Backtesting halts after a couple of days

[jt27]

I'm suddenly having an issue where the backtester will only test 2 or 3 days of data and then just stops. I've downloaded and converted 18 months of data and am trying to do an 18 month backtest. Up until yesterday I had no problem doing this but all of a sudden it just stops after a couple of days. I can change the start date and it just does the same thing, both in visual mode and not in visual mode. Funny thing is that in the report it tries to tell me it modelled 54 million ticks, as if it completed the 18 month test.

The only thing I can think of is that up until a couple of days ago I didn't have my MT4 terminal connected to any account, but then for a couple of days I connected it to a demo account to do some live testing. Since then I have disconnected it and still have the issue. Is it possible while I had it connected it downloaded some historical data from my broker that is interfering with the tickstory data? Do I need to delete that somewhere?

[tickstory]

Hi Jt27,

It is possible that your historical data has been overwritten by connecting to your broker. The other possibility is that you are coming across the "4GB FXT Limitation" which results in MT4 not being able to back-test fully in some cases.
The best solution is to export around 1 year of data (ensuring the resulting FXT files are less than 4GB) and trying to back-test again with your terminal disconnected. This hopefully should resolve both of the issues mentioned.

Thanks.

[lvelho]

Hi this thread points to one of my questions,

If I understood correctly, It´s always best if Backtests with Tickstory are done with Mt4 terminal disconnected from brokers. Is this correct ?

Prior to use tickdata from Tickstory I also delete all the historical files I can get in my MT4 installation. Does this brings any advantage ?

Thanks,

[tickstory]

Hi Lvelho,

That is correct - we recommend that you disconnect your terminal before exporting. There is no need to manually delete any files - Tickstory builds all data and replaces the original.

Regards.

[arrara]

Same issu here. Backtest only tests for 3 months on any pair except on gold. MT4 is disconnected from broker. I've tried to export 1 year of data, the fxt file is only around 600MB, but it doesnt solve the issue. Any suggestion?

[tickstory]

Hi Arrara,

Have you tried testing on the standard MACD Sample EA with no start/end date? Does this work? Some more information about the issue would be helpful including whether you've checked the EA 'Journal' to see if errors are being reported, etc.
Can you consistently reproduce the issue on other MT4 terminals and if so, would you have a set of steps so we can try on our side?

Thanks.