MT4 Strategy Tester Window - How to Use MT4 Strategy Tester Tutorial

The MetaTrader 4 Forex Strategy Tester in the MT4 platform is the environment used to back-test the profitability of an MT4 EA which is an Automated Bot and determine the profitability of this EA automated strategy & then Optimize this EA to a point where it is giving good profits from its forex automated trading activities.

NB: Before starting the MT4 Forex Strategy Tester shown below, you must first attach a forex EA on a MT4 chart, by going to the Navigator Window, selecting the forex EA and then right click on it and specify the option 'Attach to Chart', once the EA is attached to the MT4 chart it will appear as shown below, Then Right Click on the Expert Advisor, select properties and then select the option by Checking/Ticking 'Allow Live Trading' and then continue with the MT4 strategy tester shown below.

The MetaTrader 4 strategy-tester option can be activated from the view menu and it is the second last menu item on the View Menu, A short Cut is to Press Ctrl+R buttons on your key board.

The MetaTrader 4 strategy Tester has the following Parameters for setting up before testing an EA automated trading system and also for optimizing the profitability of this forex EA.

EA: Parameter for choosing which forex EA you want to test among those installed on your MetaTrader 4 software.

Symbol: The currency pair for which you want to test the forex EA on

Model: Whether to execute based on tick technique, open prices or control points

Use Date: Set the date to start the testing & the date to end the testing of the forex Expert-Advisor

Visual Mode: Choose To view the illustration of where this forex Expert Advisor opens & closes forex trade as the testing goes on, there's also a slide bar to increase or decrease the speed for this visual mode.

Period: Forex Chart Time Frame for which to use examples 1 Hour Chart

Optimization: Allow Optimization Settings for your Expert Advisor Automated Robot

For example to test the above forex EA on the EUR USD currency for profitability, the settings can be setup as displayed and shown above and the MetaTrader platform strategy tester is then run, by clicking the 'Start Button'.

Following trade results are generated and an automated forex trader can select to optimize the forex EA further by changing the EAs forex trading settings.

Once the optimization of the forex EA is complete the status bar will show progress, the above status bar shows the progress that the forex EA testing is complete.

To view the result click options highlighted above (Optimization Results, Optimization Graph, Journal)

Before running this MT4 Strategy Tester for EA testing you must go to the navigator window, double click on this forex EA to attach it to the FX chart and set the parameters as displayed and shown and illustrated below by checking the options provided below:

After setting the above settings then you can test your automated trading strategy within MT4 strategy-tester.

Once you Run your Expert Advisor the Results will be displayed on the following window

MT4 Strategies Tester Optimization Results

MT4 Strategy-Tester Optimization Graph

MT4 Strategy Tester Balance and Equity Graph

MT4 Strategy Tester Profit and Loss Graph - MT4 Strategy Tester Tutorial

Above is just a brief introduction to the MT4 strategies tester - automated trading with EA Forex Robots is a wide topic that a trader will take some time & research to learn about but the main environment to test and optimize the forex EA automated trading robot will be the MetaTrader 4 Strategy Tester.

Note: You can only implement an Automated EA using data which has been downloaded and saved on your MetaTrader 4 software, therefore for the date settings choose the dates that you have been trading with your MT4 to get a graph representation of how your automated forex Expert-Advisor would trade.