Forex demos that allow you to go back in time?
What I want to do is pull up a random day last week and demo a forex program for that day. Obviously, I can’t practice on the weekends otherwise, because the markets are closed. I know some online stock brokers let you go back in time and demo your strategies. Is there a good Forex site that allows the same?
July 17th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
The only places I know of that allow you to back test are places like tradestation that charge for historical data. I don’t know of any free demos.
July 17th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
If you want to get into trading forex, there’s a free ebook you can download at http://www.forexfromscratch.com – just type your name and email, hit the “submit” button and they will email you the step-by-step beginners guide.
There’s also another free book you can download at http://www.fxsystemscompared.com which shows you exactly how forex systems work.
Hope this helps?
July 17th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
I have three methods I use to “go back in time” to test a strategy:
(I use Metatrader 4 – Which is free)
1) Manual Backtest with signals based on closed candles – This is very rudimentary but works great for those systems that have entry signals based off closed candles. I simply scroll my chart back to the date where I want to start, place the first candle in the set on the far right of my screen so that it is the only candle I can see, and slowly scroll one candle at a time forward as if it were live.
2) Manual Backtest with signals not based off closed candles – When I have a system I want to test that takes signals NOT based on closed candles I use Metatrader’s ‘strategy tester’. What I do, is I open the strategy tester, place whatever EA is available, the currency pair, and date range that I want to test. I then check the ‘visual mode’ box. As soon as you click ‘start’ a new chart will open and candles will begin to form. The chart runs just as if it were trading live. You can speed up, slow down, or pause the chart. This is a very good way to practice as if you were trading live.
3) Finally, You can test your strategies by programming them into auto traders (EAs) and using the ‘strategy tester’ on Metatrader to test their effectiveness.