_v4.mq4 and OrderBalansEN_v3_4.mq4. The expert advisor managed existing positions by adjusting their stop-losses using several techniques (previous candles, fractals, price velocity, or Parabolic SAR), while the companion indicator displayed the current account balance and open orders. The StockSharp conversion focuses on net positions and re-implements the trailing logic with high-level API primitives. It also provides an optional order summary logger so the informational overlay from the original indicator remains available in textual form.

The strategy does not open new trades automatically. Instead, it continuously observes the current position on Strategy.Security, updates the desired trailing stop level according to the selected mode and user-defined filters, and closes the exposure once price reaches the trailing barrier. Because StockSharp works with net positions rather than discrete tickets, all calculations apply to the aggregate quantity.

Trading logic

  1. Subscribe to the configured CandleType and process only finished candles to avoid premature stop adjustments.
  2. Maintain short rolling buffers with candle highs and lows so that fractals and recent extremes can be retrieved without calling forbidden indicator methods.
  3. Optionally calculate a smoothed close-to-close velocity in points when the velocity trailing mode is active.
  4. For every completed candle, produce the candidate trailing stop price based on the selected mode:
    • Lowest low from the recent candle history minus the DeltaPoints offset.
    • Latest confirmed fractal adjusted by DeltaPoints.
    • Close price shifted by a velocity-dependent distance.
    • Current Parabolic SAR value offset by DeltaPoints.
    • A fixed distance expressed in instrument points.
  5. Check the candidate against money-management filters: require existing stops, allow only profitable trailing, stop once break-even is achieved, or base the profit test on the average entry price.
  6. Replace the stored stop level when the candidate improves the existing one by at least StepPoints.
  7. If the candle crosses the stored level (low for longs, high for shorts) and trading is allowed, close the net position with a market order.
  8. Optionally log a textual summary with balance, position size, entry price, current stop, and unrealised PnL, emulating the MetaTrader OrderBalans indicator.

Trailing modes

  • Candle – trails behind the most recent significant candle extreme. Offsets are applied via DeltaPoints to keep the stop slightly away from support/resistance.
  • Fractal – uses the last five-bar fractal detected on the processed timeframe. This mimics the default MetaTrader implementation but operates on net positions.
  • Velocity – estimates price velocity by averaging close-to-close changes over VelocityPeriod. When momentum accelerates in the position’s direction, the stop is tightened proportionally to the velocity difference scaled by VelocityMultiplier.
  • Parabolic – follows the Parabolic SAR indicator managed by StockSharp. The stop hugs the SAR dots and inherits the step and maximum acceleration parameters.
  • Fixed points – enforces a constant distance from price, effectively mirroring the “>4 pips” behaviour of the original script.
  • Off – disables trailing and keeps the current stop untouched.

Parameters

Name Type Default Description
Mode TrailingStopMode Candle Determines which trailing algorithm is active.
CandleType DataType 15-minute candles Timeframe used to analyse candles and calculate trailing data.
DeltaPoints int 0 Additional distance (in instrument points) added below/above the raw trailing price.
StepPoints int 0 Minimum improvement, in points, required before updating an existing trailing stop.
FixedDistancePoints int 50 Distance for the fixed trailing mode. Ignored by other modes.
TrailOnlyProfit bool true When true, trailing starts only after the stop would end in profit relative to the entry price.
TrailOnlyBreakEven bool false Stop updating once the stored stop has moved beyond break-even.
RequireExistingStop bool false Ignore trailing updates until a stop level has already been calculated.
UseGeneralBreakEven bool false Evaluate the profitability filter using the average entry price of the net position (equivalent to the original TProfit helper).
VelocityPeriod int 30 Number of closes used to average velocity in the velocity mode.
VelocityMultiplier decimal 1 Scales the velocity adjustment applied to the trailing distance.
ParabolicStep decimal 0.02 Acceleration step for the Parabolic SAR indicator.
ParabolicMaximum decimal 0.2 Maximum acceleration for the Parabolic SAR indicator.
LogOrderSummary bool true Enables textual logging similar to the OrderBalans panel.
TradeVolume decimal 1 Default volume used when flattening positions via helper methods.

Differences from the original MetaTrader scripts

  • The conversion works with StockSharp net positions instead of individual tickets. Stop updates therefore apply to the entire position regardless of how it was built.
  • Magic number and multi-symbol filters were removed. The strategy monitors only Strategy.Security and assumes that position sizing is handled externally.
  • The MetaTrader Velocity custom indicator is approximated through an averaged close-to-close difference measured in instrument points. This keeps the behaviour intuitive but may not match the proprietary indicator exactly.
  • Visual chart objects (trendlines, arrows, labels) were replaced by textual log entries. The LogOrderSummary parameter re-creates the informational panel produced by OrderBalansEN_v3_4.mq4 without relying on manual chart drawing.
  • Stop modifications use StockSharp helper methods (BuyMarket, SellMarket) because the platform does not expose a direct equivalent to MetaTrader’s OrderModify on individual tickets.

