Newbie Question - Automated backtesting

[Matthew Finch]

Hi, 

Forgive me for asking a probably very simple question, I am new to MT5 and struggling to find an answer .. 

I would like to formulate a strategy using 3 or 4 technical indicators and backtest these over a timeframe to assess if it works. When I play around with the strategy tester, it squeaks at me - says "pass" as soon as I hit start and I get no results. 

Q1 - Is this what the strategy tester is used for? 

Q2 - If so, how can I combine trading signals (e.g. RSI>X or MACD > Y etc) in this module? 

I suspect I may need to purchase a bot or an add-on somewhere - which is fine - but how would I go about experimenting myself to find the best combination of signals for me? 

Thanks, 

Matthew

[Anthony Garot]

MFinch:

I would like to formulate a strategy using 3 or 4 technical indicators and backtest these over a timeframe to assess if it works.

That means you need to write an EA to do this.

To that end, you could use the code builder built into MT5, but I don't recommend it. Instead, what you might do is look into the Code Base to see if there are EA's similar to what you want to do, then modify them as necessary.

Q1 - Is this what the strategy tester is used for? 

The Strategy Tester is used to show the results of an EA (or Indicator) against historical data to see how a strategy would have acted. Of course, past does not predict the future, caveat emptor, and all that.

I suspect I may need to purchase a bot or an add-on somewhere

That's up to you. I've never bought a black-box 'bot. Instead I roll my own.