The program of a trading robot and its function is written on own software packages of MT4 or MT5. MT5 is the successor version of MT4 and has the disadvantage that the offers of EAs are not so big yet. Another disadvantage in the MT5 strategy test is that no external fees are possible anymore. Furthermore, there is no way to implement your own account history.

Shows you how many rating points this program has already received from other users. Not to forget, it should be noted that even people without expertise carry out an evaluation.

Displays the number of reviewers of the rating points. The higher the number of evaluators, the more meaningful the evaluation points are. It should be noted, that there are still many programs available that are new or have never been tested or found.

If the product is also available for sale, this column shows you from which price you can buy the product.

If the product is offered for rent for one month, this column indicates you from which price you can rent the product for one month.

If the product is offered for rent for three month, this column indicates you from which price you can rent the product for three month.

If the product is offered for rent for six month, this column indicates you from which price you can rent the product for six month.

If the product is offered for rent for twelve month, this column indicates you from which price you can rent the product for twelve month.

If the product is offered for rent or for sale, then this column shows you from which price the EA is offered for one year use.

If the product is offered for rent or for sale, then in this column, from which price the EA is offered for use.

Here ist given the useful life in months, if the smallest price for the use of the EAs arises by a rent. Should the smallest price be due to a purchase price, this field will remain empty even if the EA is available for $ 0.

Here is indicated the test year, if the EA was examined by us. Otherwise, this field remains empty.

Here is displayed the amount of the account deposit. Each Expert Advisor is optimized by the developer and should be adopted by the developer as the default setting.For some EAs, the account deposit is included in the optimization, so in the case of too small account deposit of the EA can not start.

Here is displayed the profit factor determined by the backtest of the developer. Profit factor = profit / loss.
Note: Some backtests were too short, or the program has no stop lot, or a very big stop lot, so there was no loss trading. In this case, the profit factor would be infinitely large so that the profit factor is not displayed in the backtest. Since there is no Holy Grail, it will certainly come to a loss, which could be larger. For this case, this formula was recreated new by me. Profit factor = profit / largest account decline.

Here is displayed the total profit of the whole test period which was determined by the backtest of the developer.

Here is indicated the largest account decline of the entire test period.

Exapmle:
1. Trade loss -10 Euro
2. Trade profit -15 Euro
3. Trade profit -5 Euro
4. Trade loss -5 Euro
5. Trade loss -5 Euro
6. Trade profit – 5Euro
7. Trade loss – 5Euro
8. Trade loss – 5Euro

The largest account decline in this example would be 15 euros loss.

Solution:
1. Trade total result   10 Euro
2. Trade total result    5 Euro
3. Trade total result   10 Euro
4. Trade total result    5 Euro
5. Trade total result    0 Euro
6. Trade total result    5 Euro
7. Trade total result    0 Euro
8. Trade total result    5 Euro

Here you can see the biggest negative difference of 15 Euro. From the 3rd trade with 10 euro credit until the 8th trade with 5 euro loss, results in an account decline of 15 euros. Note: This calculation is only half the truth, because the loss could be much greater until the time the trade is turned off. So it would be possible that in the 8.Trade, the loss of for example -15 euros moves, then recovered and stopped at -5 euros. In this case, the backtest would have an account decrease with the amount of 25 euros. Unfortunately for some backtest only this account balance will be shown with a green line in the diagram.

The safety factor is the safety factor of the entire test period. This factor is one of the most important factors in the whole table, as it is a safety factor it is much higher than the profit factor or the profit level.

Safety factor = Total profit / largest account decline

That means the higher the safety factor, the more secure the Expert Advisor.

Let’s assume the safety factor has a value of 10. That means that the profit is 10 times bigger than the largest account decline. This factor also allows you to see if all values have been shown in the graph. Should this factor shrink in the actual trade or shrink several times, then this would be a sign that the optimization of the program should be renewed by the developer. Incidentally, it is also possible to perform your own optimization. You always have the option to reset the program to the defaults of the developer.

The stability factor of the entire test period serves as a supporting value of the safety factor of the entire test period, and the higher the value the better.

Stability factor = Safety factor x number of trades x number of test years x 0.1

Let’s assume the first EA has reached a maximum account decline of 50 euro and a final gain of 100 euro over a one-year trial period only through a single trade. And assuming a second EA, has also a maximum account decline of 50 euro and a final profit of 100 euro over a one-year trial period, but only after the 100th trades. In that case both have reached a safety factor of 2.

