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

The MetaTrader 4 Strategy Tester in the MT4 platform is the environment used to backtest the profitability of an MetaTrader 4 Expert Advisor which is an Automated Software & ascertain the profitability of this Expert Advisor automated strategy & then Optimize this Expert Advisor to a point where it is giving good profits from its forex automated ++##++trading activities.

NB: Before starting the MT4 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 pictured below, Then Right Click on the Expert Advisor, choose properties & then choose option by Checking/Ticking 'Allow Live Trading' & 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 Expert advisor automated 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 MT4 platform.

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

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

Use Date: Set the date to start the testing & the date to end the testing of the forex EA

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

Period: 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 EURUSD currency for profitability, the settings can be set up as shown above and the MetaTrader platform strategies tester is then run, by clicking the "Begin Button".

Following trade results are generated and an automated trader can choose to optimize the forex EA further by changing the Expert Advisors forex settings.

Once the optimization of the forex EA is accomplished the status bar will show progress, the above status bar displays 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 Expert Advisor testing you must go to navigator panel, doubleclick on this forex EA to attach it to the chart and set the parameters as displayed & illustrated below by checking options provided below:

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

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

MT4 Strategies Tester Optimization Results

MT4 Strategies Tester Optimization Graph

MT4 Strategy Tester Balance and Equity Graph

MT4 Strategy Tester Profit and Loss Graph - MT4 Strategy Tester

The above is just a brief introduction to the MT4 strategies tester - automated trading with EA 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 robot will be the MetaTrader 4 Strategy Tester.

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