Free program to test historical data?

Trading Tech and Tools
1

I was looking for a free program to test my trading strategy on historical data. Some of you kindly suggested MetaTrader: I looked at it, but it’s not exactly what I was looking for.

What I’m looking for is something that would let you simulate an account, placing trades with SL/TP on actual historical data and see how the situation develops, with the ability to “speed up” time so that I won’t have to wait hours or days for the trade to close.

Does Metatrader do that? Maybe I looked at it too quickly. On the other hand I stumbled upon “Forex Tester”, which does what I want, but it’s rather expensive. Any program like that but possibly for free?

thanks :slight_smile:

3

Yes, a little expensive, but that tool helped me and many people around. I can tell as the person who bought FX tester, I think that worth every penny. For you I can only suggest to check internet for better price propositions. Or to wait untill next Xmas, they make good discounts that time :wink:

4

Metatrader does indeed do that, all you have to do is scroll your charts back and press “F12” to move the charts forward one candle at a time.

You can’t actually enter the trades and have the software keep up with them, but you can draw lines on the chart for your SL, TP, etc and keep track of your progress manually in a spreadsheet.

This is how I do all my testing, and it’s worked well for me over the years. :slight_smile:

5

Hi Phil,

I’m new here and just saw this post…could you tell me if I could just download MT4 and get access to historical data without opening an account with a broker? Where do you get this historical data?

Thank you!
Robert

6

You can only get MT4 through a broker, but you can use a demo account instead of opening a live account.

I suggest you use Alpari if you want a demo account for historical data. They have data going back for years on their demo accounts.

7

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the tip on Alpari. Yesterday I saw an MT4 download on metatrader4.com. It looks like you get the software, but then I’d need some historical data and live data to point at.

I’m hesitant to install this, then have to uninstall it and re-install a broker’s version of it (they might tweak it to their data format or something). My last computer was fairly hosed…probably due to registry issues with installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, etc.!! Those “uninstalls” probably aren’t complete!

Regards,
Robert