Hope you are doing well during this hectic holiday season.  If you are not trading well and wonder what you can do to improve your trading, the first thing I always recommend is doing some serious backtesting.

Doing this will not guarantee your success of course, but it will put you way ahead in terms of knowing how a system trades and getting a feel for what to expect over a long period of time. This can give you the confidence to take trades, stay in trades and see if a trading system has positive expectancy or not.

I realize that a products like Forex Tester 2 are not cheap and in some cases, that money really is better spent on learning to education (courses, seminars, etc).  But if you are at the point in your career where you ready to get serious and really find out what a trading methodology is like and not rely on the SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) method of trading, then you are reading this post at exactly the right time.

The good folks at Forex Tester usually do a sale during the holidays and this year they are offering an excellent 25% discount.  However, I want to help you out as much as possible, so if you purchase through my affiliate link, you will be able to pick up a copy of Forex Tester 2 for $135 instead of the normal $199 price.

That is a 32% discount off the normal price and an outstanding deal for a great piece of software.  Of course, there is a 30 day money back guarantee, but this sale only lasts until January 1, 2012 so if you have ever considered getting this important piece of forex trading software, now is the best time.

I don’t just promote it, I actually use it!  If you do end up purchasing the software, here are some great free resources that I have developed over the years to help people backtest:

• My FREE backtesting course – Learn the basics of backtesting and develop a plan to test ideas to see if they have a chance of being profitable
• My review of the software
• Some actual backtesting results from a system that I have been testing/trading

Hope you are having a great holiday season and as always, let me know how your trading/testing is going!!

Cheers,
Hugh

The program works great and it is easy to use.  Of course, the primary benefit is that it is like Metatrader 4 so you don’t have to relearn the software.

But the only trouble is that it is not MT4.

That means that if you are not using standard indicators, you have to get them custom programmed.  In my opinion, that is the only drawback to Forex Tester 2.

What is the solution?  There hasn’t been one…until now.

Maybe.

There is a new product on the market called Simple Forex Tester and it may be just what we have been looking for.  I watched the intro video and what the software does is it allows you to “hack” into MT4 and use it as a manual backtesting program.

As you probably know, MT4 can handle automated backtesting with no problem.  But it was never able to do manual backtesting.  In my opinion, that was it’s only flaw.

This product promises to solve that problem.  The only drawback I could see with Simple Forex Tester is that you may have to be online to use the program, but I could be wrong.

I am trying to get a demo copy to try out and I will let you know how that goes.  If this does work as advertised, it may be just what discretionary forex traders have been looking for.

Do you have any experience with this product?  If so, I would love to hear about it, leave a comment below.

Forex Tester 2 is too good of a product to stay at the ridiculously low price of $149.  However, I still think that it is a bargain at the new price of $199.

That being said, $50 is still $50, so if you are on the fence about buying FXT2 or need a second copy, here is how to save that money and put it into your trading account.

I got an email from them yesterday announcing that Forex Tester 2, version 2.7 will drop on April 4, 2011.  If you already have FXT2, keep an eye out for the upgrade.  It will be free and available if you open FXT2 and go to:

Help –> Check for Updates

However, if you purchase a new copy of FXT2 after April 4, the price will go up to $199.  So if you want to save the $50 price increase, purchase version 2.6 BEFORE April 4, then get the free upgrade to 2.7.

Again, $199 is still pretty cheap, but why pay it if you don’t have to, right?

Do you want to save even more money?

Click here to get an additional 10% off the already low $149 price.  If you have never heard of FXT2, click here to find out why I like it so much.

I hope you have been trading well.  It has been a great start to the week and the markets have really been moving.

Get those pips!

I got an email from the good folks at Forex Tester and they are offering a special holiday price for the new Forex Tester 2.6.  If you don’t know what Forex Tester is, take a minute to read my review.

The short story is that, in my opinion, it is the best forex backtesting software package available on the market today.

Until January 1, 2011, you can get Forex Tester 2.6 for the amazing price of $112.50 or 25% off the regular price.

They are also offering great discounts for bulk purchases.  If you buy licenses for yourself and as presents for a few friends, you can pay as little as $82.50 per license.

Regular price is $150 and I think that is still cheap, but this is a great opportunity if you have been on the fence.  Time is running out.  Click here to buy yours today!

Trade Well,

Hugh

P.S. – Don’t forget to sign up for my free course on how to use Forex Tester to create a forex trading system that fits your personality.

For those of you using Forex Tester 2, I just received an email about their latest update.  There are some really cool upgrades that makes Forex Tester 2 even more like Metatrader.

I’m especially happy that they added numbers 5 and 6 below.

If you don’t have Forex Tester 2 yet, it is the best and most affordable Forex Backtesting Software on the market today, in my opinion.

