Hello Popov,

MT4's Strategy Tester can be so unreliable and no one knows how it works behind the scenes.  I've seen data gaps of greater than 2 weeks and Strategy Tester chugs along with no warning.  I'm not sure it should be considered the "gold standard" that other back-testing software should strive to mimic.

With regards to the earlier date on the chart -- perhaps Strategy Tester "front-loads" some extra bars to accommodate certain types of indicators, but only begins Entering / Exiting trades based on the 'From' date that you entered.   In the event you see an earlier date on the chart, under the 'Results' tab do you also see trades prior to your 'From' date?  I never have -- though I don't always look that carefully.

I'm not sure what the right thing is to do.  Moving Average-based indicators need some preliminary data in order to begin drawing their shape.  You probably do not want to allow trades before all the indicators are "warmed-up".

I don't think that it is necessary to add an option.  Rather, I would **always** preload 100? 500? bars and allow the calculations to begin further back in history, but ignore all trade signals until the 'From' date is reached.

When you manually / discretionary trade you always have a chart full of bars and pre-drawn indicator markings to view before you make a decision to trade.  Without that preliminary data a discretionary trader would need to wait until there were enough bars for their indicators to have begun working and displaying their patterns.