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Why don’t you use the backtest results from EA Academy? Their backtester is SOOO much better (more accurate) than MT4 or 5 backtesters. A search on Google will show some pretty “strongly worded” reviews of the Metatrader testers. (Although some love it, a lot don’t.) The paid backtestors, (there are several), with paid-for data will be MUCH more accurate. I have a developer/coding team that does some work for me, and they refuse to use either of the Metatrader backtesters due to their inaccuracy.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your very good questions!
EATradingAcademy uses ExpressGenerator to create the strategies and EA Studio to further filter the strategies and to download the strategies as Expert Advisors. I have these same tools and use them in a similar process to create my own Expert Advisors.
As to using the Top 10 app backtester is the historical data is from Blackbull. It is a well known fact that all forex brokers have do not use the same historical data as there is not a common place for them to all download the same historical data. As a result, Expert Advisors trade differently with the various brokers. This is easily demonstrated using EA Studio. When an EA is uploaded into EA Studio the balance line will look different when switching to the various brokers. In some cases an upward sloping balance line will actually turn into a downward sloping balance line when switching to a different broker. As a result, it is fullish to think you can take a top performing Top 10 robot and use it when any broker expecting the same or similar results. This is why I do my final testing of EAs using the broker I plan on using when live trading.
As to using the MetaTrader Strategy Tester I know it is not as accurate as using EA Studio (the worlds best backtester). I tested using EA Studio and the MetaTrader Strategy Tester with the Top 10 robots with the same brokers historical data. I found that after selecting the top 5 robots with EA Studio and the top 5 robots using the Strategy Tester, four out of the five selected robots were the same. The actual profit and number of trades do vary between using EA Studio or the Strategy tester but the actual selection of robots are almost the same.
I am using the Strategy Tester as many traders here in the EATradingAcademy Forums do not have EA Studio or any other paid backtester. What I am doing here is to use the same tools other traders have access. In using the Strategy Tester I am not looking for accuracy I am just looking for EAs that are moving in a positive direction as an initial determination as to which of the Top 10 robots to start with in a demo account. I then test these robots (EAs) in a demo account with the same broker I am planning on using for live trading.
I hope this answers your questions!
Alan,
Nice, and totally agree. You know what you are doing. I’ve run into SO many people that play with the MT backtesters and then get burnt when going live. Thanks for the detailed clarifications. I’m sure anybody that sees it here will be greatly appreciative, as am I.
Still…. is the EATA process and presentation less than optimal? It seems that it is if you seen the need to go through the work you are going through!! So far, (only Nov/Dec) using the EATA portal results seems to be working nicely???
Great conversation, BTW. This would be nice to develop here.
Hi Mark,
I’ve been trading since 1985. I have traded Stocks, Options, ETF’s, FX and have made all the mistakes, LOL. As for the EATA process, this is what I have determined works best for me over the years.
Alan,
Hey! Me too! About the same time frame, except no Stocks, started with Commodities and the rest is the same. Worked with a few FX guys in EA development for a while, about 15 or so years ago. I’m liking EATA as well, in particular, the dynamic tracking of it as well as the fixed stop losses. Just gold though…. MK
Hi Alan, too bad we can’t post under your initial post to keep that discussion separate. Your approach makes a lot of sense, I just don’t have the gumption to do that much work! Most of my funds are in a PAMM, and doing nicely, but I like to keep my hands in things a bit. So far, I just use the EATA app to select my top three gold EAs, updating twice a day. But on your points, I think I’ll use the MT5 strategy tester on those top 3 to confirm correlation with the EATA backtesting. If any differ significantly, I’ll test numbers 4,5,6…… until I get a positive result looking like the EATA one. Interesting approach for sure.
PS: I calculate (simple excel sheet) my lot size per EA (gold only) by calculating the max loss account % using the posted stop loss. I’m limiting each EA to 2% max loss. So the larger stop-loss EAs will have lower lots (duh!). So far, this has yielded a max Drawdown (consecutive losses) of 14% over 13 consecutive losses, with per-trade losses ranging from .14 to 1.08 % of account. Which is nicely less than my max calculated loss of 2%. I like the idea of the trailing stop as it minimizes these losses.
TOP 10 ROBOTS / OANDA DEMO ACCT
Hi Guys!
