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Hi David, best practice would be to find a more reliable computer to trade on or vps. Crashes should be very rare and you should turn off automatic updates and do them manually on the weekend when the market is closed.
This is not an issue I ever have but in this instance what you could do is run the metatrader backtester and see if the trade would still be open or closed and take appropriate action to remain in accordance with how the EA would have traded if no interruption occurred.
If there is a trade open with the magic number of an EA that has auto trading enabled then the EA will manage that trade according to its rules. Im sure you can easily confirm that with a quick test also.
Hi David,
Totally agree that things need to be in the right ballpark between demo trades and either mt4 of EA studio backtester.
However from a quality point of view if MT4 backtester isn’t matching the EA studio as you have shown then mistakes have 100% been made and that is the easiest place to start.
Haha, yup I would say trying to do too much again, but I understand the habit ;-)
Also David, is the backtest quality in EA studio showing as 100%? I personally don’t use M1 timeframe but it could be an ambigious bar problem (I doubt it but we will investigate)
Honestly, don’t be depressed or dispair David. I assure you that there is no issue with EA studio and I will help you get to the bottom of the mismatch so you can move forward. Also I am sure Petko will chime in soon to help also.
If needs be you can even send me one of your EA’s and I can repeat the test for myself (I’d need more than just the screen shot above however as I dont know all the inputs for indicators)
I am also not saying you shouldn’t check 20 strategies etc. But focus all your efforts on a single one for now. You are trying to do too much too fast (Which I completely understand as it is my habit also!!)
Hi David,
First of all well done for your efforts. I can see that you have put in some work and the results are no doubt frustrating!
Firstly I have some very good news for you. You may have read on the forum that I will be releasing videos on Pekto’s new YouTube channel. For my first couple of video’s I will be addressing this very issue and will walk through the comparison of MT4, EA Studio and then a demo account.
You can expect the first video within a couple of weeks from now at the latest.
Do not despair, I assure you there is no issue with EA studio and that there is a mistake somewhere in your working.
You are also trying to do way too much at once which will further be clouding the issue.
As per my initial recommendation was to first only compare MT4 backtester and EA journal, only then move onto comparing demo results but you have tried to do everything all at once (less haste more speed).
While you are awaiting these videos lets take a look at things anyway as I can feel the frustration 😉
So firstly I suggest you focus your matching efforts ONLY on your strategy 101002 for now. I can see that in that case all the times of trades match but the prices don’t. (In fact between the MT4 tester and ea journal that’s actually the case for all of them except the 101001). Let’s completely forget the reality for the time being and address one issue at a time.
So I can see that all the trades are opening and closing at the same times which is great. The profit not matching of course is not so great.
Here are the first few obvious things to check:
1 – Are your swaps matching both for EA studio and MT4 at the time of performing your tests? Remember they change so make sure you check when you test
2 – Have you used the same spread for both the MT4 and EA studio backtest
3 – Do you have commission included in EA studio? (To match with MT4 backtest you will need to turn off the commission as it doesn’t include it – but obviously EA studio is the more accurate check in this case and turning it off is just for comparison purposes)
Hi Daniel,
First a couple of obvious checks.
1. If you click Tool > Options > and then export advisors are any of the “disable expert…” options checked. If so then uncheck them.
2. Right click on the chart with the expert advisor and then select the common tab and ensure that the allow live trading is checked
It also could possibly be a compilation issue. Is the .ex5 or 4 file showing in the Experts folder. You could try opening up metaeditor and compiling it manually and seeing if any warning shows up.
It sounds like it is just not opening trades? Are you positive that the entry conditions have been triggered?
Hey David,
The first and most important check really shouldn’t take any time to collect data. Just grab an EA from EA studio and compare the trade journal in EA studio (using the imported broker data) with MT4 backtester open prices – certainly cant doubt MT4 backtester. Should only take 10-15 minutes to do that really. This first check should definitely quickly put your mind at ease regarding EA studios backtesting quality (Which is honestly absolutely excellent ;-).
Then you can set that EA on demo and wait to see how it compares with the backtester in a weeks time for the second check.
Hi David,
If you have imported data from your broker and not applied any specific time settings in EA studio then the time of your trades made on your demo and shown in the EA studio journal should match. Also start of course by checking using the MT4 backtester on your broker MT4 as discussed also.
As you say the time isn’t that important if no time settings are applied and especially over a large time period (It could be significant for only a weeks results but will be insignificant backtesting over a couple of years for example).
Also, I honestly just don’t think there is any need for different data for generating strategies with EA studio other than the premium data\historical tool. I heard of some people optimizing strategies for their broker data but personally I think a simple check that your strategies equity line is similar between premium and broker data over the same time period (i.e. for 6 months if that is all the broker data you have) is sensible enough.
