metatrader 4 backtesting

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hi, i'm new to forex trading and to this forum. right now i'm studying technical analysis while forward testing FAPturbo on 15 minute charts on metatrader4 build 225. for the last two weeks i have wanted to backtest & optimize the forex robot on the strategy center - i follow the instructions carefully, set the correct parameters, press start, watch the progress bar move, hear a rubber duckie squeaking - but when i go check the results, graph, report tabs ... i see absolutely nothing, as if nothing had happened! i have tried downloading again then reinstalling metatrader, but still get nothing. i'm very sure i have done everything right; i've been doing this many times a day everyday for the last two weeks! i'm getting really frustrated and confused, so i was hoping you guys could help me find out what i could be doing wrong or anything i may have missed. thanks!
 

Anything in the Journal tab, to indicate errors?

Perhaps have a look at the related topics at

http://www.trade2win.com

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.forexautopilotforum.com

etc, etc

-BB-

 

Sounds like an absence of relevant data in the history center.


CB

 

BarrowBoy:

thanks for the links i'll take a look at those.


cloudbreaker:

Sounds like an absence of relevant data in the history center.

could you please clarify that a bit?



anyways this is basically what i've been doing for the past two weeks:


1) go to tools => history center

a) select currency & timeframe (ex. USDCAD M15)

b) click download => wait for the download to finish

2) file => open offline

a) select currency pair & timeframe (USDCAD M15)

b) click open

3) view => strategy center


workspace

a) press start

b) progress bar moves => rubber duckie sqeaks

c) check other tabs:


results


graph


journal

 

Implications are that:-

1) You dont have any options checked in Expert Properties

2) If you do have options checked, there are no alternative values set to evaluate

3) The resulting single pass results in a loss so isnt shown (to see this, right-click Optimization Results tab to enable 'show losses' or whatever its called and repeat the run)

FWIW

-BB-

 
cloudbreaker:

Sounds like an absence of relevant data in the history center.


CB

Apologies - didn't realize it was an optimization run that was failing with "insignificant results".


CB

 
BarrowBoy:

Implications are that:-

1) You dont have any options checked in Expert Properties

2) If you do have options checked, there are no alternative values set to evaluate

3) The resulting single pass results in a loss so isnt shown (to see this, right-click Optimization Results tab to enable 'show losses' or whatever its called and repeat the run)

FWIW

-BB-

oh, my... so i have to check the checkboxes in the expert properties first? in all the backtesting guides and tutorials i've seen they never once mentioned it, so i guess it must have been a no brainer. silly me ('~')


cloudbreaker:

Apologies - didn't realize it was an optimization run that was failing with "insignificant results".


CB

no, no, no, no - MY apologies.



barrowboy and cloudbreaker - you have my sincerest thanks.

 

Here is a very detailed article on downloading and importing quality minute data into MetaTrader. This article has a link to high quality real Alpari tick data.


Make sure you don't just click the "download" button on MetaTrader in the History Center because the data from MetaTrader is not good.


How To Set Up MetaTrader History Data And Get 90% Backtesting Quality

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