The Tick Data Suite is directed to persons that aren't impressed by huge colored and possibly flickering text words, so all what you'll read here are just facts that you need to know before purchasing your copy. Without a doubt, Forex strategies backtesting is one of the most effective methods to investigate about their profitability potential, it may be the best way if you can't afford the very extensive forward testing. However, with MetaTrader 4 - the most common Forex platform -
A lot of tick data sources are available online and this is an attempt to cover some of the most well and popular providers where tick data are free to download. Dukascopy is considered the best of all due to the data quality and accessibility. Dukascopy Introduction Dukascopy is known internationally as one of the best brokers nowadays. Many persons identify it as "The best ECN broker", and no bad behavior or attitude was noted from them until now. However their great obstacle is that
On arriving to this guide, it's assumed that you already downloaded the desired tick data and it was converted to an FXT file and several HST files, each of which is setting in its proper place. If the steps above were not done yet, you will need first to follow the How to download free tick data and the How to prepare the tick data for MetaTrader 4 guides. As a begin, the Tick Data Suite installer has to be used, you can find it on the tick data downloads page. After installation is
The available data in Dukascopy is raw in the form of files spanning only one hour, so it's obvious that tools will be needed to download and parse it. Before other methods to get the data were available, a series of scripts were useful to download Dukascopy free tick data, and they are still valid till now. PHP scripts are so simple, with non-commercial quality code, but working well. These PHP scripts are available in the tick data downloads page. There are 4 scripts A script to download
Start with registering a demo account with Dukascopy and launch the JForex platform (of course a live account can be registered, the data process is the same). You will receive a mail with login data, use it to login (the account ID isn't needed to login), navigate to the Tools menu then select Historical Data Manager. The Historical Data Manager interface should appear in the window lower part; from now on, everything to perform will be in that part of the window so you could enlarge it a
Enabling Tick Data Backtesting Tick Data Suite v1.2.9 (updated 10.05.2013, compatible: MT4 build 225 – 500) Birt's Patch Script v0.21 (updated 21.02.2012, compatible: MT4 build 225 – 409) Processing Tick Data Birt's CSV2FXT Script v0.41 Binaries (updated 03.02.2013) Birt's CSV2FXT Script v0.41 Source (this not needed unless there is a need to modify or recompile the DLL) Downloading Dukascopy Tick Data Birt's Dukascopy Tick Data PHP Scripts v0.26 (updated 18.09.2012
Converting to FXT That can only be due to the script trying to open a non existing file so either the CSV is being copied to the wrong folder or the named is incorrect. Check the following items: A hex editor (e.g. WinHex, Neo Hex Editor) can be used to change it at offset 0xFC. Be aware that it's going to be displayed in hexadecimal so a calculator may have to be used here. Look up the offset in FXTHeader.mqh, which is displayed next to each setting. Use a hex editor. Note that all values
Birt's patch script removes the 2GB the Metatrader 4 limitation with FXT files and disables overwriting existing FXT files too, which effectively permits pre-created tick data FXT files usage. Birt's Patch Script Usage Before commencement of the script, it should be known that there is some limitations and no support is available for it in the official website, only the Tick Data Suite is technically supported and needs easier experience, you should check it out for its benefits while a
By reaching this guide here, you must have applied the previous guides - tick data free download and converting it for Metatrader 4 usability, so I assume that you have now the HST files in your history\[your broker's name] folder and the FXT in your tester\history folder. If this is not the case, please refer to the previous linked guides first. Enabling tick data backtesting As the latest Metatrader 4 client builds are unable to use custom FXT files anymore, a special software has to be
If you came here, you should have already downloaded your tick data either for free as mentioned in the Free Tick Data page from your own private source and now you are trying to use it in Metatrader 4. Converting tick data file format Native CSV file containing tick data are incompatible with Metatrader 4, so it can't be used in backtesting. FXT is the proprietary file format that contains ticks and can be read by Metatrader 4, so simply we need to convert CSV files to FXT. There is a
In fact, the Tick Data Suite is a commercial alternative for the free Birt's patch script, so every fault or deficiency in the latter are addressed in the Tick Data Suite with full technical support to its clients. Here is a brief table listing the differences between products: Feature Birt's patch Tick Data Suite Tick data backtesting yes yes Variable spread backtesting yes yes 2 GB limitation removal for FXT files partial1 yes Can use FXT files larger than 4 GB no yes Compatibility
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