Support

[HarrisonFX]

Hello

I need support - Metatrader freshly installed build988 not running backtests. And since Ive paid for this product I expect to be able to contact the support group, not by having to post in the users forum!

[tickstory]

Hi HarrisonFX,

This support forum is designed for users to raise support queries (and also serves as a knowledge-base for common queries). Registered users' queries are prioritised and answered ahead of free users. Could you kindly provide the details of your issue so we can assist. Are you getting an error of some sort? If you have a screenshot this might assist us to help you further.

Thanks.

[HarrisonFX]

The only error I get is in MT4 StrategyTester: "TestGenerator: no history data for EURUSD60". Does tickstory have a log file somewhere?

The data imports I have done to MT4

[tickstory]

Hi - the "no history data" message means the tick data file does not exist and usually occurs when you have not exported your data to the correct location.
Please check the following:

1) In Tickstory, to go the File->Settings menu, check you have selected the same MT4 installation folder as the one you are back-testing with.
2) That you have selected EURUSD and chosen "Export to MT4" and selected a date range of at least 6 months.
3) In MT4, go to the File->Open Data Folder menu. Then browse to Tester/History. You should see numerous *.fxt files there including EURUSD*_0.fxt. If they are not there, something is wrong during the data export procedure (either folder location or out of disk space, etc).

Please let us know how you go. If you are continuing to have the issue, please provide additional screenshots of the data folders and your MT4 terminal so we can trouble-shoot further.

Thanks.

[HarrisonFX]

The MT4 installation is non-standard in that it is installed on a partition with alot of space (H:). Roughly, my partition looks a little like this:

H:\ DATA - 700GB
C:\ Windows 10 OS ONLY
G:\ Software - non forex
J:\ Forex related software

I have to use H: because its the only partition with enough space to hold FXT files. I originally installed metatrader to J: when the problem happened, I since uninstalled and reinstalled to H:, but its still a problem. Metatrader´s Data folder is hard-wired to <user>/AppData/Local/... which is located on C:, which has no space.

In Tickstory I tried setting the Data folder to an alternate location but if I do that the tickstory program doesnt recognise the MT4 installation - is this a bug?

Thanks so far for your help

[tickstory]

Hi HarrisonFX,

It sounds like you want to work in "Portable" mode which ensures that the installation files along with all the data resides in the same directory. You can then nominate a folder on your H: drive for all these files to go. To perform this setup, you need to specify the "/portable" command-line switch when starting MT4. Please check out the following thread that leads you through the steps to install MT4 in portable mode:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=619&hilit=portable

Please let us know if you have further questions.

Thanks.

[HarrisonFX]

Ok, so I *think* I have everything setup correctly:

New MT4 build 988 install with Tickstory v1.8.2, Metatrader installed on J: and has never connected to a broker. Basically, its a backtesting only install.
Modified shortcut(s) to launch metatrader in portable mode.
Created Directory Junctions (mklink /j command) to link <INSTALL>\history<server> to HST files on H:\ drive and <INSTALL>\tester\history to FXT files on H:\ drive.

I ran the standard MovingAverage EA to see what happened, it ran without problems, the report showed 99.9% quality:

2016.07.30 14:23:24.039 TestGenerator: file "J:\MetaTrader 4\tester\history\GBPUSD60_0.fxt" is read-only
2016.07.30 14:23:24.060 TestGenerator: symbol GBPUSD period 60 model 0 from 2011.07.29 to 2016.07.28
2016.07.30 14:24:18.868 GBPUSD,M1: 1079849 tick events (1868756 bars, 61492548 bar states) processed in 0:00:17.531 (total time 0:00:17.922)

HOWEVER, it ran awfully fast considering its using real tick data, and how come the number of tick events is less than the number of bars? (see line above)
How can I know it really works?

[tickstory]

Hi HarrisonFX,

That sounds great. You may want to reduce the size of your export to say 1 or 2 years ensure the FXT files are under 4GB. There are some issues that MT4 may come across with data files larger than this, including back-tests not completing for the entire exported period. Once you have established that everything is working fine, you can potentially fine-tune your exported dates to suit your requirements (although we do recommend you keep your exported data under 4GB).

Hope this helps.