How to Use MT4 EA Strategy Tester Lesson PDF
The MetaTrader 4 Strategy Tester in the MT4 platform is the environment used to back-test the profitability of an MT4 Expert Advisor which is an Automated Trading Program and determine the profitability of this EA automated indices strategy & then Optimize this EA to a point where it's giving good profits from its automated trade activities.
Note: Before beginning the MT4 Strategy Tester illustrated and shown below, you must first attach a stock Expert Advisor in MetaTrader 4 chart, by going to the Navigator Window, choosing the stock EA and then right click on it and specify the option 'Attach to Chart', once the EA is attached to the MT4 chart it will then appear as pictured below, Then Right Click ++oon the Expert Advisor, select properties settings and then select the option by Checking/Ticking 'Allow Live Trading' and then continue with the MT4 strategy tester shown below.
The MetaTrader 4 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.
The MT4 Strategy Tester contains the following Expert-Advisor Parameter Settings for set up prior to testing an Expert-Advisor automated stock indices system and also for optimizing the profitability of this EA.
Expert Advisor: Parameter for choosing which EA you want to test among those installed on your Meta Trader 4 platform.
Symbol: The chart for which you want to test the stock Expert Advisor on
Model: Whether to execute based on the tick method, open trading prices or control points
Use Date: Set the date to begin the testing & the date to end the testing of the EA
Visual Mode: Choose To view simulation of where this stock EA opens & closes trade as testing is carried out, there's also a slide bar to increase/decrease the speed for this visual mode.
Period: Time Frame for which to use examples 1 H Indices Chart
Optimization: Allow Optimization Settings for your EA Automated Indices Trading Robot
For example, to test the above stock EA on stock chart for profitability, settings can be setup as displayed & shown above & MetaTrader strategy tester is then run, by pressing & clicking on 'Start Button Key'.
Following trade results are generated and an automated trader can select to optimize the stock EA further by changing the Expert Advisors settings.
Once the optimization of the stock Expert Advisor is complete the status bar will explain progress, above status bar shows progress that the stock Expert Advisor testing is complete.
To view the result click on options high lighted above (Optimization Result, Optimization Graph, Journal)
Before running this MT4 EA Strategy Tester for Indices Expert Advisor testing you must go to navigator panel, double-click on this stock EA to attach it to the chart and set the parameters as illustrated & shown below by ticking options provided below:
After setting up the above settings then you can test your automated strategy within MetaTrader 4 strategy-tester.
Once you Run your EA the Results will be displayed on the following window
MetaTrader 4 EA Strategies Tester Optimization Results
MT4 EA Strategies Tester Optimization Graph
MT4 EA Strategy Tester Balance and Equity Graph
MT4 EA Strategy Tester Profit and Loss Graph
Above is just a brief introduction to MetaTrader 4 strategy-tester - automated trading with EA Trading Bots is a wide topic that one will take some time & research to learn about but the main environment to test & optimize the stock EA automated stock bot will be the MetaTrader 4 EA Strategy Tester.
Note: You can only test an Automated Indices EA using data which has been downloaded and saved on your MT4, hence for the date settings select the dates that you have been trading with your MT4 to get a graph representation of how your automated stock EA would trade.
