Backtest Data Timeframe > 1min, 5min necessary?

I'm trying to import data for backtesting the last 10 years or so. It seems that notepad/excel have trouble opening files with too much data.

So, my questions are:

Is there another way to import 10 years of 1min/5min data?
Is 1/5 min really worth it, the other options are 10/15/30 min and 1 hour and up.

To be honest, it really depends.

Ticks are interpolated based on a combination of all chart values. If you don't have 1M and 5M data, there is no way for the client to know what more exactly happened inside that 15/30/60 minute candle. So, without these two items, it would be very difficult to get accurate ticks, and your backtest results would be much less reliable.

Why does it depend then? Well, the system you may be wanting to test could be less tick dependant, like if you were looking at previous bar close values to determine what to do on this candle for example. If that were the case, ticks wouldn't matter much at all, and you could honestly do it with Control Points (though I don't really advise it if you're trying to build an airtight EA...every tick needs to be tested to see if the EA handles it properly).

My question for you is why are you trying to open it in notepad/excel? If you have 10 years of tick data, I'll convert it to a proper .hst file for you so all you need to do is import it if I can have the data for my own tests. Let me know.

-Kev
Savage Pip Fiend

Hi,

I use data from Alpari UK for history data, The first date is july 2004.
So here is my question.
Where can I find more data? more than 4yr old.