Hi jcl. Does Zorro have access to the account's margin status? Can it pop up a warning message if available account margin falls below a threshold value or %?

EDIT: A little more information: What spawned this question is Z5. Not Z5 per se, but Z5 carrying many old trades from old versions for a long time. The Z5 I'm running is over 50% margin committed via open trades still being handled by 1.20. 1.24 doesn't know of those trades and therefore (I assume) can't take them into account.

Even if 1.24 doesn't open new trades because there isn't enough margin, price moving in the wrong direction could still via all those 1.20 open trades significantly move equity to the point of margin call, correct?

Thanks.

You can do that already, like this:

if(Equity - MarginVal < 1000) printf("\nMargin dangerously low!");

For being safer, it makes sense to contact your broker and request to switch your account to higher leverage. FXCM accepts 1:200 on request when you don't live in the US.

Thanks jcl.

Except, not on a Z system. Could this be implemented as a Z<n>.ini switch?

Thanks.

Ok, I'll check if that can be done.

Thanks jcl. One other question: Outside the US, FXCM offers 1:50, 1:100, and 1:200 via their MyFXCM maintenance portal. However, they also offer up to 1:400 by special request (no idea what their approval criteria is or how often this is granted). Do you have a position/recommendation re. 1:400?

Thanks.

If you can get 1:400, do it. Contrary to popular belief, higher leverage reduces the risk. Of course, if a margin call happens nevertheless, your account will be wiped more thorougly.

Normally you should always take the highest leverage that you can get.

OK, I've requested 1:400. Assuming they approve the request, what steps do I take with Zorro? Do strategies need to be stopped & restarted? What else besides reTesting for new M/R settings?

Thanks.

No steps required. You can just continue.

Test with the new settings, when you put them in AssetsFix.dta, will reveal a smaller capital requirement. In most cases it's only a small difference, except probably for Z4 and Z5.

Hi jcl. I am informed by FXCM that they will not change an account to 1:400 if it has open trades. Therefore, I'm thinking of this plan (similar to upgrade):

1) Establish new account with 1:400
2) Install an additional Zorro with separate folders
3) Use the Download script to update Assets.dta
4) Copy Assets.dta to AssetFix.dta
5) Test to determine the new Margin setting for the original CR
6) Set Margin to 0 on the old account to just run the open trades to close
7) Trade the strategy on the new account setting Margin to the Tested value

Any problems with this plan?

EDIT: And how do I determine how much needs to remain in the old account to support the closing trades?

Thanks.

Looks like a good plan. As to the remaining capital, the upper limit is the sum of all "Risk" amounts of the open trades, from the log file.