In this extreme example, you can see that the number of trades have a significant role in the stability factor. If the first EA traded a loss on the second trade, that loss would most likely be so high that the gain no longer exists. In contrast, the step size of the second EA is much smaller, so it needs many trades to reduce the profit to zero.  Therefore, a probability calculation for the stability factor is included in the number of trades. Furthermore, the test period for stability also has a major role. So you could be lucky for a short test period. The longer the test period, the lower the luck factor has on the result. The 0.1 are only used to reduce the output number.

Note: The stability factor should initially only serve as information, since the table still contains the “stability factor after the first year”, and where you can still regulate the output value of the leftover EAs, for a final output.

The tenth column shows me a combination of profit factor and the safety factor. The higher this factor, the better it is. Calculation combi factor = profit factor x safety factor

Here is the time period in which the Expert Advisor is active. Each Expert Advisor has been reconciled or optimized by the developer on one or more financial instruments such as the currency pair EURUSD with the trading period example M15 (15 minutes). So it is also necessary that the Expert Advisor is placed exactly on this currency pair with the developer-optimized trading period to ensure proper program control.

The number of bars indicates how many bars the strategy tester has worked through. This number depends on the size of the trading period, as well as the length of the period plus 1000.
Since the strategy tester requires a lead time for indicators, an additional 1000 bars are added. Assuming the strategy tester runs 10 working days with a trading period of H1 (H stands for hour) then the strategy tester would have an output value of 10 days by 24 hours +1000 = 1240 bars in the test.

The number of days of testing indicates how many working days or test days have been checked. As in the previous example, the recalculation (1240 bars-1000) / 24 = 10 days

Number of test months
Note: The minimum test time in the backtest should be at least 10 months

Number of test years

Average profit per day = profit / day

Profit depending on the first deposit (account deposit). Profitability = Total profit / account deposit

The return after the first year is also a very meaningful value for the quality of the Expert Advisor, and is calculated from the profit after the first year of the first deposit. Yield per year = Prof./1.J / Account deposit. The higher this value, the better and more efficiently the Expert Advisor works. Thus, an Expert Advisor with a return after the first year = 2 would have earned twice the profit of an account deposit after the first year.

Is the profit after the first year. For testing times less than one year and over one year, a probability calculation of the profit after the first year is applied. This calculation is calculated and evaluated on EAs with fixed trading volumes, but also on dynamic trading volumes with a corresponding dynamic and fixed trading volume share.

What is a trading volume
Trading volume or trading size is given in lot. Ein Standardlot ist die Handelsgröße von 100.000 der Ersten Währung eines Währungspaares. A standard lot is the trading size of 100,000 the first currency of a currency pair. Thus, a standard lot in the currency pair EURUSD would have the trading size of 100,000 euros. Let’s stay with the example currency pair EURUSD. There are brokers which only offer mini solders as the smallest trading level. A mini lot would be 0.1 lot and would have a trading size of 10,000 euros. Most brokers offer micro lots. A micro lot would be 0.01 lot and would have a trading size of 1000 euros. Very rarely there are brokers who offer nano solder. A nano lot would be in this case 0,001 Lot and would have a trading size of 100 Euro

Expert Advisor with Dynamics Lot Systems or Fix Lot Systems and their trading sizes
There are two groups for the plumb billing of the Expert Advisor. The main group consists of the Fix Lot System and the Dynamik Lot System. Then there are the subgroups which work with martingale systems and grid systems as well as a pure fix-solder system. But let’s start with the main group first and the subgroups later.

Difference between the dynamics solder system and fix solder system
The difference between the dynamics solder system and fix solder system is that the dynamics solder system operates at a specified percentage as compound interest. This means that in the dynamics lot system, the current account balance for calculating the trade size participates with a specified percentage. For example, the Expert Advisor would set a trade size of 0.1 Lot from a balance of 1000 Euro, with a percentage also called Leverage of 10%. Calculation: Dynamics Lot Size = (account balance x percentage) / 100,000 (standard lot). If the account balance were 2000 euros at a percentage of 10%, then the Expert Advisor would set a trading size of 0.2 lots. In order to perform a calculation for the profit after the first year, the specified percentage is calculated on a fixed interest rate of the dynamic lot rate, the remaining part of 100% is calculated as a natural account increase by the Fixlotanteil and combined to a result.

For a fix lot system, the account balance is not included in the trade size calculation. Should the system run on the basis of a pure Fix Lot system, the trading size would always be the same. In this case, the formula would be [Prof./1.J] = profit / years

Is the biggest account decline after the first year. For test times less than one year and over one year, a probability calculation of the biggest account decline after the first year is used. This calculation is calculated and evaluated on EAs with fixed trading volumes, but also on dynamic trading volumes with a corresponding dynamic and fixed trading volume share.