As for the concern over the two live servers giving different results, that does seem odd. What are you comparing exactly? Do you mean that you have put identical robots on two separate IC market live accounts with different servers and the results are very different? Or are these checks within EA studio. Seems like a different issue, possibly due to using a short time frame and poor latency (Although in that case I would only expect the actual profits to be different but the times of entry an exit should mostly be close, could be a bit different for stop loss and take profit exits though of course). What latency do you have with your broker? I am assuming you are trading on a VPS?
There is a lot being discussed here actually which can always be a bit confusing. For problems like these I would always advise breaking the problem into as small pieces as possible and avoid trying to solve too much at once.
But I am still sure all will become clear to you once you work through the steps as discussed :-)
Hi Selim,
I am just going to expand on your points to make things clearer for David but they are very good points!
For Point 1:
I also suspect a time issue which will become clear when David compares the trades between MT4 backtester and EA studio as it will be easy to see if all trades are shifted by a set amount of time. Additionally when only checking a week the fact that EA studio only starts trading after 100 bars needs to be accounted for to get the best match which will also become clear to David when he is working on this.
However this only really applies for the premium data as when importing the broker data as David has done the time will match and does not need to be set.
Have you set any specific time settings in EA studio David or is the 00:00 – 24:00 applied?
For Point 2:
What David has done is actually correct in using the broker data to compare rather than using premium data that has the settings applied.
When generating strategies we should use the premium data with settings adjusted because as you say there are no missing bars and we can get this data for. The two main issues with the broker data for generation is missing bars and the fact that there is not enough of it usually (Sometimes they just give a month even although most give more sensible amounts).
But what David is doing is just comparing a weeks live trading results (although will be demo going forward :-) with EA studio (and MT4 backtester also until things matching up) and in this sense it is definitely best to import the broker data to EA studio and check using that. In this case David will have collected the broker data himself with the MT4 terminal real-time so isn’t even downloading a chunk of data from their server really. Always check the data quality using EA studio s Data statistics which is super quick and easy to do.
Also the historical data tool/premium data is all we need for generating good strategies in my opinion, you really wont be getting anything by paying for additional data. You can even download free tick data from Dukascopy directly if required but again that is free so there should be no need to pay for anything.
Oh also, if you are trend following then M5 wouldn’t really be a good time frame for that. Might be an idea to stick to higher timeframes when starting out but that’s a whole other discussion.
Hi David,
You are welcome regarding my response. Could empathize with your desperation as losing money certainly isn’t fun!
Yes of course you need to see it with your own eyes. I would expect no less! But if you follow those steps a lot will clear up I am sure.
And actually I would suggest starting the suggested tests with a normal stop loss rather than a trailing stop as its clearer in MT4 comparison because of how MT4 handles the trailing stop.
I actually tend to avoid trailing stops for this reason and I haven’t seen much benefit, but I understand that they are useful for trend following approach and all should be well if you use them but keep things simple to start. You will be able to check with portfolio and trailing stops after you have followed those steps through but definitely start simple first as it will make everything clearer and easier.
It sounds like you are targeting a trend following approach with the trailing stop and and no TP, is this correct?
Yes, you can absolutely rest assured that this is fantastic software that has clearly had many years of time and passion put into it. If there were actual mismatches that were a genuine bug then Popov would certainly want to know about it, but I very strongly do not believe what you have shown is evidence of this and needs to be broken down into smaller steps for you to get to the bottom of it properly.
Also if you do find any legitimate bugs you can email Miroslav Popov directly and he will respond and fix them very quickly. But in my experience often these are almost always our own mistakes or misunderstandings as it is highly polished and quality software.
Happy troubleshooting :-)
Okay, so your main concern seems to be how different your live trading results are from your EA studio comparison during the same period.
Firstly I suggest the following:
Take a single EA from EA studio and compare the results with a backtester using Mt4 backtester using open prices. Petko has a video on doing this which I am sure you can find easily on youtube. In doing this compare the trading journal of each and look at the times of opening closing trades etc. Things should match really well and if not then you have made a mistake somewhere for sure.
After this is done with a single EA feel free to repeat the exercise with a portfolio EA and again things should match fairly well. They wont be exact and in my experience EA studio is cleverer than Mt4 in calculating drawdowns etc even though both are using open prices, however it is an important check and should help build your confidence in the system.
Also note that the MT4 backtester does not include commission but thats not important at this stage, just make sure you are content that both your EA studio trade journal and Mt4 backtester match in terms of times of opening and closing trades (and also method of closing such as stoploss, take profit or exit signal).
Then you can run the EA on demo for a week and compare the MT4 backtesting report, EA studio journal and the actual trade log made on demo to see how things are comparing before finally adding live with smallest trade size to compare also if you really want.
