Tickstory - Download Dukascopy Data & Export to MT4

Seems a little quiet in the Back-testing forum, so thought I might share the information here in case people missed it:

 

 

Hi all,

 

Below is the link for downloading and exporting Dukascopy data into MT4 (and also CSV) that should hopefully make life easier.

 

http://www.tickstory.com

 

The application is designed to download and export tick data to various formats in a few easy clicks.

 

The MT4 export is fully configurable - it supports the use of MT4 "config" files which detail instrument spreads, lot sizes et al. These config files externalise all the MT4 settings that get written to the FXT/HST exports. This means that back-test results can now (hopefully) be consistent between various people & broker setups by simply using the same configs. This is different to other methods which take the current spread from the broker which means that a different MT4 file is generated on each run and therefore different back-test results are produced (especially for spread-sensitve EAs).

There is a generic 5-digit broker config to get people going quickly, however there is also instructions on the 'Help' tab of the MT4 export to describe how you can generate your own configs based on your broker.

 

As far as MT4 HST & FXT generation goes, all you need to do is select the instruments you wish to download, name the period and the application will do the rest from downloading Dukascopy data to generating the MT4 file! You can also produce custom formatted CSVs.

 

Hope this saves everyone some time!

 

Any feedback appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Edited November 16, 2012 by tickstory

Hey..awesome..thanks mate. Much easier than i use now in having to use php and dos commands...Well done. guys also look at Birts Tick Data suite as its worthwhile in that you need to modify MT4 to accept files bigger than 2gig. this does this and it does heaps more like being able to open multiple mt4 platforms useing the same data and it stops over-writting of the data files..Overall this is good..

Hi 50pips - appreciate your feedback. The idea is to really make data more accessible than it currently is. I know the pain of spending hours generating data for back-tests. Hopefully it will only take a few minutes now! There's a few new features coming up so stay tuned. Feel free to give any suggestions to make it better!

 

Thanks.

Edited November 16, 2012 by tickstory

Hey..awesome..thanks mate. Much easier than i use now in having to use php and dos commands...Well done. guys also look at Birts Tick Data suite as its worthwhile in that you need to modify MT4 to accept files bigger than 2gig. this does this and it does heaps more like being able to open multiple mt4 platforms useing the same data and it stops over-writting of the data files..Overall this is good..

 

Tick data, Tick Tock honkety klonk aint' yez got the yer sheet sorted out yet and yez still back-testin' and the like? :P

Tick data, Tick Tock honkety klonk aint' yez got the yer sheet sorted out yet and yez still back-testin' and the like? :P

 

LOL..obviously your english is like your trading..why u here callahan..i dont see 1 good post by you..just lots of "****". Ohhh and yez my sheet is sorted very well...but doesnt hurt to back-testin and the like....

LOL..obviously your english is like your trading..why u here callahan..i dont see 1 good post by you..just lots of "****". Ohhh and yez my sheet is sorted very well...but doesnt hurt to back-testin and the like....

 

No offence intended just shakin' the grass to see what comes out.

Edited November 16, 2012 by callahan

The latest update is out and it's is a game changer for the MT4 back-testing community! The best of the changes is that it enables users to launch MT4, automatically enabling support for databases exported by Tickstory. This means that Tickstory has all your MT4 end-to-end needs covered, from downloading tick data, to generating the MT4 export to firing up MT4, ready for the 99.9% back-test - all in a few simple clicks!

 

Also in this version is the Help Manual which is also accessible at:

 

http://www.tickstory.com/help/tickstorylite/

 

Here is a summary of all the new changes & fixes:

 

New Feature

•[TICKLITE-23] - MT4: Plug-in/tool to allow launching of patched MT4 terminal

•[TICKLITE-25] - Online help via F1 describing features of Tickstory Lite

 

Improvement

•[TICKLITE-27] - Support for EU/global number support including comma for decimal

•[TICKLITE-29] - Rename MT4 configs to .mt4config instead of .config to prevent confusion/clashes

•[TICKLITE-24] - File export now ensures you can't select a bar/tick format unless your time frame matches.

 

Fixes

•[TICKLITE-26] - TickstoryInfoExpert was incorrectly generating Lot Size, Min Lot and Max lot 100 times the broker's value.

- All broker-specific configs should be re-generated to address the issue.

- Generic broker configs have been updated.

 

Feedback appreciated!

No problems callahan..backtesting is the foundation to anything. If done right you can test many things and 99% of them are not good in this mode. Many should implement proper back testing and maybee more can profit from forex trading.

 

Now my issue with tickstory seems to be somewhat warranted.

 

I have used birt's method of using php scripts and his very good tick data suit for my backtesting and to date all my ea's have performed 100% the same in live forward mode.

I downloaded tickstory lite and now i have a problem.

 

The results i get with tickstory and with birt's are totally different.

 

Tickstory has about 1/2 profits than birt's php way of doing things.

 

I looked at the tick data being downloaded and if tickstory does in fact download from Duka as they state then why do i have totally different file sizes. Just to make sure i have things right i did the tickstory process on a different computer on my server. And same result.

 

So my dilemma is who do u trust..Birt or this new tickstory lite.

 

I posted on Tickstory forum but guess what..he either deleted my post of didn't post it so it kind of makes me think tickstory isn't accurate.

 

Birt has been around for ages and he is VERY sound in anything he does..Tickstory lite has been around for...well a few months..and i kind of get the feeling he is heading towards sales since its called "FREE"..for now (why would there be a lite version if iam wrong)

 

So based on my experience..Use birt's stuff as its easy and proven.and all my EA's perform 100% same live..Tickstory has so far proven to not like negative posts and it doesnt give same results form same data..

 

Just my 50pips worth

the paid stuff was always better then free stuff 8-)

Hi 50pips,

 

Your message has just been approved on the Tickstory forum - unfortunately this is the process for all new users as there are numerous spam posts coming through (Birt goes through the same vetting process, incidentally, presumably for similar reasons).

 

Regarding the software, I dont see the reason for the skepticism - it has been provided at no charge to the community and of course the intention is to have it fit-for-purpose. Free or paid, all software goes through a process of evolvement, just as Birt's scripts have (had a look through the TDS change log?). Tickstory was only released around 5 weeks ago, so I dont doubt there's a bit of work to do to add in additional features - and this has been happening with a release occurring on average every 1 week so far. And yes, there is a possibility of additional versions of Tickstory becoming available such as for real-time data, however nothing has been decided on this front and ultimately will depend on user interest. All focus at the moment is to continue to enhance the Lite version.

 

If you are keen to resolve your issue, I appreciate if you could post more details on the forum. I can assure you full transparency as there really isn't any point in "hiding" bugs in the software. So far, I cannot possibly identify the issue you are having as the report only contains the suggestion that the software is faulty.

 

Things that would be useful to know:

 

- What "size" are you comparing? Folder size of a particular month? Specific date/time/hour file size? What is the size/contents of the folder? Did you know that Dukascopy changed their file format at the start of the year to a much smaller format? Are you sure you're not comparing files of the old format with the new smaller format? Also note that Tickstory does not download the Dukascopy candle data but instead generates its own candles "on-the-fly".

 

- What EA are you getting different results for? What options did you use produce the FXT file in the CSV2FXT scripts vs Tickstory? Are you using variable spreads (which Tickstory does not yet support)?

 

Here is your post's link:

http://www.tickstory.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37&sid=2b70107f9bdc188ecc74af7f745d55ea

 

Thanks.

Edited December 12, 2012 by tickstory