Discussing the article: "Using the MQL5 Economic Calendar for News Filter (Part 4): Accurate Backtesting with Static Data"

New comment
 

Check out the new article: Using the MQL5 Economic Calendar for News Filter (Part 4): Accurate Backtesting with Static Data.

This article implements a static, CSV-based news source for the Strategy Tester, so historical economic news events can be preloaded and queried during backtesting. It replaces live calendar calls in tester mode with a fast in-memory search, preserves the live logic for trading, and delivers deterministic, repeatable results with explicit control over included events, enabling reliable validation of news-aware filters, stop suspension, and trade-blocking rules.

When historical news events are not available in the Strategy Tester, it produces specific, observable distortions in the results.

In a typical backtest:

  • The EA never detects news windows because no events are returned.
  • Trade-blocking logic is never triggered.
  • Stop-loss and take-profit suspension routines remain inactive.
  • Position-closing logic before high-impact events is never executed.

This leads to misleading output, as volatility spikes are ignored, and inability to validate behavior since no logs or actions confirm that the news filter is working.

As a result, the trader cannot answer these questions:

  • Did the EA correctly detect a news window?
  • Were trades blocked at the right time?
  • Were stops removed and later restored?
  • Did overlapping events produce continuous restriction periods?

Without observable evidence of these behaviors, the backtest is unverifiable and incomplete.




Author: Solomon Anietie Sunday

New comment