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Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:36 pm
by Trillion
I don't trade 1m bars but I may be onto a strategy that is effective on such a tiny time frame.

The actual progression is one of 3 ticks up, 8 ticks down, 2 up, 3 more up, 2 down ... until the bar is complete.

thanks for bearing with me on this, I just need to be sure that I can use OANDA's tick data with Forex Tester.

I agree with Mike

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:27 am
by capsmart
Hi
Tick data is random to me. It can go up or down without any reason. So basing a strategy on history ticks or on random ticks to me is the same.
Good luck with your system because you will need it.
Regards

P.S.
Mike any news concerning the PSAR and the 30 min interval?

Re: I agree with Mike

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:38 am
by Trillion
capsmart wrote:Hi
Tick data is random to me. It can go up or down without any reason.


Hmmm ... You must be new to trading so I'll explain to you what is happening when you see a tick. I'll start with the exact definition of a tick which is, the minimum fluctuation in a price, either up or down. When you see the price tick that tells you that the price is moving and when price moves that means there is activity in the market place. It's that activity that I watch. Now, down to the level of market ticks, when grouped together over a period it can reveal price levels that offer intraday support and resistance and it's these levels that many traders accept as intraday pivots - no matter what the time frame used for trading - and from these levels strategies can be found. So you see that not only is there 'reason' but also that ticks can offer insight into price action not immediately obvious on larger time frames.

Perhaps you don't trade intraday or perhaps support and resistance levels mean nothing to you? Perhaps you don't trade at all? Whatever that case, just because you see tick data as random doesn't mean that others can't see the value in them.

I hope this insight has been some use to you, if not least that you understand that ticks are not random.

Best wishes ...

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:35 am
by capsmart
You have your point and I can understand it.
I am mostly a stock trader on daily chart and a forex intraday trader using 30 min charts.
On the other hand if the lowest 30 min bar of the day is 30 pips long I will consider the lowest point as an eventual support and you might consider the middle of the bar as support since there is where you noticed the move.
But do you remember exactly where was the move and the speed of it?
And you are watching the screen all day on a tick by tick chart?
And can you react to a pip level for entries and exits?
I am too old for that.
But of course everyone has his own system.
The only inconvience would be the size of the file to download otherwise if you can trade on a tick chart that is fine for me and I am sure profitable for you.
Regards

Data converters

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:25 pm
by Terranin
Here it is 2 data converters from OANDA tick data:

DataConvToCsv.exe - this will convert tick data to *.csv file that Forex Tester is able to import.

to convert type in command line:
DataConvToCsv.exe <Oanda tick file.txt>

you will have resulting *.csv file that could be imported to Forex Tester as usual.


DataConv.exe - this will convert tick data to Forex Tester tick file, so you will get exactly the same ticks during testing.

to convert type in command line:
DataConv.exe <Oanda tick file.txt>

resulting file will have the same name + "_xx.dat"

To test this data:
1. Generate ticks for this pair(s), even 1 day of data, it is
necessary for FT to fill currency table.
2. Replace file(s) at <FT>\data\Ticks\ with converted files (rename
EURUSD_xx.dat to EURUSD.dat for example).
3. Press connect and enjoy. :)

Trying to make the convertors work

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:12 pm
by Yukoner
Hi Mike,

Thanks for the convertors. I just can't seem to get either one to work. I believe the fault lies on my side. For some reason i can't even get it to load....

If its not too much trouble, could you give a step by step instruction on how to get the convertors up and running? Pretending i know nothing... which is pretty close to the truth when it comes to programming.

Thanks,
Yukoner :?

Re: Trying to make the convertors work

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:46 pm
by Terranin
Yukoner wrote:Hi Mike,

Thanks for the convertors. I just can't seem to get either one to work. I believe the fault lies on my side. For some reason i can't even get it to load....

If its not too much trouble, could you give a step by step instruction on how to get the convertors up and running? Pretending i know nothing... which is pretty close to the truth when it comes to programming.

Thanks,
Yukoner :?