Evaluation for Kont-R/1.J
In a fixed-lot system, I assume that the largest account decline can occur at any time because the lot size is always the same. Therefore Largest Account Drop = Largest Account Drop. In a dynamic pilot system, the cont.R / 1.J is computed and evaluated accordingly, as in the case of Prof./1.J, by a dynamic soldering component and a fixed soldering component. The difference in the calculation lies in the distribution, since the fixed lot share is not subject to any division and is always taken over 1 to 1.

The calculation Safety factor after the first year is only a checkpoint or clue, and should not be less than the setting of the safety factor of the entire test period.

Exapmle: The safety factor of the entire test period has been set to a minimum value of 10, then the adjustment of the safety factor after one year should not fall below this value.

Furthermore, the safety factors always form a fixed ratio between the profit and the largest account decline. Sich./1.J = [Prof./1.J] / [Kont-R / 1.J]

The trade actions per year show an average of how many times the Expert Advisor has executed an order in one year.

H.Akt / J = number of commercial actions total / trial period Ges.

The stability factor after the first year shows the stability as well as the final quality of an EAs. So the larger the value, the better and is used to sort out the remaining EAs. Stab./1.J = [Sich./1.J] x number of trades x number of test years x 0.1

You probably already wondered at the biggest contraction of the account after one year on the basis of the fixed-lot system, how the quality is calculated by a longer test period. With this formula you will now find your answer.

Here are displayed the spreads in pipettes with which spread size the program was optimized. Each broker requires fees on each trading order and in most cases these fees are paid in the form of spread.

Course changes and their units
To better understand the spread cost, we first need the price unit. In forex trading, the price change of a currency pair is indicated in the unit pip. For exchange rates that only have one decimal place, as in the example EUR / USD, the price change from 1.1790 to 1.1791 corresponds to one pip, which corresponds to an exchange rate change of 0.0001. For the yen pairs, one pip would be a change of 0.01.

Cost calculation of 1Pip: Pip costs in Euro = 1Pip / Current Price EURUSD x Sstandard lot
Pip costs in Euro = 0.0001 / 1.1790 x 100.000 = 8.48 €

Most brokers also offer a fifth decimal place. The fifth decimal place would be called a pipette.

How does a spread billing work?:
Depending on the broker and currency pair, the broker raises more or less fees. For example, a broker might ask for 1Pip or multiple pips on a trade order.

Example: We want to carry out a trading order on the EURUSD currency pair, and suppose the current EURUSD price is currently at 1.1790. Now we make a buy order (buy order = buy or long order) the size of a lot, then the price rises by 5 pip, so that the current exchange rate is 1.1795. Now we close the order and we would normally have made a profit of 5 pips.  But since the broker demands a fee of 1 pip, we ultimately only earned a profit of 4 pips.

Profit = 0,0004/1,1790 x 100.000 = 33,32 €

Another example of the current EURUSD price is 1.1790 and we would execute a sell order (sell order = sell or short order) the size of one lot, then the price rises by 5 pips so that the current exchange rate is 1.1795. Now we close the order as we believe the price would continue to rise. In this case, we would have lost 5 pip. Since the broker demands a fee of 1 pip, we ended up trading a loss of 6 pips.

Loss= 0,0006/1,1790 x 100.000 = 50,89 €

Why is the spread so important for a correct program flow?
Let’s say we have to pay two pips (2 pip = 20 pipettes) in spread, but the program has been optimized for just a pip of spread, and let’s say the program is executing a buy order and is taking a take profit of 5 pips above the current exchange rate. In order to achieve the take profit, the price now would have to rise by seven pips, so that the order is closed by the take profit. The 7 pips result from the 2 pips spread and 5 pips from the current price to the take profit. Now, the exchange rate only increases by 6 pips, which would have been enough for a spread of one pip to capitalize on the take profit and close the order with a profit but now the price goes down as far as one stop los is activated and the order closes with a minus.

This means that a larger spread could upset the entire logistics of a program. Therefore, the spread is very important! Especially with small trading periods, for example M1 of the smallest trading period which can lead to serious differences and so to a large loss.

noticeable rate:  The smaller the spread the better and more profitable the Expert Advisor!

Shows on which financial instrument the optimization was carried out and on which financial instrument has to be traded afterwards.

