Comments on: Euro-Blaster “monthly method”

By: Strider

Strider — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:24:12 +0000

All my backtests were done with Alpari-UK.

Like you, I also got varying results with other brokers. That is to be expected. As mentioned before, though, I don’t put a lot of faith in backtesting. It only gives you a rough idea of how a particular EA will do — nothing definite. The key question to ask is, “Does it look like it will generally be profitable and safe to run on my live account?”

As far as your last question, I am not 100% sure. I know at least some brokers will shut down all your trades if you fall to a certain equity level just to assure that your balance doesn’t go negative.

By: Anton

Anton — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:50:18 +0000

Yes that clarifies matters.
I did take the 2008 figure as 31 point 903, not a small difference.

Thank you for that.

As a matter of interest which broker were you using?

I find when doing back tests with this EA, I get different results from different brokers. Even when ensuring the parameters are the same and the starting capital is the same. I know their spread makes a difference and that can affect the outcome considerably in some cases even causing the EA to stop,

Which leads me to another question; why would the AE stop long before the completion data after loosing three consecutive trades, yet having plenty of capital left? This has happened several times on a backtest run.

By: Strider

Strider — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:48:01 +0000

Hi there. Well, you’ve made a couple mistakes, the largest of which is the 2008 line. The percentage gain for that year is 31,903% NOT 31.903%. I am guessing you are from one of the countries that uses commas for a decimal point, and maybe that is the confusion? The gain in 2008, even with this “monthly method” is over 31 THOUSAND percent! It was an incredible year for this system. Your second mistake is that you are not compounding your profits. I have updated your table to reflect how I got to the numbers I posted. Hope that clears it up for you, but let me know if you have any other questions.

. . . . . . .% gain/loss . . . . . P. or L . . . . . Total £
………….—————-………..———-………———
Starting . . capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..2000
2004 . . . . . 99.80 . % . . . . . 1996 . . . . . .3996
2005 . . . . . 88.70 . %. . . . . .3544 . . . . . .7540
2006 . . . . -36.20 . .% . . . . -2729 . . . . . .4811
2007 . . . . . -8.60 . % . . . . . .-414 . . . . . .4397
2008 . . . . 31,903 .% . . 1,402,775 . .1,407,172
2009 . . . . 114.60 .% . . 1,612,619 . .3,019,791

By: Anton

Anton — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:44:36 +0000

I don’t quite see how your end result becomes a million plus.

Here are your figures done on a spreadsheet. with the speadsheet calculating the gain from your percentages given and then adding that to the previous years total, shown under, “Total £”, from which the next year’s percentage takes its starting capital and ending in a loss.

When I did this I had laid it out properly, but the columns crumpled, here is a second attempt.

. . . . . . .% gain/loss . . . . . P. or L . . . . . Total £
………….—————-………..———-………———
Starting . . capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2000
2004 . . . . . 99.80 . % . . . . . 1996 . . . . . .3996
2005 . . . . . 88.70 . %. . . . . .3544 . . . . . .5540
2006 . . . . -36.20 . .% . . . . -2006 . . . . . .1539
2007 . . . . . -8.60 . % . . . . . .-132 . . . . . -2138
2008 . . . . 31.903 .% . . . . . .-682 . . . . . . -814
2009 . . . 114.60 . % . . . . . . -933 . . . . . -1615