Here and in the future throughout the article, all tests will be performed on the EURUSD pair, timeframe M15, from 2020.01.01 to 2020.07.20, Spread: 25 (Digits 5)
I will describe how to use optimization to select the best trading hours for the Paze Win expert Advisor.
To get started, we will do testing without a time limit. To do this, leave the Golden Hours parameter empty or enter the word "ALL" without quotes.
The result is unlikely to impress, it is obvious that optimization is required, and then it will be shown how important the trading time filter is for this trading strategy. The Pause Win expert Advisor has the ability to test the profitability of trading at each individual hour of the day, and then make a list of the best hours for which the expert Advisor will successfully trade in the future.
The best way to select the optimal hours is to optimize the Hour (Only For Testing) when setting TestingTradeHour to Only on this hour mode.
- First, set TestingTradeHour to Only on this hour mode
- You need to optimize parameter Hour (Only For Testing), from 0 to 23. We will run the adviser according to the specified parameters, with the condition that the transactions will be opened within the specified hour
As a result, the optimization results showed the following results: 11 of the 24 hours were profitable:
Now you can test all the trading hours that have managed to go to plus, for this purpose, all these hours fit into the Golden Hours parameter
Important: there must be either a dot or a comma between the numbers. Also note that the TestingTradeHour parameter must be returned to Not Use mode after optimization is complete
Enter the string in the Golden Hours parameter: 0.3.4.5.7.14.18.20.21.22.23. TestingTradeHour set to Not Use mode. The results are as follows:
Now I will conduct sample tests in each of them 5 of the 11 most successful hours will participate in the selected parameter: profit, profit factor, number of trades, drawdown.
According to the parameters profit and profit factor the first five hours are the same:
Test with parameters 0.3.4.20.23 for Golden Hours, 5 best hours of Profit & Profit Factor:
Hours of the largest number of trades: 0,4,14,18,22. Test result:
Hours of the largest number of trades: 0,4,14,18,22. Test result:Lowest drawdown hours: 3,4,18,20,23. test Result:
The overall result for the seven months :
| Hours | Profit | Profit, % | trades | Profit Factor | Drawdown,% | Profit trades (% of total) |
| All | - 453.41 | - 45.34% | 488 | 0.94 | 80.67 % | 67.01% |
| 11 | 1254.42 | + 125.44% | 202 | 1.50 | 25.79% | 74.26% |
| 5 Profit | 1122.44 | +112.23% | 90 | 2.30 | 19.15% | 80.00% |
| 5 maxTrades | 998.93 | + 99.89% | 131 | 1.67 | 19.15% | 76.34% |
| 5 min DW | 1107.97 | + 110.80% | 99 | 2.19 | 11.15% | 79.80% |
We can conclude that the profitability of the adviser depends largely on the correct selection of trading hours. For each currency pair, you need to perform this optimization separately before starting real trading.
-This is just one example in seven months. For an objective assessment, I recommend running tests over a time period of about two years, and optimizing every year or six months.
- Parameters minTakeProfit, minStopLoss, TP limit, SL limit, PazePeriod are taken by default, ideally, for each trading instrument, these parameters also need to be optimized separately
