Do we still need Tickstory to launch mt4?

[gooly]

Hi,

while backtesting and optimizing I (mt4 b628) realized that something must have changed the way mt4 uses/handles the fxt-file - am I right?

I the fxt-file and first I launched the mt4 by Tickstory Lite and I get what you see in the left column
then I started the mt4 again directly (without TickStory!) and run the same EA with the same setup, same time (2 years) and I get the right column:

left column: Modeling quality: 0.99 and Ticks modeled: 40684579
right column: Modeling quality: n/a and Ticks modeled: 40684579 (same amount of ticks)?

2569336 2569336
40684579 40684579
0,99 n/a
0 0
10000 10000
5 5
8.352,36 € 8.353,95 €
10.780,00 € 10.781,79 €
-2.427,64 € -2.427,84 €
4,44 € 4,44 €
50,32 € 50,32 €

Everything is practically the same for ~100 trades!

Having the same amount of ticks (40684579) and the same results does this mean the mt4 now (b628) uses the tickdata (fxt-file) even it was not created by the mt4?
Must be - no?
As far as I remember if another program (TickStory, Bit's Earview) created the fxt-file mt4 (b509 and earlier) refuses to use (Error: file not found) it and has to be launched by one of the programs.

If so the main use of Tickstory will change!

Gooly

[tickstory]

Hi Gooly,

Thanks for providing info on this. Interestingly, we saw something similar to you during the development of Build 600+ which got us excited. It seemed that a couple of builds actually used FXT files rather than over-writing them if they were marked as 'read-only'. At some stage however, it seems to have been reverted. We'll obviously need to wait to see if this is a permanent change. The main draw-back of the feature was that (as you mentioned) the modelling quality was shown as N/A. This is obviously just an aesthetic issue but it was throwing some users off.
If the change is permanent, it will at least mean that users can continue to back-test on newer versions of MT4 without having to wait for an updated launcher which is a great step forward.

Regards.

[gooly]

So that would mean if mt4 is kept to be able to read 'alien-fxt-files'
the meaning of Tickstory has to change as the need to launch mt4 disappeares.

That brings me back to ask you for an improvement of downloading the tick-data and creating the fxt (and hst) files.

This weekend this I updated my csv-database (Ducaskopy, all Symbols) and the fxt-files and that took me ~40 hours
just because:

• 1) The quant-downloader re-writes the csv everytime completely (9GB) instead of just adding the last new tick data at the end of the csv.
  2) I don't use Tickstroy to creat the fxt-files, because I have to start manually the creation of the fxt files!
  Why do I have a pc with its programs if I have to do it my self manually?
  3) I changed Birt's script so that I can define of list Symbols for which the fxt (and hst) has to be created - but Birt's and my script starts to read the complete csv-file (9GB) as if the start-date (which I set as external var.) of the fxt was defined as the start-date of the csv-file - a smrat positioning of the file pointer would save a lot of time!!

add positive effect ofthe script: I can start the script three times on different charts with a different list of symbols and the mt4 runs each script-on-chart as a separate thread so - I have 4 kernels - the speed for this is trippled
Gooly

[4EverMaAT]

You still need a proper launcher such as Birts TDS because:
- You need to use variable spreads vs fixed spreads:
- you need to launch multiple instances of the same mt4 installation. If you launch individual installations separately, you'd have to duplicate the fxt files for each of the instances, which can take up unneeded hard drive space especially if you are running several backtests simultaneously.
- use different installation folders. You can create a launcher for each folder if you are testing in different brokers.

[gooly]

- The fxt-files do have real spread (of the ticks) not the fix of the strat.-tester.
- I am using the Shell Link Extension http://schinagl.priv.at/ and I am very pleased!
I installed Mt4 4 times and for all 4 I have one folder for the fxt-files (and other folders as well of course).
All mt4 accesses the same fxt-file and I can run 4 parallel optimization on the same symbol.

[4EverMaAT]

You still need a proper launcher such as Birts TDS because:
- You need to use variable spreads vs fixed spreads:
- you need to launch multiple instances of the same mt4 installation. If you launch individual installations separately, you'd have to duplicate the fxt files for each of the instances, which can take up unneeded hard drive space especially if you are running several backtests simultaneously.
- use different installation folders. You can create a launcher for each folder if you are testing in different brokers.

But I do agree that it is good to know that in the worst case scenario, at least some backtests can be done.