Hi Petko, or anyone else who might be able to help,

I am getting different FX Blue results for the same EA in two separate demo accounts, and not sure why?

The demo account on the left is for USDJPY EAs only, where I put all the USDJPY EAs I generate in EA Studio for testing, then as per Petko’s instructions, when I see that an EA meets the criteria, I move it to the demo account on the right, which is my “fake live” account.

I’ve shown in red pen at least two occasions where an EA is doing great in the testing account, 6 trades in the last seven days with 100% win rate, but in the “fake live” account, they are showing losses.

Why aren’t the EA’s trading the same in both demo accounts?  I know that the number of trades would be different because the EA has been in the test account longer than the “fake live” account, but surely the losses should show up in both demo accounts and FX Blue?

Cheers
Simon

The trades on the live account will be opening / closing at different times compared to the demo.  Also the first trade quite often opens when it is beyond it’s optimal opening point as it may open straight away after the account becomes activated. They should fall into sync after a few trades.  Check the obvious of course:  IE  Running on the same time frame etc……

Thanks for the reply Richard,

I can confirm that the correct EAs are running on the correct charts and time-frames, on separate copies of MT5, both are demo accounts running on the same server, the mT5s are running simultaneously on the same VPS.

After re-filtering FX Blue and checking the MT5 demo accounts this morning, five or six EAs for USDJPY are showing no losses in one demo account, but show losses in the other.

Hey Simon,

Richard gave you a great answer. I will point out some of his words that might be the reason.

In the first Demo account, the EAs are already trading when you activate the second ”fake demo”, which means that there are trades opened in the first account. When the second account gets active, it will open the first trade at the first signal that comes. At this time the trades in the first account are still opened.

Probably the opened trades in the first account ended up profiting, and the first trades in the second account ended up losing.

As Richard said, give it some time, and they will synchronize (when the EA in the two accounts does not have opened trades, the next signal will open the same trade in both accounts).

This is why I check in Monte Carlo to test for the different ”Backtest starting bar”. To make sure that whenever you start with the EA in the account, at one moment, they will synchronize and the overall performance will be similar/same.

Keep us updated on how it goes.

Thanks Petko, that makes sense.

I’ll keep an eye on it, hopefully they will sync.

Cheers

Another question, how many days should I allow for the trades to sync?

I’m currently swapping out failing EAs for profiting ones every three days or so, maybe this is not enough time to let them sync?

Hard to say… I guess it depends on the strategy itself – for how long it keeps the trades opened and how often the new signals come.

If it is a strategy that scalps, it will synchronize quite fast. But if it keeps the trades a few days opened, it might take a week or even longer.

That is something I need to explain and demonstrate in a youtube video probably.

Thanks Petko, a video on this would be great 🙂

Another question – when choosing which strategies to remove from the live account, should I look at the FX Blue statistics for the live, or the demo?

For instance, for a twelve-day period, I am looking at the statistics for one EA on the M15 timeframe that has the following results in the demo:

Trades : 9
Gross profit : 19.25
Gross loss : -6.60
Net profit : 12.65
Profit factor : 2.92

And the following results in the live account:

Trades : 4
Gross profit : 5.48
Gross loss : -6.60
Net profit : -1.12
Profit factor : 0.83

If my rules were three trades minimum, and minimum 1.2 Profit factor, Demo account says I should use the EA, but live says I should remove it?

Cheers,
Simon

Hello Simon,

That is a pretty good question.

It depends if the EA has already synchronized. And if the Demo and live will open the same trades.

It is up to you. What I would normally do is to give it a little bit of time. In the beginning, I look at the Demo, because there is not enough data on live, but when the rules are there I would be strict to remove it.

For example, if you look for min 5 counts of trades, I would wait for one more trade in the live account to see what would be the results. If it will meet my criteria or not.