Starting from scratch
If people even tell me that excel may not be the place to start then I may be willing to let that go but it seems to be a good time saver which , for the time being, is a priority. Money and time will guide my decisions !
Excel is Not the place to start. It'll feel like you're building your own mt4 back_tester in the end. I'm willing help you learn from the book. Excel was not designed for trading and forex strategy testing. However mt4 and mql4 was designed for this purpose. If you read a chapter and have questions I'll try to clarify. Also we could do some samples and examples in-order to practice the material being taught within each chapter.
The problem is there's nothing else which verifies | validate or | help confirm your results. I for one don't mind reading your excel-development log, and I'm not saying this method wouldn't be best for you. If you feel this is easier then by all means go-for-it but somehow you'll get allot of heat from people saying this isn't mql4 related. If you're hoping for other people to assist in developing this Excel-Strategy-Tester then prepare to be disappointed. Very few would be interested and/or have the excel/mql4 know-how to assist you.
Things to consider when Building_A_Strategy_Tester. How do you plan to achieve these in Excel.
- Tick Data Population.
- Market_Info Population.
- Order_Info Population.
- Order History Population.
The above list is not complete, and theres at least 100 different things to consider within each of them which mt4 already does for you. Drawing an Indicator within Excel then saying if I bought here and sold here it'll have x-amount of profit leaves allot of questions un-answered. Example:
- Did it consider the Stop_Level?
- Did it consider the Spreads?
- Did it consider the StopOut?
- How is Profit calculated in Pips/Points?
- If currency, Is it considering Tick_Value?
- Did it consider the Swaps?
- How is it processing the Ticks?
IMO, its easier to overlook something like these when using Excel rather than with mql4. But you do what you want.
That being said, I am wondering if there are aspects of mt4 that I am overlooking. maybe i can just pop up a strategy and run a back test ? maybe to back test, no programming is needed.
I will look in to this.
When you registered, perhaps you missed the part about Any discussions except of concerning MetaQuotes Language 4 and auto trading are forbidden. You're off topic
- Free trading apps
- Over 8,000 signals for copying
- Economic news for exploring financial markets
You agree to website policy and terms of use
Hi,
The cost of blowing an account 5 k or 10 k is quite a headache. But considering that most people make 50 k a year, we are looking at the equivalent to only 2 months of salary burnt. In my ADD way, 2 months of lost time is expectable, heck, it is a goal that has far been expired. Not going to go in to details but months have gone by.
I have this way of distracting myself (hope fully that is not what I am doing now). I think I know what I have to do, I also understand how easy it is for someone to make a strategy for me and over optimize it for a quick buck.
If I am doing this I am doing right I want to be sure the strategy was done right.
At this point amount of income is not a priority. I just want something consistent and I need it fast.
I know nothing about programming, infrastructure brokers ect. I'm just a Joe. So I will try, with some help, to find the quickest and fastest way to make a semi automated trading program and back test it.
I am using MT4, but something is telling me not to jump in to learning it yet,
Instead I will start with Excel.
Here are some things about excel from "Quantative trading" by Ernest P Chan
Excel
This is the most basic form and most common tool for traders."
"you can enhance its power further if you can write Visual basic Macros"
he says that the common pitfall of "look ahead bias" is unlikely to occur (unless you you macros)
Often back testing and live trade generation can be done from the same spread sheet eliminating duplication of programming effort
but it can be use to only to back test simple models (he continues to say that this is a good thing)
he also continues half way through his book explaining the limits of excel :
While mentioning a strategy that involves an out put of 1000 symbols and sending 1000 orders, he says that with excel it is slow.
This is all from his book, besides the last part and maybe one or 2 other things that may not concern me, it seems that excel has some benefits over some expensive choices.
I need to dive in to this so I will trade a single commodity to start. I will not start off with 100 trades a day. ( I have been down that route.) I want to trade maybe a couple of times a week and focus on this strategy and slowly add in others and build towards 100 orders a day if that is needed.
I will start off sharing some ideas of building a fast profitable trading system. I will try to learn only what I need to know as time goes on. Hope fully I will get some advice or at least help some one. To date I have candles on my excel sheet with a moving average. Something I am very proud of ! I will start before that and go through each step.
Order execution, risk managment, indicators will not be the focus of this. All of that will not be in my control. I will adjust those to what is profitable. Little or no preference will be given to an indicator or position size.
If people even tell me that excel may not be the place to start then I may be willing to let that go but it seems to be a good time saver which , for the time being, is a priority. Money and time will guide my decisions !