MT4 Strategy Tester Window - How to Use MT4 Strategy Tester Tutorial PDF
The MetaTrader 4 Forex Strategy Tester in the MT4 platform is the environment used to backtest the profitability of an MetaTrader 4 Expert-Advisor which is an Automated Trading Software & ascertain the profitability of this Expert Advisor automated strategy & then Optimize this Expert Advisor to a point where it is giving good profits from its forex automated trading activities.
NB: Before starting the MT4 Forex Strategy Tester shown below, you must first attach a forex EA on a MT4 forex chart, by going to the Navigator Window, selecting the forex EA and then right click on it and specify the option 'Attach to Chart', once the EA is attached to the MT4 forex chart it will appear as shown below, Then Right Click on the Expert Advisor, choose properties & then choose option by Checking/Ticking 'Allow Live Trading' & then continue with the MT4 strategy tester shown below.
The MetaTrader 4 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 key board.
The MetaTrader 4 strategy Tester has the following Parameters for setting up before testing an Expert advisor automated forex trading system & also for optimizing the profitability of this forex trading EA.
EA: Parameter for choosing which forex trading EA you want to test among those installed on your MT4 platform.
Symbol: The currency pair for which you want to test the forex Expert Advisor on
Model: Whether to execute based on tick technique, open prices or control points
Use Date: Set the date to start the testing & the date to end the testing of the forex EA
Visual Mode: Choose To view the illustration of where this forex EA opens & closes forex trade as testing goes on, there is also a slide bar to increase or decrease the speed for this visual mode.
Period: Forex Chart Time Frame for which to use examples 1 Hour Chart
Optimization: Allow Optimization Settings for your EA Automated Forex Robot
For example to test the above forex trading EA on the EURUSD currency for profitability, the settings can be set up as shown above and the MetaTrader platform strategies tester is then run, by clicking the "Begin Button".
Following trade results are generated and an automated forex trader can select to optimize the forex trading EA further by changing the Expert Advisors forex trading settings.
Once the optimization of the forex trading EA is accomplished the status bar will show progress, the above status bar displays the progress that the forex EA testing is complete.
To view the result click options highlighted above (Optimization Results, Optimization Graph, Journal)
Before running this MT4 Strategy Tester for Expert-Advisor testing you must go to navigator panel, doubleclick on this forex trading EA to attach it to the FX trading chart and set the parameters as displayed & illustrated below by checking options provided below:
After setting the above settings then you can test your automated trading strategy within MT4 strategy-tester.
Once you Run your Expert Advisor the Results will be illustrated on following window panel
MT4 Strategies Tester Optimization Results
MT4 Strategies Tester Optimization Graph
MT4 Strategy Tester Balance and Equity Graph
MT4 Strategy Tester Profit and Loss Graph - MT4 Strategy Tester
The above is just a brief introduction to the MT4 strategies tester - automated trading with EA Forex Robots is a wide topic that a trader will take some time & research to learn about but the main environment to test and optimize the forex EA automated forex trading robot will be the MetaTrader 4 Strategy Tester.
Note: You can only implement an Automated Expert Advisor using data which has been downloaded and saved on your MetaTrader 4 platform, therefore for the date settings select the dates that you have been trading with your MT4 to get a graph representation of how your automated forex EA would trade.
