Currently using following settings on MtGox:
Short EMA: 10
Long EMA: 21
Frequency: 30 minutes
Buy Thresholds: 0/0.25
Sell Thresholds: 0/0.25
Tick Offset: Anything
I always seem to make a small loss here... any idea what I might be doing wrong?
I have generally found the volatility at MtGox to cause issues with intervals less than 1 hour. Most of the time I run it at 2 hours, and FYI I use a 9/17 EMA split instead of a 10/21 in order to make the trend lines a bit more sensitive at that interval. I've seen some others use a 7/15, but I haven't really tried that.
Also, as Pablo points out: using EMA trading, about 70% of your trades will be small losses. It's the 30% of large-gain trades that will compensate you in the long term -- and EMA trading is a long-term strategy.
There are ways to minimize the small losses if you're thoughtful, keep on top of the market data, and adjust your settings once in a while. For the last two days or so, for example, the MtGox market has been VERY sideways (the EMA diffs and price fluctuations are small, and the trendlines *slightly* cross over and over again; also, the trading volumes are low). At times like this, I generally like to pause the bot and hold on to my Bitcoin; when the volumes pick up again (likely Sunday night, when China starts a new week), I will unpause it and let the bot take over. Another option would be to temporarily increase the buy/sell thresholds to keep the bot from trading.
Wouldn't pausing the bot be like restarting it? This way it is like starting from 0 all over again?