So in a nutshell:
Step 1 – For a single EA compare EA studio trade journal with MT4 backtester report
Step 2 – Then repeat this exercise in a weeks time but also include the EAs trades on Demo as a comparison
Step 3 – Repeat step 2 but include live as a comparison
Step 4 – Can also do this with a portfolio EA but start by keeping things simple
Once you have done all this you will learn a lot and have your faith restored :-)
Hi David,
First of all let me assure you without any doubt whatsoever that EA studio is exceptional software and highly accurate. I can guarantee you that the mismatches are your mistakes and not the software’s, which I hope is comforting :-). Early days I remember having similar frustrations but it was always my mistake.
I will get to addressing your main issue in a second but first there is a far bigger issue to address. This is the fact that you are not ready to be trading live yet and certainly not with a meaningful amount of money. I think its good to have a live account and you can reassure yourself how things will compare between demo and live by uploading data from both the demo and live server from the same broker and comparing backtest results etc. BUT besides that you should not even think about trading live until you have had consistent success in demo.
As a rule I think only when you are happy with your demo results over three consistent months should you move to live. Of course that doesn’t mean every month should be great but the aggregate should be and the poorer performing months should be controlled (I.e Month 1 = +15% profit, Month 2 = -5% profit and Month 3 = +10% profit would be a good result in my opinion).
You have made no real mention to how you are using EA studio and how you are generating and selecting your EAs. How many of Petkos courses have you watched and what general guidelines are you following may I ask? Your approach seems pretty brute force from what I have read above?
Its great that you enjoy the process though, this to me is an extremely important indicator of your likely success in the future. But its not as easy as just generating loads of strategies with good looking equity curves and throwing them on a live account unfortunately :-(
So my first recommendation is stop the live trading account trading immediately and start practicing on a demo. I hope you agree?
I’ll let you’s know how this one trades in a months time and share another strategy if this thread is getting some interest :-)
Hi, as promised this strategy is a bit more exciting :-). It traded last month making 7 profitable trades and no losers which is a great result (although may mean that it could be due a less good month up coming but I’m gonna leave it running).
I created it using the reactor with all the principles learned from Petkos courses applied.
It has a higher stop loss than take profit which I like (As I find the same thing as Petko in that this often results in a better strategy closing more profitable trades than the reverse), the trading logic is reasonable to me, it has a nice equity line both in IS and OOS (10%) and has made lots of trades with an excellent return/drawdown ratio.
I also like that it is a simple strategy with 2 entries and a single exit condition. Last month 2 of the trades hit the take profit and 5 used the exit condition to exit the trade for a profit so also has sensible take profit level :-)
As to the parameters:
– The CCI entry period is 48 and level is 195 (Apply to Typical)
– Envelopes Period is 28 and deviation is 0.56 (Apply to Close and use simple MA method)
– Awesome Oscillator level = 0.00
Good luck to anyone who wants to trade it, let me know how it goes (On demo first of course!)
Hopefully this thread picks up and we can all get some good strategies shared around and see and discuss what’s working well for each other.
Hi Selim,
Sounds good and looking forward to results.
Regarding your question. I personally didn’t trade this strategy last month so I can’t answer but I would like to suggest how you can get a sense of how trading this system would have performed so that you can actually answer your own question :-)
1. Open up a spreadsheet and a copy of EA studio.
2. Upload your broker data to EA studio using the export from MT4 script. (I am assuming that you are using a raw spread account so this will give the broker swaps and you can set the spread and commission appropriately)
2. For your each pair and period run your validations on whatever collections you are using but do this not to trade from this point forward but a month in the past. (I.e. Check your 6 months and 1 month performance but offset these dates a month in the past)
3. Then instead of downloading the EAs and trading them on demo for a month you can simple check how they would have performed last month and record all the net profit values in the spreadsheet and then sum the totals. Then you will know if you would have been profitable or not if you had traded this way last month.
Of course this will take a bit of work but you will learn much more in my opinion running tests and checks like these ongoingly.
The spread on demo is variable so results will be a bit different but if you have set up EA studio to match your broker data well then generally you should get an accurate indication of how you would have performed.
Also when you say you are currently making losses on your demo how long has your demo been running? Remember these could easily be reasonable drawdowns that are going to occur so make sure you allow the demo to run according to your plan (i.e a month) before deciding how your strategy performed.
Also don’t be disheartened by the initial losses (even if it is for the whole month). It is very reasonable to make losses starting out on demo, but with the mindset of wanting to be the best at this and the willingness to put in the time and effort to achieve this you will ultimately be successful in time :-). You will get out what you put into learning and testing and persevering!
