How MT5 Tester Results Can Be Used to Test MT4 Expert Advisors
How MT5 Tester Results Can Be Used to Test MT4 Expert Advisors
The MetaTrader platforms—MT4 (MetaTrader 4) and MT5 (MetaTrader 5)—have long been popular tools for algorithmic trading. Though MT5 was introduced as a more advanced platform with better testing and analytical capabilities, many traders and developers still rely on MT4 for its simplicity, established market presence, and large ecosystem of Expert Advisors (EAs).
A key advantage of MT5 over MT4 is the improved strategy tester, which allows for more accurate backtesting, optimizations, and simulations. MT5’s tester has capabilities that MT4 lacks, such as multi-threaded testing, built-in support for custom symbol data, and a more sophisticated modeling algorithm. Given this, traders often wonder whether MT5's advanced testing environment can be used to evaluate and improve MT4 Expert Advisors (EAs). This article will explore how MT5 tester results can be leveraged to test and enhance MT4 EAs.
Why MT5's Strategy Tester is Superior?
MT5's strategy tester outshines MT4’s in several critical areas:
- Multi-Currency and Multi-Symbol Testing: MT5 can handle multi-currency EAs and complex strategies that interact across different symbols, which MT4 cannot test simultaneously.
- Multi-Threading Support: MT5’s tester uses multiple CPU cores for faster backtesting, while MT4 only uses a single core.
- Custom Symbols and Timeframes: In MT5, you can easily create custom symbols and backtest on different custom timeframes, a feature that MT4 lacks.
- Accurate Ticks Mode: MT5 has a more refined tick-generation model for accurate backtesting. It simulates more realistic price movement than MT4's testing, which is often based on interpolating data between bars.
Using MT5 Tester for MT4 Expert Advisors
While MT5 and MT4 operate on different platforms, with MT5 using the MQL5 language and MT4 using the MQL4 language, the testing results from MT5 can still be insightful for MT4 EAs, provided you follow some guidelines. Here are some ways you can leverage MT5’s tester results to evaluate and improve your MT4 EAs.
1. Use MT5 version of a MT4 EA.
One way to use MT5’s superior strategy tester for MT4 EAs is to use EAs available in MT4 and MT5 at the same time. Since the MQL4 and MQL5 languages are similar, this is often a straightforward process. You can run the EA through MT5’s strategy tester to get more accurate and detailed results.
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Will the algorithm differ in MT4 and MT5: The basic logic of your EA remains unchanged and therefore on your side you have nothing to do. Howeevr, you will need to make adjustments for differences in the order management functions and some event handlers, as MT5 handles orders and trade events differently from MT4. You can ask this to the developer if the MT4 version is the same as MT5 version.
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Use MT5 for Backtesting: After translating your EA, perform backtests in MT5, taking advantage of the improved modeling quality, multi-threaded performance, and more precise data simulation. This can give you insights into how the EA might perform in real trading conditions, which can be difficult to fully assess on MT4's simpler tester.
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Many EAs rely on custom indicators, and MT5’s tester is much better suited for testing these than MT4’s. Even if your EA remains on MT4, testing the behavior of custom indicators on MT5 allows you to evaluate their accuracy, responsiveness, and how well they adapt to different market conditions.
- Enhanced Indicator Performance: By testing the custom indicators used by your MT4 EA in MT5, you can determine if they exhibit any inefficiencies or inconsistencies in certain market conditions. You can use this information to adjust the EA on MT4 for better results.
3. Optimize Strategy Parameters
Parameter optimization is an essential part of refining an EA's performance, and MT5’s strategy tester has superior tools for optimization compared to MT4.
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Optimization on MT5: You can use MT5’s powerful optimization features to test various parameter combinations in a much shorter time than MT4. Once you’ve found optimal settings on MT5, you can manually apply those settings to your MT4 EA.
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Genetic Algorithm: MT5's genetic optimization algorithm helps identify the most promising parameter combinations without needing to test every possible combination. This results in faster and more efficient optimization compared to MT4's brute-force approach.
4. Simulate Forward Testing with Realistic Data
Forward testing is critical to ensure that your EA performs well in live market conditions. MT5’s tester allows you to simulate forward testing with greater accuracy than MT4.
- Apply Forward Testing Results: Once you have simulated forward testing in MT5, you can apply the insights gained to your MT4 EA. For example, if the forward testing reveals that your EA struggles during high-volatility periods, you can adjust your MT4 EA to handle these scenarios better.
5. Analyze Market Conditions with Better Granularity
The MT5 tester allows for a more granular analysis of market conditions, thanks to its ability to process tick-level data and multi-symbol strategies. By testing your EA's logic and strategy under different market conditions in MT5, you can adjust your MT4 EA accordingly.
Conclusion
Although MT5 is superior to MT4, the vast majority of customers still tend to use MT4 version. Using MT4 version of a bot can also be advantageous because MT4 is more stable and not updated very often as much as MT5. Moreover, after several recent updates, MT4 versions come closer to MT5. But since MT5 provides more functionality and tools in backtesting and optimization, optimizing and backtesting our MT4 bot in MT5 version can be an effective way for utilizing our M4 expert advisors.
Evren Caglar
Trader, Quant Trader, Developer
