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How to test the Prop Master Expert Advisor correctly

10 May 2024, 11:04

Sergey Ermolov

169

Prop Master is exactly the kind of Expert Advisor that needs to be set up correctly in the strategy tester to get results that will coincide with trading on a real account. The reason for this is that the EA works on price ranges that are timed. Due to the fact that brokers have different trading server times relative to GMT time, this time shift is important to set correctly.

In other words, I am talking about the first parameter in the GMT settings, which must be set correctly. To set it correctly, you need to know two times: the current GMT time and the current time of the trading server of the broker, in whose terminal you are going to test the Prop Master Expert Advisor.

It is important to remember!!! If you want to test on a weekend day, you will not be able to determine the time of the trading server of the broker, because on weekends the Forex market does not work, and the time of the trading server is stopped.

You can determine the current GMT time just by writing the request “GMT time now” in Google. And the Google will show you the time immediately or just go to the first site and you will see the time there. Let's say it is 08:16
The time of the trading server is also very easy to determine. To do this, you need to enter the trading terminal and open the “Market Watch” window. In the header of the window you will see the time of your trading server. Let's say it is 11:16

It turns out that the server time is 3 hours ahead of the GMT time, so the shift of the time of the trading server will be +3 GMT. Therefore, for testing we set the first parameter +3 GMT.

Always check the recommended parameters of the trading account.

Developers of Expert Advisors calculate on which type of trading account the Expert Advisor will work well when they are designing Expert Advisors. Therefore, in most cases, the requirements for the trading account are specified in the description of the Expert Advisor on the mql5.com website. As for the Prop Master Expert Advisor specifically, the requirements are as follows:

EURUSD spread less than 6 pips
Minimum deposit 100$
Leverage from 1:20
ECN, NDD or RAW account
Server ping up to 25 ms is desirable

The most important thing for the Prop Master is the spread size for the EURUSD currency pair. Nowadays, with a large number of brokers, it is not difficult to find a broker with a spread of 0 on the EURUSD currency pair. And if your broker still has a spread of more than 6 pips, check that the account is ECN or RAW. These are accounts with commission and market spreads. On classic accounts brokers do not charge a commission on the trade, but the broker includes this commission in the spread (the size of the commission hidden in the spread is usually larger than the commission on an ECN account). In fact, it makes no difference for you which account to use, but it is important for the Prop Master Expert Advisor for correct trading.

That is why during testing you should check which account you have opened in your trading terminal, because the spread size, order blocking level and other parameters are picked up from the trading account at the moment of testing start.

To be sure that the testing is correct, you can set the spread size 1 in the strategy tester. Then you will definitely avoid a testing error due to an incorrect spread size.

Settings and set files.

Most of the developers provide with their Expert Advisors the settings files for the currency pairs on which their Expert Advisor trades. For my Expert Advisors I set the default settings for the main currency pair EURUSD. So, set EURUSD for testing and H1 timeframe in the strategy tester. You can find the settings files for other currency pairs in the description of the Prop Master Expert Advisor on the mql5 website.

Make sure that all testing parameters are the same as in the following picture.

Compare the developer's results with the results that you got.

If you really want to find a good Expert Advisor for trading, it is important to follow all the recommendations of the developers. Therefore, before you give up working with an Expert Advisor, make sure that you have done everything according to the developer's recommendations. Otherwise you risk missing the Grail 😊

Below I give an example of a report from the strategy tester, which I got. It is formed according to all testing rules. Your result may be slightly different from mine, because you use a different quote provider and some input account parameters. But if you are getting radically different results, I recommend you to check all the points of this post again.