Topic: Needed clarifications to ensure understanding

I am running some additional tests and seeing a few things I don't understand and would like to ensure my expectations/interpretations are correct:

1. I am running a test on EURUSD, and have the "Closing Point" set as "Bar Closing" to exit at the end of the bar.  However, the trades appear to be exiting at a price intrabar.  The opening trades always open at the beginning according to my "Opening Point" specification.  Is there something else I need to do to ensure the trades always close at the end of the bar, regardless of whatever other Closing Logic Conditions I use?

2. I am trying to review my results in "pips" vs. equity  - does this mean that when looking at the journal "Profit Loss" column that is really in pips as well - how is that column calculated as I tried to do the math manually for a few trades and couldn't get it to match up? 

I have attached a screen shot of the systems/settings/journal which will hopefully be helpful.

Thanks for all your help!

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Re: Needed clarifications to ensure understanding

Hi niceguy499

1. Can you left click on the indicator chart, zoom in and then look for a closing bar and the position of the orange cross. This should be at the closing point of the bar. Send us a screen shot to check.

2. If you have selected pips the equity will be in pips as well. Have a  look at the full indicator chart for a few trades. It will show you everything you need to know about the trade. It should match up with the pips in the equity column. If it doesn't please send us a screen shot.

Cheers

SpiderMan

Re: Needed clarifications to ensure understanding

niceguy499 wrote:

1. I am running a test on EURUSD, and have the "Closing Point" set as "Bar Closing" to exit at the end of the bar.

Not really, you have MACD for that, hence the results.

Re: Needed clarifications to ensure understanding

footon wrote:
niceguy499 wrote:

1. I am running a test on EURUSD, and have the "Closing Point" set as "Bar Closing" to exit at the end of the bar.

Not really, you have MACD for that, hence the results.

Yes but it should still close at the end of the bar, not intrabar.

Re: Needed clarifications to ensure understanding

Thanks all for the quick responses.  Regarding the closed trades, I found one that hit the Take Profit (attached), and it shows the P/L in pips as 25 (closed in the middle of the bar).  I have the Take Profit set as 2600 (EURUSD pair set as 5 digits) so is the reporting off by a factor of 10 (i.e. I should multiply by 10 to get the true pip value)?

Shouldn't have the order closed at the end of the bar at 1.3342, will or TP/SL execute intrabar regardless of the close bar settings?

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Re: Needed clarifications to ensure understanding

Don't forget the default setting for Bar Closing is 3secs before it actually closes (Trade Settings in FST) and not at the exact closing time. TP/SL will execute at the setting in relation to the entry price.
Mick

Re: Needed clarifications to ensure understanding

My apologies if I mis-spoke in my initial posting, but what I was questioning was all the results of Forex Strategy Builder and viewing the results of the system there vs. using Forex Strategy Trader to actually trade the system.

I could have done something wrong which is why I'm looking to ensure I am interpreting the data results correctly or if there is a user error somewhere in the settings :-)

Re: Needed clarifications to ensure understanding

FSB is an ideal system (the bar closing shows at the actual bar closing etc) but you can adjust market parameters by changing the charges settings (ie spread/slippage etc).
I personally produce a strategy, then run it on a demo account, download the price data and compare the results from both. I then adjust the settings in FSB to try and give me a more realistic view for any future strategies produced for that specific broker but it can never be perfect.
I run two demo accounts and a live account and find there are pricing discrepancies both in entry and exit running the same strategies on all three.
In FST you have the added option of changing the Bar Closing advance time etc which you can experiment with to put the actual bar closing nearer to the actual closing price but market conditions out of our control can totally negate those settings anyway.
Mick