Improving the Accuracy of Strategy Tester

How to Backtest a Metatrader EA the Right Way, Part II - Improvign the Accuracy

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

As I discussed in my previous post about backtesting an EA, there is no program that gives 100% accuracy. However there is an option to increase the accuracy of Strategy Tester. Let’s see what parameters need to be tweaked to achieve that.

Metatrader’s parameters:

In order to improve the accuracy of Strategy Tester we need to change the number of candlesticks in the Metatrader’s history. Go to Tools->Options and chose Charts tab. In the field “Max bars in history” put a big number (99999999999). That way Metatrader will use the maximum possible number of candles.

mt-charts

Data history:

In the data that comes from a broker a lot of omissions and inaccuracies. With this data you can not test your EA accurately. Therefore you need full price information.

1. Go to the History Center in MetaTrader: Tools -> History Center.

2. Choose the time-frame of the necessary instrument you are interested in (double click for example on EURUSD/1 min) and press Download.

mt-history-center

As a result, MetaTrader downloads the history of M1 quotes from the Metaquotes History Center and imports them to MT4 time-frames.

Now I will show you how you can convert your 1-minute price data into 5-minute, 15-minute, and higher.

In order to do that go to File-> Open Offline, chose EURUSD,M1 and hit Open. You will see the new chart window pops up with 1-minute EURUSD chart.

Now in the Navigator window hit the script period_converter.

You will see the window with parameters. You will need to change a parameter ExtPeriodMultiplier from 1 to 5 minute. Hit OK, script will convert the data into 5-minute time frame.

period-converter

The same step needs to be taken for the higher time frames 15, 30, 60, 240 etc. minutes.

Now your Strategy Tester is set to test with the highest accuracy possible.

In the next post I’m going to discuss Expert Advisor’s optimization. There are many parameters that depend on broker that can turn a profitable EA into losing one. In order to avoid that you need to optimize it.

So stay tuned for my next post on EA optimization.

Bookmark It