Forward test in the market
What is the forward test for ?
Forward test - one of the stages of testing a trading strategy or an Expert Advisor on , which involves simulating its use in real time in the process of trading on historical data.
Forward test allows you to determine the quality of order execution by a mechanical expert, as well as the effectiveness of the trading strategy to reduce the risks of financial losses from its use.
Forward test statistics must contain the main performance parameters, including expected payoff, the number of profitable and losing trades, the average values of profit and loss, recovery factor etc.
Why conduct a forward test of trading robots?
The main purpose of forward testing is to check whether the results of the Expert Advisor are worse than those in the MetaTrader terminal.
The second, no less important goal is to track the periods of stable/unstable work of advisors, because most of the robots work well only in certain market conditions.
In simple words, only the test on a real trading account can clearly answer the question - "Does the Expert Advisor make money? Therefore, the forward testing stage of Expert Advisors should not be skipped in any way.
How do I check my Expert Advisor?
Forward testing of trading robots can be carried out in two ways:
- running the Expert Advisor on a certain historical plot, which is left for the forward test in advance. This option is usually used to optimize Expert Advisors.
- installation of the Expert Advisor on a small (cent) real trading account. It is used for the final check of the expert's workability.
In this case, for each type of advisor choose the best type of trading account:
- For experts who trade using the Martingale method - does not matter (either demo or real).
- For scalper advisors it is optimal to use ECN-accounts.
- For trend trading robots - also does not matter.
How long does the forward test last?
The minimum period for a quality forward test is 3 months, so the first thing to do is to ensure uninterrupted work of the Expert Advisor during this time. The easiest way to do this is to rent VPS serverBut if you can leave your computer on 24/5, you don't have to.
Where can I see the forward test of the desired Expert Advisor?
Forward testing of Expert Advisors is important not only to confirm its efficiency and performance, but also helps to choose Expert Advisors for trading. For example, traders provide the results of forward testing of Expert Advisors on popular forums or communities with the possibility of downloading or selling an Expert Advisor.
If you have decided to find a suitable Expert Advisor, you need to carefully study its performance and analyze the results provided by the monitoring. At the moment, there are several services that provide online monitoring of forward tests of advisors. The most popular service among traders is myfxbook.com.