Strategy tester intermittently shows real trades alongside simulated trades
As the title suggests, sometimes when I run strategy tester I get real trades alongside simulated trades. Below for example:
If you notice the first trade from the left has two close position icons (arrow up). One is the simulated trade placed during the test of the EA and the other is the actual one placed at the same time by the EA against my broker. Now there are other real positions opened on the same symbol by either myself or another EA I'm using. So this is extremely confusing when trying to debug an EA as I can't easily see which ones are test positions and which ones are real at a glance. Only way is to hover over the arrow and based on the ticket number I can derive whether this is a real position or of the EA I'm currently testing. As you can see from the screenshot "Trade History" is not even selected, which presumably is done by default, when showing a chart after a test, to hide the real positions.
This doesn't always happen, some times I restart the machine and it's fixed. Or I change something in the EA or the Strategy Tester settings and again it's fixed.
Strange thing is that I even get this when switching trading accounts. So I'll switch from my real account to a demo account and whilst running a backtest on the demo account I get the positions from the real account shown on the chart :s. I mean, yikes...
Running MT5 build 5430 on macOS. This is clearly a glitch in MT5, but have other people run into the same problem and have you ever found a solution? Like clearing data folder or something?
Get Windows (Parallels Desktop on Mac) and focus on your strategy not chasing glitches. In case you are keen to use plain macOS - here is a thread where users manage successfully MT5/Mac
https://www.mql5.com/en/forum/ 459758
- 2023.12.30
- www.mql5.com
With all due respect to both MetaQuotes and Apple - MetaTrader on Mac is a hassle at the moment.
Get Windows (Parallels Desktop on Mac) and focus on your strategy not chasing glitches. In case you are keen to use plain macOS - here is a thread where users manage successfully MT5/Mac
https://www.mql5.com/en/forum/ 459758
akf #:
[N]othing is a blocker for my workflow so far...
[I]t makes strategy tester unusable.
The two statements above appear to contradict each other unless of course, you have no need to use the Strategy Tester.
As Oleksandr Medviediev alluded, Wine is the solution if you need to use the Strategy Tester.
The two statements above appear to contradict each other unless of course, you have no need to use the Strategy Tester.
As Oleksandr Medviediev alluded, Wine is the solution if you need to use the Strategy Tester.
ok, maybe the correct way to have phrased the above is that "Nothing is a blocker, *when* this works properly" :). As stated, this is intermittent.
When you say "Wine" is the solution, apologies but I'm not sure there's an alternative. I'm already running the Wine-based MT5 installation for macOS.
ok, maybe the correct way to have phrased the above is that "Nothing is a blocker, *when* this works properly" :). As stated, this is intermittent.
When you say "Wine" is the solution, apologies but I'm not sure there's an alternative. I'm already running the Wine-based MT5 installation for macOS.
Just to debunk a bit the myth that macOS or Wine is the culprit, I did end up buying a windows machine tasked to be running tests and optimisation tasks. The behaviour is the same, and interestingly I can even see XAUUSD real trades being mixed up with ETHUSD test trades when running backtesting. It's extremely bizarre:
I'm surprised that no one else is running into this issue.
Just to debunk a bit the myth that macOS or Wine is the culprit, I did end up buying a windows machine tasked to be running tests and optimisation tasks. The behaviour is the same, and interestingly I can even see XAUUSD real trades being mixed up with ETHUSD test trades when running backtesting. It's extremely bizarre:
I'm surprised that no one else is running into this issue.
Is it happening each time, are you able to reproduce that ?
Are you using some templates ? (tpl files).
@Alain Verleyen thanks a lot! I feel a bit dumb now but that was it and it didn't cross my mind to check it. I had replaced the default template with a chart I've customised. What I didn't realise is that the template saves all the objects on the chart, including the trades. Opening up the template file I saw that inside it had all the trades stored:
<object> type=32 name=autotrade #123456 sell 0.01 XAUUSD at 3341.79, XAUUSD hidden=1 color=1918177 selectable=0 date1=1752832804 value1=3341.790000 </object>
So all I had to do is unselect trade history and save the template again. This is most probably my misunderstanding about how templates should be used.
Thanks a lot for the help!
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As the title suggests, sometimes when I run strategy tester I get real trades alongside simulated trades. Below for example:
If you notice the first trade from the left has two close position icons (arrow up). One is the simulated trade placed during the test of the EA and the other is the actual one placed at the same time by the EA against my broker. Now there are other real positions opened on the same symbol by either myself or another EA I'm using. So this is extremely confusing when trying to debug an EA as I can't easily see which ones are test positions and which ones are real at a glance. Only way is to hover over the arrow and based on the ticket number I can derive whether this is a real position or of the EA I'm currently testing. As you can see from the screenshot "Trade History" is not even selected, which presumably is done by default, when showing a chart after a test, to hide the real positions.
This doesn't always happen, some times I restart the machine and it's fixed. Or I change something in the EA or the Strategy Tester settings and again it's fixed.
Strange thing is that I even get this when switching trading accounts. So I'll switch from my real account to a demo account and whilst running a backtest on the demo account I get the positions from the real account shown on the chart :s. I mean, yikes...
Running MT5 build 5430 on macOS. This is clearly a glitch in MT5, but have other people run into the same problem and have you ever found a solution? Like clearing data folder or something?