[Top Priority] A Must-See for Beginners! The Mechanics of Backtesting

Nice to meet you, my name is Masa, specializing in EA development.

This time, we have released the GoGoJumbotron site GoTo Japanese EA " GOTO-BUYSELL (Gotō Nichi EA)” on the GoGoJ section for sale.

Although the number of sales is still zero, we are confident in the logic, so if you are interested please check it out!

About MT4 Backtesting

Some product pages for EAs include backtests.

Now, this backtest, did you know that the results can vary greatly depending on the method?

My product page for “GOTO-BUYSELL (Gotō Nichi EA)” also mentions it a little, and especially beginners who are just starting to touch FX, EA, or MT4 should be careful!

I will write concrete examples across several articles.

First, from an easy-to-understand place… “Spread settings.”

Below are the results of a backtest of “GOTO-BUYSELL” with spreads set to “5” and “2”.

Spread 5

Spread 2

Even just looking at net profit,there was a difference of about 44,000,000 yen.

By the way, the backtest uses MT4 from Gaitame Finest, and since their spreads are relatively narrow, around 5 is just right.

Well, realistically, spread 2 is unlikely.

Also, we backtest only from the opening price, but for 1-minute charts it doesn’t matter whether you use only the opening price or all ticks.

All-ticks backtest, Spread 5

So, this time I’ve summarized spreads settings “briefly”.

If you dig deeper, there are also “floating spreads,” but backtests are still backtests, so I think it’s not worth getting too fussy…

Next time, I’d like to write about “Timing to perform backtests.”

If you have any insights about the performance of “GOTO-BUYSELL,” I’ll write them as well.

Thank you for reading! Bow (o_ _)ｏ))