Do you have some file manager like windows commander where you can type commands? To use for example DataConvToCsv.exe converter you should download oanda tick file to the same directory and then in file manager type "DataConvToCsv.exe <Oanda tick file.txt>" where <Oanda tick file.txt> equals to the file name of the oanda tick file that you downloaded.

DataConvToCsv.exe somefile.txt (for example)

and it will create "somefile.csv" file at the same directory.

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 1:17 pm
by Matter13
Hi Mike,

Thx for converters. I have the following problems/questions:

Does converters convert .txt (not comma seperated) or .csv(comma seperated) files from Oanda?

I have Oanda tick data which is not seperated by comma but 'space'.
When i convert via Datacontocsv it goes thru ok but i get the file with no data in it.

If i want to convert directly to tick via Dataconv, does data have to be prior converted with Dataconvtocsv?

Thx, Mato

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 5:06 pm
by Matter13
Just figured it out...
Had to convert Oanda tick data i had (seperated by 'space), to coma seperated so that it looks exactly like the one posted in previous post.

It works nicely now!

Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:30 am
by Kaizen
After much searching and trying a few solutions to convert Oanda tick data I found free converter at http://www.tickdataconverter.com

The one provided by FT did not quite do what I needed.

Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:32 pm
by Dahlia
I have the tick data from Oanda as well, however, Forextester won't take it because it needs to be in 1m increments. I see the tickdataconverter website, however, it outputs to SQL databases. I don't have SQL, nor do I know how to use it. Does this mean that I can't use ForexTester at all? Does anyone know of any other mean of converting tick data?

Thanks!

Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:09 pm
by Terranin
Dahlia wrote:I have the tick data from Oanda as well, however, Forextester won't take it because it needs to be in 1m increments. I see the tickdataconverter website, however, it outputs to SQL databases. I don't have SQL, nor do I know how to use it. Does this mean that I can't use ForexTester at all? Does anyone know of any other mean of converting tick data?

Thanks!


We provide our own data that you can download from here:
http://www.forextester.com/datasources.html . We update this database every month.

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:36 am
by eurotrash
Trillion wrote:Given that Forex Tester limits price data to 1 minute granularity, how can the software accurately generate exact tick prices as seen by the market?

Well, after reading the help file and specifically the sub section relating to tick data, 'Generate tick data', I see that Forex Tester does not accurately draw tick data at all! Instead, the methods described only mimic the OHLC price, generating ticks either point by point, as OHLC price values or randomly! This is a real pity ...

Do you not think it would be better to cater for proper tick data in the first instance?

Terranin wrote:
Trillion wrote:Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the 3 methods don't have a use just that given pure tick data, Forex Tester ought to be able to backtest strategies from each tick in the file and also be able to build complete bars of any time frame from the data. Do you think this is a good idea?


For the most testing purposes it is more than enough. Most traders use 1 hour timeframe at least, only pipsers try to work with every tick to get 1-5 pips in every transaction but my experience tells me that brokers fight with those people, force them to use not market but pending orders. Make delays in order execution on the fast price movement or use requotes. So I really do not see any value to use exact ticks data, 1 minute is enough.

But if you want to test as precisely, you can replace ticks arrays generated by program at "\data\Ticks" folder with your own. Then it will be exactly the same ticks. Still data converter is required.

Hi, this is a bit old so I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I'm not sure I grasp this correctly. Are you saying that when playing the history data back in testing mode, the pip by pip movement I'm seeing is not accurate? That is, when I watch the formation of a one minute bar, what I'm seeing is not really how it formed but rather an approximation created from the OHLC of the bar? If so then that's seriously not good. And whether brokers have a problem with any particular trading style is really irrelevant, bearing in mind that not everyone trades with bucketshops. Also I specifically wanted to view pip movement to watch exactly how price reacted at certain times or certain prices, etc. If it's not accurate then it's useless.

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 10:36 am
by FT Support
Hello,

We'll open tick data service in nearest future, so you'll be able to retrieve real tick data from different brokers. If you load such data in Forex Tester you'll see real price movement (just like it was in MT terminal a few months ago)