Automated Forex Trading Software - MetaTrader 4 Strategy Tester Window
The Forex Strategy Tester in the MetaTrader 4 platform is the environment used to back test the profitability of an Expert Advisor which is an Automated Trading Software and determine the profitability of this EA and then Optimize it to a point where it is giving god profits from its trading activities.
NB: Before starting the strategy tester shown below, you must first attach a trading Expert Advisor on a chart, by going to the Navigator Window, selecting the EA and then right click on it and specify the option "Attach to Chart", once the EA is attached it will appear as shown below, Then Right Click on the Expert Advisor, select properties and then select the option by Checking/Ticking "Allow Live Trading" and then continue with the strategy tester shown below.
The strategy tester option can be activated from the view menu and it is the second last menu item on the View Menu, A short Cut is to Press Ctrl+R buttons on your keyboard.
The strategy Tester has the following Parameters for setting up before testing and Expert advisor and also for optimizing the profitability of this EA.
Expert Advisor: Parameter for selecting which EA you want to test among those installed on your MT4 platform.
Symbol: The currency pair for which you want to test the Expert Advisor on
Model: Whether to execute based 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: Select To view the illustration of where this EA opens and closes trade as the testing goes on, there is also a slide bar to increase or decrease the speed for this visual mode.
Period: Chart Time frame for which to use example 1 Hour Chart
Optimization: Allow Optimization Setting for your Expert Advisor
For example to text the above Expert Advisor on the EURUSD currency for profitability, the settings can be set up as shown above and the strategy tester is the run, by pressing the "Start Button".
The following trade results are generated and a trader can choose to optimize the EA further by changing the Expert Advisors settings.
Once the optimization is complete the status bar will show progress, the above status bar show the progress that the testing is complete.
To view the result click the options highlighted above (Optimization Results, Optimization Graph, Journal)
Before running this you must go to the navigator window, double click on this EA to attach it to the chart and set the parameters as shown below by ticking the options provided below:
After setting the above setting then you can test your strategy within the strategy tester.
Once you Run You Expert Advisor the Results will be shown on the following windows
Strategy Tester Optimization Results
Strategy Tester Optimization Graph
Strategy Tester Balance and Equity Graph
Strategy Tester Profit and Loss Graph
The above is just a brief introduction to the strategy tester automated trading with EA Forex Robots is a wide topic that a trader will take some time and research to learn about but the main environment to test and optimize the Expert Advisor will be the MetaTrader 4 Strategy Tester.
NB: You can only implement an Automated Expert Advisor using data that has been downloaded and saved on your trading platform, therefore for the date settings select the dates that you have been trading with your MetaTrader 4 to get a graph representation of how your EA would trade.
