1 (edited by mw 2018-06-14 21:43:08)

Topic: Totally different results with different brokers

Dear fellow traders,

I've just acquired FSB Pro and I must say it is a fine piece of software. Mr. Popov did a great job, no doubt.

After long hours trying to understand the software and reading post after post in the forum (to the point that I'm starting to feel I personally know many of you, thanks for sharing your experience), I finally came up with what I believe it is a nice strategy with a beautiful balance/equity curve (high SQN, low equity drawdown, etc).

On June 12th. I put the strategy to test on demo accounts from Forextime (ECNaccount) and Fxpig (SPA pricefeed). Initial balance: 1000€, leverage 1:100. The exact same EA was loaded on both with seconds of difference.

The FXPig EA has been performing beautifully: 7 closed operations with profit and as of now, 1 open position (in profit, so far)

The Forextime EA has been quite a different story: 56 closed operations, 49 losses and 7 profitable ones (no open position as of now). The equity curve has been a rollercoaster.

To be honest, I have no idea what is going on. Same EA's (loaded almost simultaneously), same accounts settings, but one is being a good boy and the other seems to like living la vida loca.

I'm totally puzzled. I was hoping some of you might help me to understand what's going on.

I'm attaching the Account History reports of both accounts for your reference.

Should you need it, I can provide the mq4 and the xml file (please feel free to use it if you believe it's valuable)

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best regards,

mw

Post's attachments

Account History both brokers.pdf 321.06 kb, 25 downloads since 2018-06-14 

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Re: Totally different results with different brokers

Nothing strange, that's why these tools are a double edged sword. Popov has done a great job and with a lot of study and dedication it is understood but it is your job to check why the data do not come back, I spent a lot of time on the phone with the broker for this reason. For my experience I can tell you that not only the data differ between brokers but they give different results between demo and real. Popov and FSB are not responsible. Stress the systems and remember that a low timeframe has a lot of sensitivity.
Regards

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

Welcome to forex trading world....now you realised, not only do you have to battle with the ever changing market fluctuation but you also have to battle with crook brokers who are out, working against you. 

Choose your broker wisely, that's your 1st step to success.

4

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

Thank you for your answers. I was expecting both accounts not to be exactly equal, but not that radical difference of behavior.

Now, in a closer look, I have noticed some things:
· The entry points and the direction of the trade are very similar for both EA's (except in one case)
· The first big difference is that EA2 opens many more positions than EA1, and,
· EA2 keeps them open for a much longer period, meaning that it waits until they become losses (I'm attaching a side by side chart comparison)

Don't want to look stubborn, but something is causing this, and it would be great to know what is it. Maybe it's manageable, or maybe it's totally outside of our control, but I'm sure we all agree it would be nice to know for sure.

On a practical level, there is of course the option of sticking to the broker that brings good results and that's it, but that means there is a new layer of uncertainty added for all of us, for we don't know for sure our broker is providing us the best results until we test it against at least another broker.

Thank you for your help.

Best regards,

mw

https://s22.postimg.cc/5q6sblih9/Entry_points_comparison.png

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

Just curious -- what if you backtested your strategy using MT4 Strategy Tester for each of the two brokers -- i.e. in two different terminal sessions (one for your Forextime real account and one in your FXPig real account).  You would expect to get similar results, right?  It would interesting to learn whether or not that was the case.

Also, in your backtesting you could include last week.  Does your strategy trade similarly in Strategy Tester as it does in the real account?

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

I just opened the download of the Account History that you uploaded.  Several things stood out...

1. You are using Demo accounts.  The data from Demo and Real accounts is different -- so, it's not clear how much time you should spend worrying about how things trade in a Demo account.

2. Both Forextime and FXPig terminal sessions opened with 7 consecutive wins -- so, they were tracking one another.  And then Forextime had 49 consecutive losses -- that's pretty hard to do.

3. FXPig uses a currency pair called eurusd.spa, ForexTime uses eurusd.

4. Even though you are trading in the 1 minute timeframe, all 49 of your ForexTime losses closed at *exactly* the same second -- 2018.06.14 15:00:27.  In other words, you had 49 open positions that all closed at the same tick.  It appears they all stopped-out at 1.17190.

5. Your two brokers may use different time zones and your strategy may include indicators that rely on date and time -- that could cause a difference.

6. If you look at the closing prices of the 7 wins for the two brokers they are very similar.

I'm guessing the brokers are fine and this is an artifact of your 1 minute strategy.

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

Wow Steve, you sounded like Sherlock Holmes of forex

8 (edited by mw 2018-06-16 16:22:46)

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

Hi,
I will try the backtesting to see what happens. For some reason, backtesting FSB Pro strategies takes ages in MT4, so it will take some time.
I do agree demo accounts are possibly not the same as using real accounts, however I have the theory that the dissimilar behaviour will continue even with real accounts (something I have to test).
The strategy uses three indicators, none of which is time dependent, I think, please correct me if I'm wrong (Oscillator of MACD, Ross Hook, Force Index). The closing logic condition is Stop Loss.
The suffix .spa indicates the pricefeed FXpig is using. They have another pricefeed called MPA, so what we are seeing is basically EURUSD data. Just one thing, the EA's are using 5M TF.

Thank you very much for your insight.

Best regards,

mw

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

mw wrote:

For some reason, backtesting FSB Pro strategies takes ages in MT4, so it will take some time.

If your strategy uses 'Bar Opening' then you can use model "Open prices only" in MT4 Strategy Tester.  Otherwise, use "Control points".   It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.  I've backtested portfolio EAs that included dozens of strategies and it rarely takes longer than 5-10 minutes.

Perhaps it has to do with your start and end dates -- 6 or 8 months is long enough.  For this quick test don't bother with backtesting for longer periods.

10

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

Thanx. Will try that. Normally I use Dukascopy data from Tickstory. I've seen Mr. Popov recommends to use own broker's data, but when trying to download it from MT4, it says it will download it from Metaquotes Server instead instead of from the broker.

11 (edited by hannahis 2018-06-18 11:30:48)

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

mw wrote:

Thanx. Will try that. Normally I use Dukascopy data from Tickstory. I've seen Mr. Popov recommends to use own broker's data, but when trying to download it from MT4, it says it will download it from Metaquotes Server instead instead of from the broker.

https://forexsb.com/forum/topic/5605/ex … etatrader/

12

Re: Totally different results with different brokers

Oh. That looks fantastic! Thanx for your help!