MyFxBots Tick Data Suite Articles, News & Updates

Latest Tick Data Suite Articles, News & Updates

This page is an introduction to Tick Data area where we will provide you with a step by step guide that will lead you through the whole tick data backtesting process, first you will be able to get free historical Forex tick data, download it and you will learn how to use it in backtesting Metatrader 4 expert advisors to obtain a modeling quality of 99%. If you are very new for backtesting it's better to buy Metatrader Backtesting and Optimization Course, which was created specifically for persons who are new to Forex and Metatrader 4 backtesting.

Scope

Non scalping or pip hunting EAs are suitable for backtesting using MT4 history center data. While if you are using a scalping or pip hunting or an EA that closes trades within 1-15 pips, even the smallest feed differences could result in very large impact.

If the Metatrader terminal does not have access to the real tick data, this causes the issue, but in the best instances it's just limited to the minute bar data that pushes it to result in strategy backtest - false - ticks, generated along a process of fullfilment using the available small timeframe data. This doesn't have an importance if the expert advisor doesn't use stoploss and takeprofit targets of over 100 pips, but if the EA is based on scalping a few pips here and there, the backtest resulting could be completely deceptive.

That's why it's extremely important to use the most possible high quality data in testing, and you'll find here some recources that can be used in backtesting when needed.

Tick data guides

• How to download free tick data: explains the download process using several free tick data sources as Dukascopy, Oanda, Pepperstone, Integral, MB Trading and Gain Capital.
  • Dukascopy tick data download with JForex: a guide of an in-depth details about the download procedure using the Dukascopy JForex client.
  • Dukascopy tick data Download and parsing with Birt's PHP scripts: a step by step details on how to use the PHP scripts written by Birt for downloading and processing Dukascopy tick data.
• How to prepare your tick data for Metatrader 4: a guide to modify the tick data format to be compatible with Metatrader 4 - from CSV to FXT.
• How to backtest using tick data with Metatrader 4: a review of the options available for using tick data with the Metatrader 4 platform.
  • How to backtest using tick data - the Tick Data Suite guide: a guide that describes the Tick Data Suite usage, the preferred tick data activation method that has a lot of features that is missed in its alternative. It is fully supported and much easier to use. See the Tick Data Suite feature matrix for a full comparison.
  • How to backtest using tick data - the free Birt's patch script guide: a tutorial delving into the usage and limitations of the free method that enables tick data backtesting.
• FAQs and Troubleshooting.
• Downloads.

Metatrader Backtesting and Optimization Course

Using tick data needs enogh computer knowledge. If you need more details info or if an issue faced you and was not resolved, this should be a cause to get your copy of Metatrader Backtesting and Optimization Course - formerly; Guide to Getting Rich with Forex Robots. It includes a bundle of very nice video material dicussing about 99% of backtesting process step by step, designred for low experienced users concerning computers, in addition to a FAQ collecting the most common problems that may face you aided by screenshots for every step in the video. But the scripts there may be outdated now.

At first glance to read the old name of the product - Guide to Getting Rich with Forex Robots - you may think it's some baloney, but if you checked it out, you will find that it's so useful for less skillful persons that ended up to be affiliates. In addition to the 99% backtesting info, they added many usefule data about EAs, starting from backtesting basics, passing with money management strategies and a very thick "how to spot scam EAs" area that will make you more aware of many commercial EAs behaviour and their backstage processes.

As a reward there's a dedicated section to become a signal provider, but I don't think that this is a good idea. Any how, if you are a Forex junior, or if you need to take a look behind the scenes of EAs selling, this guide may really save you much money. They are providing a very proffissional support system, they may have some delays in reply nowadays. The only one major flaw regardless of the support system delays as it seams to be, is the product name, it's much better if it was "Guide to avoid Losing Your Money with Forex Robots", this guide costs $87.

The main differences between their tools suite and the tools present here are:
• If you want to load a single MT4 instances from the same folder, Birt's patch script or Tick Data Suite don't need a loader, otherwise you may need a loader.
• If you are using MT4 builds 402 or lower with Birt's patch script and an older OS as Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 the 2GB FXT limit still applies just in this case.

The Walk Forward Analyzer

This is indirectly related to tick data as a built-in support for it, an excellent tool, giving you the ability to optimize your Metatrader 4 expert advisors in steps in a process called "Walk Forward Analysis", also described in the Metatrader Backtesting and Optimization Course. In other words, you optimize your EA for 3 months, then test it for the next one month to rate the best parameters resulting from optimization, then optimize it further for the next 3 months and so forth. The Walk Forward Analyzer fully automates this process and performs all the runs on your behalf, resulting in a comprehensive range of configuration parameters and a final elegant optimization report. It costs $29.95, the Walk Forward Analyzer is indispensable for anyone performing a serious EA development, but you may try it first for free for 14 days, download the trial version from its website, Andrew - the programmer - is very caring very well for the technical support without also losing sight of rational feature requests.

Tick Data Tools History

As tick data tools are frequently updated, Here is a Tick data changelog, listing every change applied to the scripts.