"Strategy Test" = joke or game?

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I did an EA and running it with $ 1,000 between January and July 2015, using the "Strategy Test" and got the result of $ 2,700,000.00

You will say "Oh ... What a wonderful EA !!!"

But, I put this EA also with $ 1,000 in an online account and on a single day he lost 90% .of the capital

So I ask a question: What is the "Strategy Test"?
It's a joke, a game or what?

Please understand. I wish not to offend anyone. But MQL creators need to give more importance to the fact that we are risking money.
 
Sergio Gelli:
I did an EA and running it with $ 1,000 between January and July 2015, using the "Strategy Test" and got the result of $ 2,700,000.00

You will say "Oh ... What a wonderful EA !!!"

But, I put this EA also with $ 1,000 in an online account and on a single day he lost 90% .of the capital

So I ask a question: What is the "Strategy Test"?
It's a joke, a game or what?

Please understand. I wish not to offend anyone. But MQL creators need to give more importance to the fact that we are risking money.

MT4 or MT5 ?

What was the spread for your backtest ? And the actual spread on your live account (demo I hope).

A Strategy Tester is only a tool, it can be used for testing purpose (coding logic, trading logic), and to give you an idea of what could be the results. But you still have to use it correctly and it doesn't provide any guarantee about the results, as a live trading environment is very different (depending of the trading strategy).

 
Alain Verleyen:

MT4 or MT5 ?

What was the spread for your backtest ? And the actual spread on your live account (demo I hope).

A Strategy Tester is only a tool, it can be used for testing purpose (coding logic, trading logic), and to give you an idea of what could be the results. But you still have to use it correctly and it doesn't provide any guarantee about the results, as a live trading environment is very different (depending of the trading strategy).


I use MQL5

The spread is 0.00012 in "Strategy Tester" and "On Line". Yes, demo.


I understand the limitations and care when using a resource for the purpose of testing. What I claim is that the difference is fabulous and so is not helping but hindering.
But I reiterate that a feature of these are useful, but must be done more accurately


 
Sergio Gelli:

I use MQL5

The spread is 0.00012 in "Strategy Tester" and "On Line". Yes, demo.


I understand the limitations and care when using a resource for the purpose of testing. What I claim is that the difference is fabulous and so is not helping but hindering.
But I reiterate that a feature of these are useful, but must be done more accurately


No offense but I strongly doubt that it's a Strategy Tester issue, more probably something in your code or settings.
 

Strategy tester run in ideal conditions, in live trading you need to test the live performance made available by that particular broker.

Execution and execution environment make all the difference.

 
Alain Verleyen:
No offense but I strongly doubt that it's a Strategy Tester issue, more probably something in your code or settings.
So just remains, I throw my EA in the trash.
But I insist that the "Strategy Tester" should have filters to prevent our faults.
 
Sergio Gelli:
So just remains, I throw my EA in the trash.
But I insist that the "Strategy Tester" should have filters to prevent our faults.

I respect your opinion, but I don't agree. I don't want anyone (individual or company) to prevent my faults, I am responsible enough to know what I am doing.

Metaquotes (or other software companies) are already taking enough decision for us.

 
Alain Verleyen:

I respect your opinion, but I don't agree. I don't want anyone (individual or company) to prevent my faults, I am responsible enough to know what I am doing.

Metaquotes (or other software companies) are already taking enough decision for us.

Before I said I had won US$ 2,700,000.00 applying only US$ 1,000.00
Excuse me. I was wrong
I redid the test and the gain is slightly higher: I won just US$ 4,491,980.08

The following images of the results appended


Excuse me again and again with all due respect, I do not think that leaving a resource like Strategy Tester doing things like that, is something that reminds responsibility.

Things like these can lead people to have serious losses

I hope the developers take care of our interests.

 

it's your own fault for using the strategy tester and it's well known it can produce unrealistic results.

if you want true results you test on real market conditions it is that simple.

and if you lose, you realize and accept you made a mistake, you don't start to whine and blame others.

learning from your mistakes is what can make you a good trader, and if you are already complaining,

maybe this isn't for you, you might want to find another hobby.

 
Marco vd Heijden:

it's your own fault for using the strategy tester and it's well known it can produce unrealistic results.

if you want true results you test on real market conditions it is that simple.

and if you lose, you realize and accept you made a mistake, you don't start to whine and blame others.

learning from your mistakes is what can make you a good trader, and if you are already complaining,

maybe this isn't for you, you might want to find another hobby.

Alain Verleyen:

I respect your opinion, but I don't agree. I don't want anyone (individual or company) to prevent my faults, I am responsible enough to know what I am doing.

Metaquotes (or other software companies) are already taking enough decision for us.


I agree with both.

 
Sergio Gelli:
I did an EA and running it with $ 1,000 between January and July 2015, using the "Strategy Test" and got the result of $ 2,700,000.00

You will say "Oh ... What a wonderful EA !!!"

But, I put this EA also with $ 1,000 in an online account and on a single day he lost 90% .of the capital

So I ask a question: What is the "Strategy Test"?
It's a joke, a game or what?

Your comparison is incorrect for making such assumption. You should run the test on the same day when you lost your money on real account. There may be perfectly well a situation that EA produces profits for half a year and then makes a large drawdown in a single day. You should compare your online trading with tester (side by side) and analyze what goes wrong. Then you can conclude the reason.

Also you did not provide any details about the EA and tester settings. There are lot of options to spoil the test, and neither means the tester failure. For example, one can test by open prices and then fail in online trade by ticks, or EA uses scalping strategy but execution times online is of course larger than in tester, or inappropriate spread was used, etc. Unless you uncover more details, no one can help you to confirm or refute your point about tester and/or specific EA.

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