Before I give teach you how to use Dukascopy data to backtest, a word of caution.

FXNitro has a problem: too many strategies – while on live trading that translates to higher gains, on backtesting it is a PAIN.

Because it is a RESOURCE HOG.

For instance, it takes me two hours to complete this years’ worth of backtesting.

Which is why I developed each strategy independently and test them separately – only after they backtest perfectly that I put them on FXNitro and start the process of putting everything together… So be aware that it will take you a long time to test it correctly.

But let’s do this… here’s how to use Dukascopy Data. This will give you 99% backtest quality (really, MT4 says exactly that).

1) Download the EURCHF tickdata and everything you’ll need for this: EURCHF:
http://sharebee.com/7b1a5db0
http://sharebee.com/709145ca
http://sharebee.com/de1b93eb

2) Copy the files from Convert folder to the MT4 Folder.

3) Move the .csv file to experts\files

4) Open a chart of EURCHF on a 5 minute timeframe.

5) Double click a script that has been installed in step #2 called Dukascopy2FXT

6) In the parameters section, set ExtCsvFile to EURCHF.csv (the file MUST be on expers\files), and set ExtCreateHst to TRUE.

7) Select the ExtSpread parameter to 30 if you’re in a 5 digit broker, or 3 if you’re in a 4 digit broker. This is the usual spread of our trading window – and it’s the best one for testing purposes. Too low becomes too profitable, too high becomes too far away from reality.

8) Fill in ExtStartDate and ExtEndDate for a period of AT MOST 1 year (otherwise you’ll generate a FXT file bigger than 2GB and MT4 will NOT load all the data) I used it from 2009.01.01 to 2009.09.01 to make this year, the past years from January 1st to the 31th of December.

9) Hit OK. Then WAIT (At least 45-50 minutes until it creates the FXT file and everything else.) My PC takes about an hour to do this, and it is a quad core 3.3ghz with 4gb of ram.

10) Exit MT4 and move all .HST files from experts\files to \history\yourservername

11) Move the FXT file to tester\history

12) To use the files, you MUST use the loader in the loader folder. It works only in the 225 MT4 build. What this does is stop MT4 from regenerating the FXT file every time it backtests – because our tick data is high quality and not low-quality, it will take around 2 hours for MT4 to convert the .hst files to fxt files every time you backtest. MT4 is not as optimized as the script you’ll install.

13) Now it should work – please don’t delete the new FXT file after you copy it to tester/history, otherwise if you mis-click the metatrader 4 shortcut without using the loader and backtest, MT4 will overwrite your FXT file and you’ll have to go through steps 1-12 all over again :/

I hope you have the patience to go through all of this. If you do, you can generate backtest tick data for every single year you need and truly test a robot with market conditions.

For instance, take a look at the difference between Forex Humanoid’s backtest with crappy data, and with good data. Same settings.

Bad Data:

Good Data:

That’s why there’s a shitload of difference between my backtests and yours – I test my robot with the closest to reality market conditions.

Best,
Johnny.