The number of trades shows how often the Expert Advisor has completed an order throughout the trial period. If the Expert Advisor were aligned for a pure Fix Lot system, you would have the possibility to roughly calculate the spread costs. A precise calculation is not possible because we are not aware of the current price for each individual order.

Total trades and impact of spread costs on the final result
Example: Spread costs of EURUSD are two pips at a rate of 1.1790. The fix lot would have a trading size of 0.1 lot. Number of trades are 8280 trades
Cost at Spread = (Pips / Current Price) x (Standard Lot / 10) x Number of Trades
Cost at Spread = 0.0002 / 1.1790 x 10.000 x 8280 = 14.045,8 €

So you can see that the spread costs contribute a very high share of the costs of the final result.
If we had only 1 pip of spread costs, the costs would be cut in half and the profit would be higher by that amount. This example with 8280 trades was taken from an Expert Advisor with a one-year trial period and a M15 trading period.

Here is speciefied the start lot size. If it is a fix lot system, the first trade always starts with this trade size. In a dynamics lot system, this lot size is considered safe only for the first trade.

The calculation for the lot size in a dynamics solder system 
Dynamic Lot Size = (Account Balance x Percent) / 100,000 (standard Lot)

For example, the Expert Advisor would set a trade size of 0.1 Lot out of a balance of 1000 Euro or a percentage called leverage or risk of 10%.

If the account balance were 2000 euros at a percentage of 10% then the Expert Advisor would set a trading size of 0.2 lot as Start Lot.

Some Expert Advisor with a dynamics lot system have a start lot explicitly for launch which is independent involved in the account balance in the program.

This is usually the case for programs that start with a small account to first generate a certain account size and then switch to the dynamics system. Most programs start with a small account balance with the smallest lot size of 0.01 Lot until the account balance has grown enough to switch to a lot size 0.02 Lot.

This column indicates whether it is a Fix Lot System or a Dynamics Lot System.

Note: Whether a martingale system or a grid system is integrated can not be ruled out.

This column indicates the percentage in which the dynamics lot system calculates the lot size depending on the account balance.

The calculation for the lot size in a dynamics solder system

Dynamic Lot Size = (Account balance x percentage) / 100,000 (standard lot)

Here are specified only the lot sizes of Expert Advisors which explicitly refer to the description of no grid system and no martingale system. This does not mean that only those Expert Advisor exist who are working on a pure Fix Lot System or a pure Dynamics Lot System. This was not addressed by the developer for many pure fix solder systems and pure dynamics solder systems. A pure dynamics solder system does not include a martingale system or a grid system. A pure fix solder system does not include a martingale system, a grid system or a dynamics solder system.So that an approximate recalculation to spread costs would be possible.

The main groups Fix Lot and Dynamik Lot already have been mentioned in the upper section. What is missing is the subgroup like Martingale System and the grid system.

What is a martingale system:
Although a Martingale system has a higher level of logistics than a grid system both systems are dangerous systems, as the trading sizes are determined by multipliers in order to force a profit.

A simple example: The program executes a buy order with a lot size of 0.1 lot instead of rising the price and making a profit, the price drops. Due to the internal logistics of the program (this could be caused for example by an indicator built into the program) the program executes another buy order after a loss of 9 pips but this time with the double bet (multiplier = 2) so that the lot size is 0,2 lot.

Apart from the spread, the Break Even Point which is the point that leads back into profit, would have been reached with a rise of 3 pips.

Short Break Even Point calculation:
In this calculation, the spread costs are not calculated!

The calculation assumes an assumption of 1 euro in the trade size of a minilot (1 minilot = 0.1 lot) per pip.

1.Buy order with 0.1 lot price drops 9 pips thereafter the price recovers by 3 pips so the end point is in minus with 6 pips (loss 6 euros)

The second buy order was executed after the first order of 9 pips in minus, with 0.2 lot, then the price rises by 3 pips so there appears a profit of 6 euros for this order.

To sum up, the 1st order would have a current minus of 6 euros and the 2nd order a current profit of 6 euros therefore the sum = 0 = Break Even Point

Back to our Martingale System
We are now playing this game forward. The price drops further and the program creates another Buy Order this time with 0.4 lot, the next one would be 0.8 lot … etc. This process goes so far until the price rises again and enters the profit zone.

What happens if the price is no longer in profit
The programs are still equipped with other security factors so the program could intervene with a Counter-order (called hedge) or through an order that uses the money management. This means that the decline is included in the account balance. Thus, a logistics could be included in the program that says, that after a maximum account decline, for example, of 10%, all orders of the account balance are closed.

Or, the third option would be, the margin has been used up so the broker closes the orders.

