Using MT5 for backtesting

I downloaded MT5 over the weekend to test a public ea and also to see how it works and possibly begin porting some of my MT4 eas to MT5.

However, I can not get the MT5 tester to complete a simple backtest. It goes through all the motions but takes zero trades. There are no error messages, just the standard pre backtest messages in the journal stating how much history and which parameters were used. I've tried all kinds of permutations. Same result. What could I be doing wrong?

I also tried backtesting the sample MovingAverage and MACD eas included with MT5 with different settings. Nothing. Blank. Just the same starting equity, no trades.

It should be simple and straightforward, unfortunately it hasn't been. Is there a setting or something that needs to be set before a backtest can be run in MT5?

nevermind. i got some action using another preloaded ea. therefore, the public ea i was initially testing has a problem with it.

Now that I've looked through some MT5 code I can say that MT5 is much more complicated than MT4.

As far as the tester results, some of the features are nice but you can get more by simply downloading some free MT4 stat software if you want deeper stats on the backtest reports.

I did some very minor edits to the prepackaged EAs in MT5 in regards to position sizing, but other than that, it will take a lot of time before I would be able to port over my EAs or build one from scratch. My coding background is very basic, just 1st year of college many many years ago (think: cobol), and the rest learn as I go, so MT5 is a bit too much for me.

I can see that for someone that is a hardware geek and for someone with more than basic knowledge of coding can have fun and utilize MT5 to its fullest.

A nice feature is that there are more unique indicators available in MQ5 and the depth of market is live, but for me, it's not worth the time and effort at this time to port from MT4 to MT5.

Funny thing is that I tweaked the MM on one of the built in sample EAs and liked the backtest results so I'm going to load MT5 on a VPS with a small live account and let it trade.

Here is the backtest results screenshot from one of the sample EAs included with MT5. I made some changes to the internal position sizing to my liking. The test results were so unbelievably good that I let it start trading on a live account. It's taken it's first trade this morning. Sorry, but can't say what the settings or the tweak were, or which sample EA it was (there's only a few, so test them yourself if you're looking for something for nothing).

On a side note, a nice thing about the MT5 tester is that it includes swaps in the test results as well as a better representation of fills since it takes into account the live spread at the time. MT5 automatically downloads needed data before a backtest before it tests.

As I said earlier, the coding of MT5 is much more complicated than the simple MQL in MT4. It's more module based like a real program. For real coders, MT5 might be more to their liking, but for most coding amateurs like me, whose focus is trading, MT5 is not easy. Thus, the small rate of acceptance so far and the lack of traders jumping from MT4 to MT5. For me, it may be worthwhile to start slowly building one simple EA in MT5 just to get a handle on it.

Backtest results from sample EA above:

32 closed trades
31 backtest only + 1 live (closed trade, entry/exit also matches with tested history afterwards)
==============
Total backtested:
32 winners, 0 losers
Total live:
1 winner, 0 loser

These kinds of results usually end up taking a dump eventually. Will be interesting to see when/where it ends up.

Where did it end up ?
Im Ok to have answer from PM

Hello.

I realise this is an old thread, but I am not allowed to post a new subject yet.

My question is:

Is it possible to backtest MT4 EA coded in mql4 language in MT5 strategy tester?

Thanks

It's not possible, and that's really the main gripe of users; they're not able to use their existing tools coded in MQL4, in MT5.