Automated time adjustments based on Daylight Savings Time

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jfroth82
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:52 am

Automated time adjustments based on Daylight Savings Time

Post by jfroth82 »

I'd like to always have my data time shifted properly so as not to have any Sunday bars. That way I can do proper testing based on days of the week. I'm on the east coast of North America so technically my forex week starts on Sunday evening but I want all my candles based on the UK time, according to my broker.

My broker is based in London and their start time each week is Monday at 00:00 London time. They adjust their time twice a year based on Daylight Savings Time (late March, late October). Is there a way to automatically adjust for daylight savings time when exporting data to a file?

admin
Site Admin
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:17 am

Re: Automated time adjustments based on Daylight Savings Tim

Post by admin »

Hi jfroth,

I have logged an item to have a look at this. Will let you know when it's available.

Thanks.

admin
Site Admin
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:17 am

Re: Automated time adjustments based on Daylight Savings Tim

Post by admin »

Just wanted to make sure I gave a complete answer as what gets shown in the timezone selection box during export can vary depending on what version of Windows you are using.

If you're on Windows 7, you will note that there is a "UTC - Universal Coordinated Time" timezone and a "UTC - Dublin, London (etc)". If you want to automatically adjust for daylight savings, it is simply a matter of choosing the timezone you are in. In this case, it is the "London"/British one. When you do this, all times will be adjusted in accordance with that timezone's rules. If you select just "UTC", then this represents the "true" universal time which does not apply daylight savings. When selecting this option, you will effectively get no time-shift. This is the option to choose when you wish to test any EA with "GMT Offset = 0".

On Windows XP, the timezones are listed as "GMT" instead of "UTC". Theoretically they should be the same thing, however XP users will note that there are again several choices. "GMT - Greenwich Mean Time : Dublin, London (etc)" is again as you'd expect - it will automatically adjust for daylight savings time. If you want to select the "UTC - Universal Coordinated Time" equivalent (i.e. no adjustment for daylight savings), it appears as "GMT - Monorovia, Reykjavik".

Generally speaking, if you know that your selected timezone uses daylight savings, then it will automatically adjust the time accordingly. There will be an enhancement in the next version to clarify whether a timezone has daylight savings or not along with auto default selection of the UTC (no daylight savings) on both Windows 7 and XP.

Hope this helps!

jfroth82
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:52 am

Re: Automated time adjustments based on Daylight Savings Tim

Post by jfroth82 »

Yes, thank you very much. This helps a lot.

jfroth82
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:52 am

Re: Automated time adjustments based on Daylight Savings Tim

Post by jfroth82 »

Just to give you an update on this requirements for me - I decided to export all data in GMT using Tickstory.
Since I'm using my own strategy testing software that I developed, I just updated it to do the time shifting automatically for different time zones. So it's not so important for me to have Tickstory handle eliminating Sunday bars or other kinds of time adjustments.

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