Usage tips

  • Attach the strategy to a chart to visualise the effect of each trailing mode. For Parabolic SAR, enable the chart area to view dots and trades simultaneously.
  • Adjust DeltaPoints and StepPoints according to the instrument tick size. The implementation automatically converts points using Security.PriceStep or Security.MinPriceStep.
  • Keep TrailOnlyProfit enabled when mimicking the original behaviour, as the MetaTrader script avoided tightening stops before positions became profitable.
  • Disable LogOrderSummary if you prefer a quieter output or are running hundreds of strategies concurrently.
  • Test the velocity mode with different VelocityMultiplier values; higher multipliers make the trailing stop react faster to sudden bursts in momentum.

Indicators

  • Parabolic SAR (ParabolicSar)
  • Rolling candle highs and lows (native data buffers)
  • Optional averaged close-to-close velocity derived from candle closes
using System;

using StockSharp.Algo.Indicators;
using StockSharp.Algo.Strategies;
using StockSharp.BusinessEntities;
using StockSharp.Messages;

namespace StockSharp.Samples.Strategies;

/// <summary>
/// Trailing Stop FrCnSar: EMA crossover with ATR trailing stops.
/// </summary>
public class TrailingStopFrCnSarStrategy : Strategy
{
	private readonly StrategyParam<DataType> _candleType;
	private readonly StrategyParam<int> _fastEmaLength;
	private readonly StrategyParam<int> _slowEmaLength;
	private readonly StrategyParam<int> _atrLength;

	private decimal _prevFast;
	private decimal _prevSlow;
	private decimal _entryPrice;
	private decimal _bestPrice;

	public TrailingStopFrCnSarStrategy()
	{
		_candleType = Param(nameof(CandleType), TimeSpan.FromHours(4).TimeFrame())
			.SetDisplay("Candle Type", "Timeframe.", "General");
		_fastEmaLength = Param(nameof(FastEmaLength), 10)
			.SetDisplay("Fast EMA Length", "Fast EMA period.", "Indicators");
		_slowEmaLength = Param(nameof(SlowEmaLength), 30)
			.SetDisplay("Slow EMA Length", "Slow EMA period.", "Indicators");
		_atrLength = Param(nameof(AtrLength), 14)
			.SetDisplay("ATR Length", "ATR period.", "Indicators");
	}

	public DataType CandleType { get => _candleType.Value; set => _candleType.Value = value; }
	public int FastEmaLength { get => _fastEmaLength.Value; set => _fastEmaLength.Value = value; }
	public int SlowEmaLength { get => _slowEmaLength.Value; set => _slowEmaLength.Value = value; }
	public int AtrLength { get => _atrLength.Value; set => _atrLength.Value = value; }

	/// <inheritdoc />
	protected override void OnReseted()
	{
		base.OnReseted();

		_prevFast = 0; _prevSlow = 0; _entryPrice = 0; _bestPrice = 0;
	}

		protected override void OnStarted2(DateTime time)
	{
		base.OnStarted2(time);
		_prevFast = 0; _prevSlow = 0; _entryPrice = 0; _bestPrice = 0;
		var fastEma = new ExponentialMovingAverage { Length = FastEmaLength };
		var slowEma = new ExponentialMovingAverage { Length = SlowEmaLength };
		var atr = new AverageTrueRange { Length = AtrLength };
		var subscription = SubscribeCandles(CandleType);
		subscription.Bind(fastEma, slowEma, atr, ProcessCandle).Start();
		var area = CreateChartArea();
		if (area != null) { DrawCandles(area, subscription); DrawIndicator(area, fastEma); DrawIndicator(area, slowEma); DrawOwnTrades(area); }
	}

	private void ProcessCandle(ICandleMessage candle, decimal fastVal, decimal slowVal, decimal atrVal)
	{
		if (candle.State != CandleStates.Finished) return;
		if (_prevFast == 0 || _prevSlow == 0 || atrVal <= 0) { _prevFast = fastVal; _prevSlow = slowVal; return; }
		var close = candle.ClosePrice;

		if (Position > 0)
		{
			if (close > _bestPrice) _bestPrice = close;
			if (close <= _bestPrice - atrVal * 2m || (fastVal < slowVal && _prevFast >= _prevSlow)) { SellMarket(); _entryPrice = 0; _bestPrice = 0; }
		}
		else if (Position < 0)
		{
			if (close < _bestPrice) _bestPrice = close;
			if (close >= _bestPrice + atrVal * 2m || (fastVal > slowVal && _prevFast <= _prevSlow)) { BuyMarket(); _entryPrice = 0; _bestPrice = 0; }
		}

		if (Position == 0)
		{
			if (fastVal > slowVal && _prevFast <= _prevSlow) { _entryPrice = close; _bestPrice = close; BuyMarket(); }
			else if (fastVal < slowVal && _prevFast >= _prevSlow) { _entryPrice = close; _bestPrice = close; SellMarket(); }
		}
		_prevFast = fastVal; _prevSlow = slowVal;
	}
}