Equity Recorder - record the performance in real time | Forex Factory

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Equity Recorder - record the performance in real time

  • #1
  • First Post: Nov 18, 2009 1:31pm Nov 18, 2009 1:31pm
I often see people post "equity" curves from the backtester, showing only smooth lines and ignoring any drawdown between opening and closing a trade. Since Metatrader only plots a new datapoint in the equity plot when a trade is closed, you simply can not get realistic plots. Also the time is completely missing, the x axis shows the number of trades and does not draw a clear picture of the time you would have waited. In general the equity plots produced by the backtester always tend to look much nicer than they really are.

This is about to change now!

Attached is a library that will allow you to produce realistic plots of the total equity (the only important number) versus time. The plots are saved as offline charts, you can view and analyze them just like ordiary charts.

The function can also be used to create plots of manual or automated trading in real time filtered by magic number and/or comment string. Use it to monitor the individual performances of your concurrently running EAs in separate charts.

Put the library into the include folder, include it in your EA and on every tick you call the function recordEquity() with name, period and magic number. Thats all!

If you want to make a plot of closed source EAs or of your manual trading then simply create a dummy EA with recordEquity() calls for every magic number or comment string you want to record in the start() function and attach it to any chart.

If you are not a programmer then you need to find one to build this into your EA, this is a library for programmers, not an end user product!

Detailed instructions are inside the file.

Attached is an example plot from a simple grid trading EA.
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: equity.gif Size: 7 KB
Attached File(s)
File Type: mqh offline_charts.mqh   13 KB | 1,330 downloads
  • #2
  • Nov 19, 2009 7:21am Nov 19, 2009 7:21am
Attached is an example for an indicator that will record 4 equity curves of the whole account, of only manual trading, of a manual strategy identified by a comment string and of an expert advisor itentified by its magic number. It is used the same way as you would use it in your EA:

Inserted Code
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//|                                              equity_recorder.mq4 |
//|                                                     Bernd Kreuss |
//|                                                    [email="[email protected]"][email protected][/email] |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
#property copyright "Bernd Kreuss"
#property link      "mailto:[email="[email protected]"][email protected][/email]"

#property indicator_chart_window

#include <offline_charts.mqh>

/**
* the following will record 4 equity charts.
* attached to *any* chart (no matter which) this indi will on every tick
* calculated the profits, filter them by magic and comment and write
* them each into their own chart.
*/
int start(){
   // all trading, whole account
   // produce a dayly chart the with name "all" for it
   recordEquity("all", PERIOD_D1, -1);   
   
   // all manual trading (magic = 0)
   // produce a dayly chart with the name "all_manual" for it
   recordEquity("all_manual", PERIOD_D1, 0);
   
   // only manual trading with a comment of "foo" in the orders
   // produce a dayly chart with the name "foo_strategy" for it
   recordEquity("foo_strategy", PERIOD_D1, 0, "foo");
   
   // record the equity of the expert advisor with the magic number of 1234
   // produce an H1 chart with the name "scalperEA" for it
   recordEquity("scalperEA", PERIOD_H1, 1234);   
}
Attached File(s)
File Type: mq4 equity_recorder.mq4   1 KB | 1,459 downloads
  • #3
  • Nov 19, 2009 9:50am Nov 19, 2009 9:50am
Awesome tool

I actually did something similar to a client recently...although it stores values in a CSV file. Its much basic than yours. I uploaded it at http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...2&postcount=17
  • #4
  • Apr 12, 2013 3:27pm Apr 12, 2013 3:27pm
Outstanding work !!! Absolutely brilliant !!!

May the pip gods bless your generosity.
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Equity Recorder Screenshot.png Size: 15 KB
  • #5
  • Dec 19, 2015 8:04am Dec 19, 2015 8:04am
Hi 7bit,

I remember you said in another thread that it is not possible to rebuild true equity curve from MT4 history. I guess it is because MT4 does not record tick data, the smallest time frame kept in file is one minute. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe you have only to know the entry and exit times of each trade to plot the equity curve for any past period of time. All the infomation is in the history. You will not know the exact moment e.g. the worst drawdown ocurred, but you will know this moment with one minute precision. This looks enough for me. Looks like the only extra effort will be getting access to history (trades and quotes) via code (looks easy but I am not as good a programmer as you).

In fact, I am only interested in the biggest drawdown ocurred during the week (I keep a weekly record of my trades). I have been doing this through an Excel spreadsheet but Excel needs full time access to streaming quotes or it may miss the moment.

Your equity recorder is a great piece of work. Thank you very much for sharing it.
  • #6
  • Apr 25, 2020 6:40am Apr 25, 2020 6:40am
I can't find log. Where does it log and can I see it on Strategy Tester?
  • #7
  • Last Post: Apr 25, 2020 11:44pm Apr 25, 2020 11:44pm
Quoting prezgodan
I can't find log. Where does it log and can I see it on Strategy Tester?
Files are stored in the history folder as offline charts. See lines 300 and following.
It takes blood, sweat and enough tears to wash away the blood.
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