Hi guys,
I optimized an EA that I wrote on Easy-Forex’s platform (and on their history data). Just recently I got a live account with Forex.com. However when I test my EA on their data, the results are different and I get mismached chart errors. I tried to re-download the data in metatrader’s history center, but it keeps telling me that “there is no new data for that symbol” (Even if I delete the data first). What can I do? I understand that I can technically import history data from another broker…but I need THIS broker’s data to make sure that my EA will work!
Yea thats a common problem, i had the same thing happen to me its hard to find an answer, it seems that some brokers only have a limited amount of 1 minute history data on their servers.
It can vary between a couple of weeks to several months if you need more than that dont use the download button in history center.
That button is like the kiss of death to whatever good data you have because it downloads awful history data direct from metaquotes which is known to be full of erroneous candles and missing data, and replaces what ever good data you had, with it.
All brokers data is going to vary some, but really I think its true to say, if your EA only works profitably on data from one broker, the EA is over optimized to that brokers previous chart data and almost certainly will fail on ANY future trading, a good EA should work on any brokers data as the variations between them are the same variations that would occur naturally in the price action day in day out on any price feed, If you want to import good chart data that your broker is not supplying you might have to download it from a third party
You should take into consideration that even though your backtest shows large profits or profits at all that might not be so in a live account because backtesting does not take slippage into consideration because it cannot.
Yes I understand that - but that only really matters if youre sclaping. My EA performed very well with metaquotes’ rates without much optimization… so hopefully it will hold up.
Yep, it seems that for brokers, they have the option of giving you indicative data (from Metaquotes) or streaming the data from their in-house feed. The “issue” is documented here: Historical data differences…? / Forum: Forex Trading with MetaTrader 4
Thanks for that link - that cleared some things up for me. It seems then that the only thing I can do is to find a broker that provides a huge amount of their own real history data… is this the case? I have found data that people claim is “accurate”… but since it is not from the same broker is it useless to me?
Also, shouldn’t an ECN broker’s history data be the same as every other ECN broker’s since they provide direct access to the interbank network?
You’re going to find that this is an inescapable issue, really. However, it doesn’t matter if you stitch together rates from different brokers. When you’re running the Strategy Tester, look at the modeling quality. Typically, you’re going to want 90% or greater if you’re making an EA to run on 15M or higher. If you’re scalping 1M or 5M, you’ll want much higher (in the realm of 95%+).
I’m not sure how ECNs work.
Thank you for your help. Once I get the data to a usable form I will make a torrent of it so everyone can get it too.