I think this is not an issue with MT4, but with the brokerage providing the price feed. So you probably would like to contact your brokerage about this. On my chart (Forex.com brokerage) EURUSD closed at 1.3501, it's all fine...
My chart (Alpari) is showing EURUSD close at 1.34899 but also an insanely high spread with the ask at 1.35153. Stuffed up my plans for backtesting this weekend.
You should always keep yourself a copy of the symbols.sel file (history folder) made during times of "normal" spread. Then at the weekend you can disconnect metatrader from the net and run it with your saved copy of this file to have normal spreads for backtesting.
Yep, experiential learning I think they call it :)
You should always keep yourself a copy of the symbols.sel file (history folder) made during times of "normal" spread. Then at the weekend you can disconnect metatrader from the net and run it with your saved copy of this file to have normal spreads for backtesting.
I am sorry, why do I need to do this? Can you elaborate?
So it is a broker's issue (my data is also from Alpari). I have downloaded MT4 from a couple of other brokers and I see differences in their data set. Even some candles missing.
So, what do you suggest as a more reliable data source, for MT4?
Thank you guys.
https://www.mql5.com/en/forum/113730
Basically, the tester reads the spread from the last tick from the server and then applys that spread equally,to all history. That's OK until you get an out of the ordinary spread like we have now where until market open, the backtester will assume a ~20pip spread for all your history rendering my back testing planned for this weekend pointless.
symbols.sel holds the spread info that tester uses so it looks like keeping a "good" copy of this file to overwrite latest verions when the spread gets unrealistic seems like the work around.
Today is the first I've noticed it because the spread is so far out of whack but it shed light on how I get different results on the exact same back test run at different times.
I don't think it's a case of Alpari being unreliable, more that their spread setting policy is different to others. I've no experience of this from other brokers but I suspect you could find variances in spread across most of them from time to time. I agree that this is an extreme case, but technically, it may only be lasting for a couple of ticks... just so happens we have got to wait the weekend for the next tick to come in.
I think this is not an issue with MT4, but with the brokerage providing the price feed. So you probably would like to contact your brokerage about this. On my chart (Forex.com brokerage) EURUSD closed at 1.3501, it's all fine...
IBFX closed at 1.35014, change brokers.
LiteForex closed at 1.3507 with a 2 pip spread
According to http://www.reuters.com/finance/currencies, BID/ASK: 1.3501/1.3506
According to http://www.dukascopy.com/plugins/fxMarketWatch/, BID: 1.3501/1.3503
So, what do you suggest as a more reliable data source, for MT4?
This thread attempts to answer this: https://www.mql5.com/en/forum/118275
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Reuters reports Friday's close to 1,3501.
www.netdania.com reports 1,3504.
So MT4 data must be wrong. I went to History center, deleted the last entries, re-downloaded, same thing. I cannot correct it.
Any ideas? Am I the only one with the wrong data?
I tried to attach the image but could not do it. So I put it here too: http://img145.yfrog.com/img145/1108/mt4wrongeow.jpg