Automated Software - MT4 Strategy Tester Window

The Simulator Strategy Tester in the MT4 platform is the environment used to back test the profitability of an Expert Advisor which is an Automated Software & ascertain the profitability of this Expert Advisor and then Optimize it to a point where it's giving god profits from its activities.

Note: Before beginning the strategy-tester shown below, you must first attach a trading EA on a chart, by going to Navigator Window, selecting the EA and then right click on it & specify the option "Attach to Chart", once the Expert Advisor is attached it will appear as illustrated below, Then Right Click the Automated EA, select properties and then select option by Checking/Ticking "Allow Live Trading" & then continue with the strategy tester illustrated below.

The strategy-tester option can be activated from the view menu & it's the second last menu item on View Menu, A short-cut is to Press Ctrl+R button keys on your key board.

Strategy Tester has following Parameters for setting up before testing and Expert advisor & also for optimizing the profitability of this EA.

EA: Parameter for selecting which Automated EA you want to test among those setup on your MT4 software.

Symbol: The currency pair for which you want to test the Automated EA on

Model: Whether to execute depending on tick method, open prices or control points

Use Date: Set the date to start the testing and the date to end the testing

Visual Mode: Choose To view the illustration of where this EA opens & closes trade as the testing out goes on, there's also a slide bar to increase/decrease the speed for the visual mode.

Period: Time-frame for which to use examples 1 Hour Chart

Optimization: Allow Optimization Settings for your EA

For examples to text the above EA on the EURUSD currency for profitability, the settings can be set up as shown above & the strategy tester is the run, by clicking the "Start Button".

Following trade results are generated and a trader can choose to optimize the Automated EA further by changing the Automated EAs settings.

Once the optimization is complete the status bar will show progress, the above status bar show the progress that testing is complete.

To view the click on options high lighted above (Optimization Results, Optimization Graph, Journal)

Prior to running this you must go to the navigator window, double click on this EA so as to attach it to chart and set the parameters as shown & illustrated below by checking options provided below:

After setting the above setting then you can test your trading strategy within the strategy tester.

Once you Run You Expert Advisor the Results will be shown on the following window

Strategy Tester Optimization Results

Strategy Tester Optimization Graph

Strategy Tester Balance & Equity Graph

Strategy Tester Profit and Loss Graph

Above is just a brief introduction to the strategies tester automated trading with EA Bots is a wide topic that a trader will take some time & research to learn about but the main environment to test and optimize the Expert Advisor will be the MT4 Strategy Tester.

NB: You can only test an Automated Expert Advisor using data which has been downloaded and saved on your platform, therefore for the date settings choose the dates that you have been trading with your MetaTrader 4 to get a graph representation of how your EA would trade.