this whole issue is driving me crazy. i just dont get it and would really appreciate a general overview as well as specific help.
for example - can all ea’s be run through the strategy tester - if so how ? or are some only for live trading ?
for example i have downloaded a breakout ea to mt4 which works on the strategy tester but not when i change or attempt to change the time settings in strategy tester ’ expert settings ’
It is just about impossible to provide what you are requesting in this kind of forum. What you really need is a video tutorial or mentoring. I am not offering.
The way I learned was by doing but I am used to this because of my background as a programmer. For a non-programmer it might be difficult.
I can offer some answers. Most EAs can be run under Strategy Tester. The ones that can’t be are what I call “Trade Manager” and “Entry Only” types of EAs. By this I mean some EAs will manage SL and TP and perhaps exit on a signal. Others make trades from entry rules and the trader does the rest manually. So I guess you could say Strategy Tester cannot handle anything that involves manual steps.
The best way to begin getting good at Strategy Tester is to use an EA that is simple to understand. Run it in live mode until you understand it thoroughly. Then run it in Strategy Tester using the same settings and data a day or 2 later. Verify that the results are identical or explainable. Then change some settings and rerun the test. Then change the date range. After a few dozen runs, you should be getting the hang of it.