Tick Data Suite v2.2.9 adds the ability to use the downloaded tick data even when backtesting using the Control points or Open prices only models.
If the Use tick data checkbox is enabled and one of these models is selected, instead of using the available Metatrader 4 history to generate the backtest data, the history generated from the downloaded tick data will be used. The GMT and DST of the data will be those configured in the Tick data settings dialog. If it is the first time a backtest is run on the selected symbol using the selected GMT & DST configuration, a delay will be experienced at the start of the backtest during which the history will be generated from the tick data; while this happens, the progress bar will fill up and a message will be displayed, similarly to the Every tick model backtests.
In addition, many of the settings in the Tick data settings dialog are also applied to the Control points or Open prices only model backtests when the Use tick data checkbox is enabled. There are a few exceptions, though and the controls for these will be disabled when one of the two models is selected – most notably, variable spread and slippage will not be available.
This feature is currently in beta testing.
How does it work for control points?
As usual – the only difference is that the FXT is created from the tick data history instead of the MT4 history.
Why can’t variable spread be used in open prices model? For example I have EA which works only on open of bar. It would be very useful to use variable spread here too when backtesting…
I will consider that in the future but due to the way open prices backtesting works it would be very hard to implement. I cannot even assure you that the option will make it, much less give you an ETA.
Ok, Birt. Anyway it would help me out tremendously as now I have to use complete ticks which is EXTREMELY slow for my EA to even consider optimization. Using specific VPS with 6 cores of 1.9Ghz it takes more than a month (running 4 instances of mt4 to utilize cpu better) to find good settings for two years of tick data for 4 pairs…
If your EA only needs to act at bar open, you could check the bar timestamp at the beginning of the OnTick() function and only execute the rest of the function if it’s a new bar, return otherwise.
Also look at Improving the speed of your tick data backtests and optimizations – it sounds like the problem is that the EA is doing something very wrong if it takes that long.
It is not “my” EA per say, I just bought one because it gave me promising results. So optimization is impossible unless author would want to do it.
Can you update this article to explain or provide an example as to why a user would want to use control points and/or open prices only vs every tick model? Does this speed up the backtest, especially considering you are using the tick data anyway?
The advantage of the open prices and control points models of the tick data is the same as the advantage over interpolated data: speed.
I think you misunderstand, though: these models do not use tick data during the backtest, they only use the HST files generated from the tick data. That is to say Open Prices Only will still have a single tick per bar and Control Points will still have 4 ticks per bar .
a) but your implementation of control points will be more accurate because you (with tick data) would know which occured first, high or low before the close.
b) is the 4 points a hard limitation? Is it possible to create more control points model? (maybe 8, 12, 16, etc) I think even 8 can give us a more precise idea of what went on intrabar. But without having to process every tick.
a) No. It’s still using the MT4 control points engine, it’s just supplying the HST files.
b) It’s a hard limitation.
Use something like tick_number++; if (tick_number % 8 != 0) return; if you wish to skip ticks in a regular backtest.
Hello. What is the option to set to equal the gmt offset of a broker that has GMT+3 in summer and +2 in winter?
Should I put in the options as follor:
GMT+2 DST Europe,
or
GMT+3 DST Europe?
Your question has nothing to do with this article.
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