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Posts Tagged ‘Strategy Tester’

MetaTrader Tips – Expert Advisor Back Testing

November 17th, 2009 No comments

To back test an expert advisor (EA) follow the steps below.

  1. Open the Strategy Tester window by pressing Ctrl+R
  2. Select the expert advisor you wish to back test
  3. Select the symbol you wish to back test
  4. Select a testing model (every tick model recommended)
  5. Set a testing period
  6. Press Start

back_testing

MetaTrader Tips – Expert Advisor Optimization

November 12th, 2009 No comments

Let’s look at how to optimize an expert advisor. In the example below we will look to optimize the size of stop loss and take profit.

Expert Optimization Steps

1. Open the Strategy Tester window by pressing Ctrl+R.

expert_optimization

2. In the Strategy Tester window, select Expert Properties

3. Select the Optimized parameters ( in our example stop-loss and stop-profit)

success

4. Enter the initial values of the optimized parameters, step and stop

5. Close the window

6. Select Optimization

7. Choose a model for optimization ( a model “ Open prices only (fastest method to analyze the bar just completed)” corresponds to the most advisors, although for greater accuracy it is possible to test on Every tick (based on all available least timeframes) but then time of optimization substantially will be increased.

8. Press start

9. After completion of optimization, open Optimization result and choose parameters considering a highest income and minimum drawdown. (obviously income should be high and drawdown should be less)

Source: http://www.metatraderglobal.com/612/metatrader-tips-expert-advisor-optimization/

What Is Automated Trading

November 3rd, 2009 No comments

Modern technologies allow us not only to trade in financial markets using personal computers, but we can fully automate a trading system now. Using a computer program you can relieve yourself from the routine of analyzing financial markets and performing trades.

Our client terminal has all functions that allow you to develop, test and use your trading system. The development environment named MQL4 is integrated into the terminal. MQL4 consists of MetaEditor, Strategy Tester and Compiler.

To view the full article, please visit: http://www.metatraderglobal.com/384/what-is-automated-trading/

MetaTrader 5 Client Terminal – First Screenshots and Information

June 11th, 2009 No comments

MetaQuotes has published the first official screenshots and feature information about the MetaTrader 5 Client Terminal.

Metatrader 5

Two years ago we started the development of MetaTrader 5 platform. Now this work is approaching completion and by autumn we are planning to release the new platform. Beta testing of the new client terminal and MQL5 development environment starts in summer.

The trading system of the MetaTrader 5 terminal was re-written from scratch, as well as the whole platform. As compared to MetaTrader 4, trading possibilities of the new terminal are much wider. First of all, the MetaTrader 5 terminal allows working in various markets. Directly from the terminal you will be able both to execute trading operation in Forex and work with options, futures and stocks.

MetaTrader 5 Client Terminal

Secondly, in addition to already familiar Market Watch, the Depth of Market will be available in MetaTrader 5. This tool is necessary for working in stock markets. Thirdly, the order system is extended: the total number of order types is equal to 5 (in MetaTrader 4 there are 4 types of orders).

MetaTrader 5 terminal supports 4 types of operation execution: Market, Instant, Request and Exchange. The new execution type Exchange is developed for processing trade operations with stock symbols.

Profound differences between notions of position, order and trade appeared in MetaTrader 5. Order is a request to execute a trade operation, the result of which can be a trade. A position is the total state of trades on a certain financial security. Any financial security can have only one position.

Trade positions in MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5
Differences between trade positions in MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5

Special reports are available in the new terminal for the convenient analysis of trading activities. Reports show not only initial and final deposit values, but also other parameters. Using these reports, you will know such results of your trading as, for example, GHPR, Z-score, Profit Factor and others.

Analytics

Analyzing price dynamics of financial securities is the most important component of a successful trading experience. In MetaTrader 5 we tried to provide traders with as many analytical tools as possible.

Analytics in MetaTrader 5:

  • 21 timeframes
  • 38 technical indicators
  • 39 graphical objects
  • 4 scaling modes
  • 17 styles of displaying Custom Indicators

Three types of charts are available in MetaTrader 5: broken line, Japanese candlesticks and bars. For the analysis of these data 38 built-in indicators, 39 graphical objects and the large variety of MQL5 indicators can be used. All these analytical tools can be combined in different ways: objects can be applied to indicators; indicators can be built on the basis of other indicators and so on.

The history of quotes in MetaTrader 5 is stored only in M1 form and all charts are built based on them. This solution allows extending the number of timeframes up to 21, so that any period from minute to month can be used to analyze quotes. The main limitation on timeframes is their multiplicity: one hour must contain the integer number of minute periods. The following timeframes comply with this rule: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M10, M12, M15, M20 and M30.

Besides, format of history data storing in MetaTrader 5 is space-efficient. For example, M1 history of GBPUSD quotes for ten years occupies about 10 MB only. This history being downloaded once, you will be able to build any charts on this symbol starting from M1 till MN1.

Autotrading

The integrated development environment MQL5 is responsible for the development and use of Expert Advisors, custom indicators and scripts in MetaTrader 5. It includes MetaEditor 5, MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester and MetaQuotes Language 5 (MQL5).

The MQL5 language for programming trading strategies is distinct for high speed of execution and approaches C++ in terms of this parameter. As compared to MQL4, the new language is 4-20 times quicker. This allows using more complex Expert Advisors able to process large amounts of data per time unit and therefore obtain more precise forecasts of price dynamics. Besides, the new language is object-oriented which makes the development of Expert Advisors quicker and easier.

MetaEditor 5: Debugging an Expert Advisor

For writing Expert Advisors MetaEditor 5 is used, which includes the new IntellySence system. It automatically completes various constructions of the language thus quickening the EA development process. The built-in debugger allows to quickly find errors and fix them. After the EA is ready and its compilation is performed, it automatically appears in the terminal and can be immediately started to work in the market.

MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester is a very powerful tool for any developer of Expert Advisors. It helps to obtain results of an EA behavior on the history before using it in real trading. Detailed reports on a trading system allow to estimate the Expert Advisor and detect its weak points, as well as to compare the EA with other developments. Besides, optimization of Expert Advisors allows to define the most efficient parameters of their variables.

Source – http://www.metatrader4.com/forum/