Forex Tester Forum (Professional Training Software for Traders)

[superdoug3]

gold and copper files are supplied in FT Historical Data, buy no Symbol is defined to FT Import History procedure FT 2.6. How to I define a XAUUSD and XAGUSD symbol to FT. Do you have one already available

[FT Support]

Symbol settings should be adjusted based on your broker specifications.
Anyway please see an example attached.

[superdoug3]

would you post an example for setting up ES#, I know that I need to contact IB for specifics. I assume I would set type to Stock.

[FT Support]

Hello Doug,

Sorry do not have an example of ES#, can you pelase post IB specifics?

[superdoug3]

tried to use FT screen shot tool, but had to resort to 'print screen'
I tried to convert BMP to JPEG
ended up converting BMP to ZIP

[superdoug3]

I defined symbol YM# as a stock with 0 decimals in currency
created a CSV file with each currency column defined as Number with 0 decimal places and when I try to import the import screen shows 4 decimal places.
I have successfully used this method to import ES# which has 2 decimal places

[FT Support]

Doug, can you please post an example of YM# data? we'll try to import it on our side.

[superdoug3]

here is YM# (e-mini Dow continuous) data in CSV format, obtained from Sierra Charts where is works fine.

[FT Support]

Doug,

It seems that to fix this issue you simply need to define columns in import dialog (see attached screenshot)

[superdoug3]

for Futues Contract Symbol Definition - YMSUSD (alias YM)
1 contract is $5 * Dow Jones index so about $50,000 per contract
so do I set Lot Size = 5 ?

Hence when I issue a Long Order for 6 lots (i.e 6 contracts) then I would be spending 6 * price * Lot Size i.e. 6 * $10,000 * 5 = 300,000

Margin for 1 Lot - broker requires me to keep about $5,000 per contract In the above example I would need $30,000 in Account Balance. Hence in Margin for 1 lot would I enter $5,000 ?

[FT Support]

Lot size should be set in the number of contracts. So for example if you want to have lot size equal to around $50000 and the contract size is $1000 then you need to set lot size = $50000/$1000=50 contracts

Margin should be calculated based on leverage of your broker and lot size. for example if your broker allows leverage 1:100 and the lot size is 50 then the margin will be 50/100 = 0.5 contracts

[superdoug3]

I hate to disagree since I such a greenhorn. But I think in Forex, you trade in Lots and in Futures you trade in Contracts. There are no Lots in Futures, so I will treat Contracts like Lots and all will be well. As you showed me yesterday Price * Lot Size should equal the value of the Contract (Value of the Lot) In the case of YMSUSD (alias YM) Lot Size would be the same as YM Point Value of $5

For Margin - Futures does not have a set Leverage. Broker requires a fixed amount per contract. Hence if a contract is worth $50,000 and I need to keep $5,000 for each contract, then I guess I set Margin to 0.10 contracts.

If I am totally confused about how Forex and Futures differ, just say so and I will educate myself more.

[FT Support]

Doug, actually my knowledge about furures is limited so i'm not sure that i can help you a lot here, sorry for this. Probably you just need to try different settings and see if these settings are close enough to the real market.

[superdoug3]

With you help I have something that works
1. Minimum Point value - for most dollar currencies this is 0.0001
for ES the minimum tick value is 0.25 and a point takes 4 ticks, so on the chart I would want to see xxxx.25 then xxxx.50 then xxxx.75 etc.
I am not sure what minimum point value does, but for ES I guess this should be 0.25 so that the chart works correctly ???

[FT Support]

Hello Doug,

Yes, i think that minimum point should be 0.25 in this case.