Aloha,
Trying to have my program sell short the TF, once certain parameters are met. When I go to backtest the strategy it is not performing how I expected, with it selling short and then immediately triggering stop loss on days when there is a ski slope down. What am I missing? Since I am selling short, does the STP and TGT need to be negative?
Mahalo

{short Russell}
Inputs:
Price( Open ),
Length1 ( 12 ),
Length2 ( 15 ),
Cts ( 1 ),
TGT ( 300 ),
STP ( 100 );

Vars:
ExpAv1 ( 0 ),
PrevNetProfit ( 0 ),
PrevNetLoss ( 0 ),
StopTrading (false),
ROC1 ( 0 );

ExpAv1 = XAverage ( Price, Length1 ) ;
ROC1 = ( PRICE - PRICE[Length2] ) / PRICE[Length2] * 100 ; { RATE OF CHANGE }

if Date <> Date [1] then
begin
PrevNetProfit = NetProfit;
StopTrading = false;
end;

if NetProfit >= PrevNetProfit + 100 then StopTrading = true;

if Date <> Date [1] then
begin
PrevNetLoss = GrossLoss;
StopTrading = false;
end;

if GrossLoss >= PrevNetLoss + 80 then StopTrading = true;

{Buy or short sell contracts at exponential average crossovers}

if volume > 2000 and ROC1 < 1 and Price[1] crosses below ExpAv1[1] then
begin
Sellshort ( "sellshort") Cts contracts next bar at market ;

setprofittarget (TGT);
setstoploss (STP);

end;

value97 = text_new ( D, T, ExpAv1, "*" );
text_setcolor (Value97, Cyan);

honoluluhustler,

"Since I am selling short, does the STP and TGT need to be negative?" - No, the strategy will figure that out.
Why do you include the stop and target within the entry condition? This means they are only active when the entry conditions are. So you will likely have times when you are in the market, but without a stop and target.

Regards,
ABCTG

So move

Setprofittarget and setstoploss on the outside after the end;

if volume > 2000 and ROC1 < 1 and Price[1] crosses below ExpAv1[1] then
begin
buy ( "buy") Cts contracts next bar at market ;

end;

setprofittarget (TGT);
setstoploss (STP);