Pips or points in EA tester

[roslanec]

Hi all,

I noticed that the EA strategy tester (MQL5) Inputs tab lists the Stop Loss level and Take Profit level in points (see attached screenshot1.jpg file) but during testing I noticed that the calculations treat the value as pips, thus resulting in 10x difference in values considered. I am using a demo account that uses a broker with 5-digits in prices.  

Did anyone notice this before?

 

Many thanks,

Robert 

[Alexey Petrov]

It depends on the EA you're testing. You should ask author of the EA why it behaves like that.

[Rashid Umarov]

BTW, insert picture properly, it is convenient

[roslanec]

alexey_petrov:

It depends on the EA you're testing. You should ask author of the EA why it behaves like that.

Hi Alexey,

I actually found this on the EA generated by MetaEditor itself. This is what I did:

• I selected New File, used the "Expert Advisor (generate)" option in the MQL5 Wizard
• Selected the "Accelerator Oscilator" signal (but any standard signal will do the same - I tried few of them with the same result)
• Selected "Trailing stop not used"
• Selected "Trading with fixed trade volume"
• and clicked "Finish" to generate the code.

In fact the comment with this information is generated by MetaEditor, this is shown on the code snippet below:

 

//--- inputs for main signal
input int    Signal_ThresholdOpen =10;      // Signal threshold value to open [0...100]
input int    Signal_ThresholdClose=10;      // Signal threshold value to close [0...100]
input double Signal_PriceLevel    =0.0;     // Price level to execute a deal
input double Signal_StopLevel     =50.0;    // Stop Loss level (in points)
input double Signal_TakeLevel     =50.0;    // Take Profit level (in points)
input int    Signal_Expiration    =4;       // Expiration of pending orders (in bars)
input double Signal_AC_Weight     =1.0;     // Accelerator Oscillator Weight [0...1.0]

 

I also noticed that the SL calculation uses the function PriceLevelUnit() which returns 0.0001 for AUDUSD currency pair, thus indicating that the SL level is in PIPS. 

 Its not a big deal, but its a bit of a gotcha for people :-)

 

Many thanks,

Robert