This weekend I am showing the results of the Top 10 APP Robots using FXblue. In this first graphic I show a nice Floating profit of $1096. Notice also the Equity is $100,201.96 which encludes the sum of the Balance and the Floating profit for a very small profit. Although the Equity shows a small profit the Weekly Return, Monthly Return, and Profit Factor are all negative. This is because of the Floating Profit. If the open trades, creating the Floating Profit, would have been closed at the end of trading yesterday (Friday) the Weekly Return would have shown a positive 0.2% return and the Monthly Return would have been 0.3%. Not very impressive but it shows the account is making progress.
This final graphic shows the cumulative profit and loss of each of the currency pairs as a balance line. Note USDJPY shows a steady upward balance line. The red line EURJPY has been pointing in a downward direction over the last three days. Since this currency pair was still pointing down going into the close on Friday I have no confidence it will turn upward next week. For this reason I will replace this currency pair. The other two pairs have been flat for the last two days following a slight downward trend. This could be a sign they are about to turn upward so I will keep them in the portfolio. If they continue to move downward in the first few days of next week I may go ahead and replace them as well. I will have to wait and see!
As we go into the final three weeks of the year the performance of currency pairs may not perform well as the big speculative traders close out their losing trades for tax purposes. As a result we could see losses in our accounts, hopefully not! However, the good news is that in early January we could start seeing some nice profits in our accounts as the big speculative traders take the funds generated by closing out losing trades in December start to reinvest those funds into new positions.
I am still in the process of shaping this account into a profitable portfolio so I can use it in a live trading account. Trading is a process!
Alan,
TOP 10 ROBOTS / OANDA DEMO ACCT
Hi Guys!
Here is a quick mid-week update on the Top 10 app robots trading on my Oanda dot com demo account. This account has now been trading for 17 days showing a calculated monthly return of 2.5%. So far this account has made a lot of progress compared to last week.
Alan,
Hi Mark, Good to see you here. You update the EAs twice a day? Are you running this on a real account or a demo account? Isnt that too much to keep closing trades if an EA is switched?
Hi Jitesh!! Great to run into you again, small world, eh?!? Yea, they recommend daily updates, so I’m updating to top 3 gold EAs using the weekly basis. I started with a real, but moved to demo to put a little more money into my Plexy PAMM account. But on this one, I had a good November, and December is a bit negative, but I figured that. If I was live, I probably would be sitting December out. I wanted to to see what would happen through December.
And I don’t close trades on the EAs that I take off of the Top 3 list. All these EAs post both a take profit and a stop loss, just like a basic trading approach. I like that, as there are no huge DDs waiting (hoping?) for a counter-trend system reversal. Still, December had a 13 trade losing streak, for about a 14% DD (they have a trailing loss system, so you get reduced SL losses), but with the November wins, and some December wins, the total Nov/Dec account is about 8% up. Also, I watch the non-active EA trades, and will take them off if there is a decent profit, or just move the SL to break even, so at least I don’t lose money. All in all, it’s working nicely for me.
I may go live with this after I see what January does. My PAMM did over 10% just for November, with absolutely no involvement on my part. Nice! It did get to a 20% DD at one point, but that’s acceptable for me as I don’t have to manage it. He did over 100% for 2024, so better than what I have seen in all of our Nurp and Everest forums.
TOP 10 ROBOTS / OANDA DEMO ACCT
Hi Guys!
With this first graphic I decided to start at the top level and work downward into the details. This first graphic shows a balance of 101,652.73 compared to last weeks balance of 99,105.36 for a weekly profit of 2,547.37. I chose to compare balances as they represent the closed trades. This first graphic also shows a calculated monthly return of 2.7% based upon the history of 19 days.
This next graphic shows the balance line over the last 19 days. In the first several days this graphic shows the balance line moving in an up and down direction making lower highs and lower lows indicating a downward trend. However, the last several days shows the balance line moving upward and making a new higher high, an indication the downward trend has ended.
This final graphic shows the individual balance lines of all five traded assets. Note USDJPY has been moving in a nice upward trend over the last 19 days. EURUSD and GBPUSD have been trading in a horizontal direction over this same time period. Note also USDCHF and EURJPY can be seen moving in a downward direction for the first two thirds of the time period. However, over the last one third of the time period of 19 days EURJPY has been flat while USDCHF is starting to move upward. Since none of these five assets are now moving in a downward direction I have decided to continue trading these same assets this next week.
This last week this demo account has made significant progress. It will now be interesting to see how this account performs this next week knowing it is Christmas week. I expect trading to be light this next week as many of the big traders, who are the ones that really moves these markets, will be taking some vacation days. So, it will be interesting to see what progress this account can make during this Christmas week.
Note: I do not have any plans on continuing to report the progress of this demo account on the forum after this year.
Alan-
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