Here are two sets of back-test results from the danw2 - 34 ema wave + cross + pending robot. The idea of this robot is to wait for a candle to cross several EMA's, in this case 3 x 34 period EMA's, set to HIGH, CLOSE, and LOW, and then set a pending stop order above or below those prices.
In back-tests on my usual machine, I get these results:
Back-tests on 60 minute EURUSD chart, 1-1-2011 to 1-1-2012
61% win rate, $2334 profit over a year. Apart from the equity curve flattening out around the $12k mark halfway, a pretty good result.
From these results, I expected the demo tests to return some positive results, even if, like most robots, it will fail over all. But on a demo account, it's barely won anything - all I see is loss after loss, after loss.
I was curious, so downloaded the history data for EURUSD on another computer running another copy of MetaTrader 4, and re-ran the back-tests. This is the result I got:
Back-tests on 60 minute EURUSD chart, 1-1-2011 to 1-1-2012
Vastly different. A mere 30% win rate, and $1506 loss.
Why so different? The settings are the same. I have downloaded history data in the same fashion in both instances of MetaTrader 4. I have deleted the history data from the folders and re-downloaded several times, yet I keep having the same problem.
The clue may be in the "mis-matched chart errors". The first result shows a lot. The second, not as many.
Searching the web for this problem, I'm told to go to the History Center in MetaTrader 4, select EURUSD, highlight the 1 minute bars in the history data, and then click download.
I don't know why this is different that simply selecting EURUSD and clicking download as I usually do, but it did seem to fix the problem. I'll just have to keep an eye on the mis-matched chart errors from now on.
