Topic: Time Zones...

Do these matter when creating EAs?

My VPS is in NY set to GMT which is these days one hour behind London Time. I and located in a +5 GMT time zone. When I access the charts using my VPS I see the following

Time on the server is 14:00
London time is 15:00
Time on the chart is 17:00
Broker is in Australia so the time should be much later but it is 2 hours ahead of London....

Do I need to change anything on EAs or my settings etc.

Thanks

Re: Time Zones...

This is the response I got from my broker

we use a GMT offset of +3 (at the moment) GMT +3.  That means that each new day will begin at 5pm New York time when rollover occurs.  At that time the charts will show 00:00
Its based on NY time.  Rollover/swap occurs each day at 5pm NY time and is generally considered the end of the trading day.  For that reason our charts will show 00:00 at rollover each day and will begin the new trading day.  Each new trading day begins at 00:00 on our charts, and that is 5pm NY time

I get this but do I need to change anything on my EAs?

Re: Time Zones...

Not an expert on this, but I reckon if your strategies are anything equal or less than 1 hour timeframe strategies then it makes no difference what the timezone is.  Also I'm assuming you aren't using the option to close the trade at the end of the trading day or anything like that.  I personally use 30min or less partly for that reason - you don't need to worry about the timezone etc.

I know this is only partly the answer (as you could well want strategies in the higher timeframes).

Re: Time Zones...

Hi,
If you use same broker on VPS as same broker data on FSB while creating strategies, you do not need to change anything smile Your local timezone, and vps zone does not matter, because mt4 uses his broker timezone/data. However if you start to mix brokers/timezones then you will have some candle difference in >h1 timeframes, like trader1234 said. Also if your strategies using special times to trade, like day opening, or like limiting only to London session time, that would become problem too. So you would want to shift time too for certain broker to match your backtesting timezone. Hope it helps smile

Re: Time Zones...

Ok..I am going to repeat the question but be very specific.
My broker is on GMT +3. I used tickstory to download data and when I click on the export button it says time is UTC. SHould I change that to GMT +3 or not. Thanks.

Re: Time Zones...

Changing the timezone to match your broker's one is a good step.

When you import the data, compare the results of a strategy by using the imported one and the broker's data. If the results are near, it's ok.

Re: Time Zones...

Tickstory lets me export to csv. I see that I have the option to export with columns ordered the way I want. Is there a template for export to FSB meaning the order of the columns...for eg..open comes before close and so on..
Thanks

Re: Time Zones...

It must be a Forex Strategy Builder format there.

9 (edited by araza 2017-09-19 15:53:46)

Re: Time Zones...

I am assuming it is this one. Also how far should I go in terms of dates. How many years is good enough. I see that for higher timeframes my broker data is more as it goes back to 2009. Should I download till that period?

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