MT4 Strategy tester

Beginner Questions
1

Hi all,

Just wondering what people’s experience on using the Strategy tester in MT4 is: Is it accurate?

The EA does 24 trades over the course of the last month, but it only does 18 trades on the yearly test (which includes the same month that included the 24 trades).

This leads me to think that it’s not sampling all the data over the full year.

Any ideas on why this could be occurring?

Thanks,
Paul

2

Hi,

I cannot help you with the EA situation, but I can suggest you to test your strategy on live trading, because only that way you can be 100% sure if your strategy is good or not.

3

Can be many things. What settings did you change? Only date? Is your EA using historical data? Some indicators change result if they are applied to an other time period. What “Model” setting do you use? Is your EA causing the difference?

I have good experience with the testing but results can be different Most of the time my programming is the problem.

4

Thanks for replying @TC Holland.

All I changed is the date and then re-run the test.
I’m testing this EA: Free download of the ‘RSI trader v1’ expert by ‘FxAutomatedcom’ for MetaTrader 4 in the MQL5 Code Base Looking through the code, it doesn’t seem to use any historical data, except the last tick - but maybe that’s the issue.

I’m using the “Every tick” model for the test.

If you have any further ideas I’d appreciate them.

Many thanks,
Paul

5

Some indicators change if they have an other start value.

I get the same result testing on different periods. What is the pair and period you are testing? And on what time frame?

6

An other problem can be that it not opens a new order as an existing order is still open.

7

So you tried the same EA and experienced the same issue as me?

I’m trading GBPUSD on the 15Min period.

Test 1 - 15/03/16 to 15/04/16
Test 2 - 15/04/15 to 15/04/16

I think the EA looks like it closes previous orders before opening a new one? My MQL isn’t great, sry.

Paul

8

No I didn’t have the same issues I have been reading the Link you give. People were asking for a change in the EA to open Multiple orders That made me think.

RSItest 2.jpg700×193 21.2 KB

RSI test 3.jpg700×172 21.3 KB

You see the same result in the last orders on the long run

In the EA you find a variable called halt1 and halt2 This prevents the EA to take a second order in the same direction

Check your date settings. Sometimes they change!

My results for the 2 given time periods My settings can be different because I had the EA already on my computer
Did you turn visual on? You can see the orders and find out what is the problem.

9

Thanks TC Holland…

What do you mean by “Check your date settings. Sometimes they change!” ?

When you say “Did you turn visual on?” - Do you mean view the Graph tab?

10

The date change sometimes It takes the end of the week Or you set first end date and then start date has sometimes effect on the settings Sometimes the date was not set to what I thought I had set it to.

Yes in the visual tab you can see all the orders that are executed in your test period Just go back to where the difference is

Your output looks good. Problem solved, or?

11

Thanks TC Holland… Yes, I have a much better understanding now.

Many thanks for your advice!

Best regards
Paul

12

Your welcome.

TC

13

It’s not useless but has a major disadvantage, like you can’t change your time frame when you are testing with a specific time frame! Otherwise, everything if okay! I basically tried to learn PA trading by using this free strategy testing feature! But now sure, how strategy based traders experience on this feature! By the way, Mt4 is the best trading platform in order to my point!