Hello,
I download 5 years of tick data using tickstory to run 99% quality backtests with "Every tick" mode.
Sometimes I need to use 'Open Prices only" for faster tests when I use ea that trades only on Open.
How can I make sure that the data used for that simulation are extracted from the correct values of my tickstory import and not from some weird wrong import from server that generally doesn't match the period ; this happens often to me and when I check the tester/history folder I have typically a EURUSD15_0.fxt file 2.5 MB big from tickstory and a EURUSD15_1.fxt or EUR15_2.fxt with only 10k...
Thanks
Backtesting with OpenPrices
Re: Backtesting with OpenPrices
Hi Adeller,
When back-testing in 'Open price' mode, MT4 will automatically construct the "ticks" from the historical data you have exported from Tickstory (i.e. it scans through the HST historical data files and creates a FXT file with all the open "ticks"). The resulting FXT files will be much smaller since they will only contain one tick per bar. In the case of testing with the 15 minute bars/time-frame, this means you will get 1 open price tick every 15 minutes.
Regards.
When back-testing in 'Open price' mode, MT4 will automatically construct the "ticks" from the historical data you have exported from Tickstory (i.e. it scans through the HST historical data files and creates a FXT file with all the open "ticks"). The resulting FXT files will be much smaller since they will only contain one tick per bar. In the case of testing with the 15 minute bars/time-frame, this means you will get 1 open price tick every 15 minutes.
Regards.
Re: Backtesting with OpenPrices
Hi,
Thanks for your answer.
However sometimes it seems the file you're talking about is not constructed from my tickstory .FXT file but from some server data (mt4 data ?) , with much less time frame or some data missing...
Thanks for your answer.
However sometimes it seems the file you're talking about is not constructed from my tickstory .FXT file but from some server data (mt4 data ?) , with much less time frame or some data missing...
Re: Backtesting with OpenPrices
Hi Adeller,
That's correct - MT4 creates the Open price FXT file from the HST files that TIckstory generates.
Some of this is detailed in the manual but the high-level summary is:
HST: Contains bar information (M1, M15, etc). This information (for all timeframes) is generated by Tickstory during your export.
FXT: Contains ticks specifically for use in back-testing. In 'normal' operation, MT4 Strategy Tester will create the FXT file based off the HST data (see https://www.mql5.com/en/articles/75 on how it constructs these ticks for each mode). When Tickstory is involved, the "Tick" back-testing mode is overridden and instead of constructing "fake" ticks, MT4 will instead use the real ticks exported by Tickstory. In the case of Open price mode, MT4 will operate as usual and generate the open price information from the HST files. As such, you will only have 1 tick per bar, resulting in a small FXT file.
Hope this answers your question.
That's correct - MT4 creates the Open price FXT file from the HST files that TIckstory generates.
Some of this is detailed in the manual but the high-level summary is:
HST: Contains bar information (M1, M15, etc). This information (for all timeframes) is generated by Tickstory during your export.
FXT: Contains ticks specifically for use in back-testing. In 'normal' operation, MT4 Strategy Tester will create the FXT file based off the HST data (see https://www.mql5.com/en/articles/75 on how it constructs these ticks for each mode). When Tickstory is involved, the "Tick" back-testing mode is overridden and instead of constructing "fake" ticks, MT4 will instead use the real ticks exported by Tickstory. In the case of Open price mode, MT4 will operate as usual and generate the open price information from the HST files. As such, you will only have 1 tick per bar, resulting in a small FXT file.
Hope this answers your question.
Re: Backtesting with OpenPrices
Yes thanks I just found that I used the wrong server folder for my .HST files (different from the one in tickstory's settings) I guess that was the origin of my problems it seems OK now
Cheers
Cheers