What is a Margin
This financial trading based on CFDs means contract for difference. You buy (also called long) or sell (also called short) at a current price and close the order at another price, this creates a difference. The advantage with CFDs one can move a large capital without having the necessary money for it. Depending on the broker and trading instrument you get a lever that is 100 times to 400 times higher than the capital that you have to deposit for it. For example, if we take the EURUSD, 1 lot would be 100,000 euros. With a leverage of 100, a margin of 1% of collateral would have to be deposited for the Broker. In this case, this would be 1000 euros and we would move a trade size of 100,000 euros with it. Since we still have spread costs on an order, the margin would not be sufficient, so that is is not feasible with a deposit of 1000 euro trading with 1 lot. But let’s assume we would close a deal with a deposit of EUR 1000 on the EURUSD currency pair and put 0.2 on long which would mean we are raising a total of EUR 20,000. Now the price is falling and we are already down by 100 Euro, we double the bet with a new order and go with 0.4 Lot on Long. Now we are already moving a sum of 60,000 euros. The necessary margin would be 600 euros in this case.
After we are already in the minus with 100 euros, we are only more 300 euros to the margin call of 1000 euros away. The course keeps falling, so that these 300 euros are lost.  Now we only have 600 euros from 1000 euros left. This is exactly the amount which is deposited as a margin. The price continues to fall and now you receive a Margin Call message that the margin is insufficient. Now we want to open a short position as a counterorder called hedge in the size of 0.2 lot. Since the margin has already fallen below, you will receive the message that you can no longer execute a new order because the margin has already fallen below. Now you have the option to close one Order after another or you have to wait even longer. Depending on the broker, this can lead to total loss. Some brokers stop all orders when the required margin is only 10%. You would only have an account balance of 60 euros by then.

What is a grid system:
The grid system also uses multipliers for trade size calculation. The difference to the Martingale system, the Grid system works with a rigid structure of pending order. For this purpose, pending orders with an ever higher lot are used at regular intervals.

Note: For most Expert Advisor’s, the drawdowns are always very large which include a martingale system or a grid system. You can see that in some diagrams looking at a green line. For some, these lines are extremely down. Since this green line is not always shown, our safety factor calculation helps us to present a comparison between profit and maximum drawdown.

What is a Pending Order:
A pending order is placed at a distance in a kind of waiting position from the current course status. Should the course status reach the pending order, this pending order will be activated.

There are several types of pending orders
The Pending Order Buy Limit: This order will be placed below the current course. Should the course fall and reach the pending order, a long order (buy order) will be executed.

The Pending Order Sell Limit: This order will be placed above the current course. Should the course rise and reach the pending order, a short order (sell order) will be executed.

The Pending Order Buy Stop: This order will be placed above the current course. Should the course rise and reach the pending order, a long order (buy order) will be executed.

The Pending Order Sell Stop: This order will be placed below the current course. Should the course fall and reach the pending order, a short order (sell order) will be executed.

The lowest price of an EAs for a year of use is a crucial point in sorting out the last EAs and for that reason it is mentioned again.

The lowest price of an EA is a crucial point to sort out the last EAs and therefore stated here again.

The useful life in months of an EA, if the smallest price for use by a rent arises is a crucial point to the sorting out of the last EAs and is indicated therefore again.

The optimal account deposit of the respective EA will be calculated on the basis of the smallest possible starting slot in connection with the starting lot of the test result and the largest account decline after the first year. So the optimal account deposit should be 10 times larger than the optimized largest account decline. If you fall below the 10 times the size of the account deposit, the optimal account deposit increases each by $500.

Here is determined the optimal lot size of the trading volume as a function of the optimal account deposit and the largest account decline after the first year. The lot size is regulated in such a way, that in each optimal account deposit of each EA, approximately the same maximum account reductions arise.

Here is calculated the optimized annual profit from the previously calculated optimal trading volume and the profit after the first year.

Here is calculated the optimized largest annual account decline in terms of the optimal account deposit, depending on the previously optimal calculated trading volume, as well as the largest account decline after the first year.

Note: All these values per year are assumptions made by calculations to form a common denominator of all EAs. Exceptions are only EAs which were tested exactly to an annual length. Of course, this also includes the self-tests that are not only tested to exactly one year’s length but also form a common denominator over time.

If there is something wrong with the entry of the values in a line then you have the option of sending a message to us by the meaning of this name. Furthermore, this column is used to filter individual lines.

If the check is made by us, a link to our image is implemented of the test result here.

In this column are embedded the EA product link button which redirects our customers to the desired product.