Here is a copy of the email I received:

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1. We started a new data service which collects 1-minute and tick data from different brokers! With the help of this service you can import data directly into Forex Tester.

Now, you do not need to manually download all history from our site and import it into the program. Forex Tester can do it automatically.

Basic version of the data service (free for all registered users) allows to update 1-minute history from the broker Forexsite, which we uploaded to our site for manual update.

These data will be updated every month (like we did before), but the program will be able to download and import them automatically.

Also, we added a new option which allows to update just the missing part of the history from the previous update, so you do not need to update all the history for 10 years every time. You can update only 1 month since the previous update (the program will detect the missing period and update it automatically).

Also you can request the data for any period of time. The option to downlod history from a file (like in previous versions) still remains.

Advanced version of the service will give you significant benefits. It is available based on a monthly subscription. For a small monthly fee you can get the next options:
- Update historical data every day.
- You can get data from different brokers.
- You can get real tick data from different brokers.

Please see more information about data service here:
http://www.forextester.com/HistoryServiceDescription.html

2. According to this, we made the following changes in the program:
- The “Symbol list” dialog was deleted.
- The “Data center” dialog was added (File -> Data Center), we gathered all the functions related to historical data processing in this dialog, such as: adding/deleting/editing of the currency symbol properties, tick generation, import/export of the historical data, updating history from our server.
- Added a new function to clear historical data to this dialog.
- After deleting some currency symbol, its history will be deleted from the disk as well.
- You can see the history quality indicators in this dialog (holes in history).
- Added a new option which allows to adjust the time shift without reimporting history.

3. You can import real tick data into Forex Tester now, that makes testing quality 100% precise.

4. A new API for scripts was added! Now you can write your scripts like strategies, and assign for them the hotkeys Ctrl + … for a fast executing during testing.

For example, you can write a script for placing few pending orders with different parameters at once, and then execute it with one button. You can see new scripts window in the Market Info window -> Scripts tab.

The API files are located in ExamplesScripts. The scripts have the same functions set like strategies, except the option to create indicators.

5. Added a new option to place an indicator to many timeframes at the same time. See the “Time Frames” tab in the indicator properties dialog when you place it on the chart.

6. Added a new option to close a position partially. You can access it through the context menu with the right mouse click on the open position in the Terminal window.

7. Bug that appeared while moving the “Ray” graphic tool is fixed.

8. In API files for the Borland Delphi type “string” was changed to “AnsiiString” for compatibility with a new Delphi version that uses Unicode strings.

———————————————————————-

To get the update, go to your menu in Forex Tester 2 and select Help –> Check for Updates.  If you are connected to the internet, the updates will take a few minutes to download and install.  They make it very easy.

If you don’t have Forex Tester 2 yet:

Click here for more information on Forex Tester 2

2.      Added export  of results into Excel from:
- account history
- statistic windows
- strategy optimizer (Menu File)

3.      Added 2 new parameters into the Statistic Window – numbers of consecutive profitable and loss trades.

4.      Added fixed graphic scale option – when this option is enabled in the chart settings (with upper and lower prices set), the chart will not change its scale.

5.      Added new price field in status bar, that will show the price unger the mouse cursor.

6.      After the program restart, parameters from previous session will be restored in Market Order and Pending Order dialog windows.

7.      Added small icons into the terminal window, to help separate orders.

8.      Added new functions to API:
- ObjectsTotal
- ObjectName
- iBarShift
- iHighest
- iLowest
- new external parameter type ot_Color

9.      The buffers of indicators set in invisible colors will not be painted.

10.     Fixed bug – line of period separators became thick if graphical objects were painted with thick lines.

11.     Added shortcut for the switching of crosshair ‘CTRL+F’

12.     After setting option “Bars over Indicators” all the objects will be painted under the bars, and will not hide them.

13.     Corrected mistake in Strategy Optimizer. After the tick’s regeneration, the list of currencies did not update in the strategy settings.

14.     After selecting the invisible color for buy/sell markers, they will not be painted.

15.     Added new feature – default template (<Forex Tester>Templatesdefault.tem). On opening a new window this template will be applied to it automatically; you can overwrite this template with your own, and it will be applied to new charts.

Upgrades are free for existing Forex Tester 2 users.  In the program, go to Help –> Check for program updates, to upgrade your software.  You must be connected to the internet to get the updates.

This software just keeps getting better and better.

If you do not know what Forex Tester does, click here to read my review.  If you would like to visit their homepage, click here.

Other videos on how to use Forex Tester:

• Installation
• Modes
• Importing Data
• Generating Ticks
• Start Testing

Other videos on how to use Forex Tester:

• Installation
• Modes
• Importing Data
• Generating Ticks
• Placing Orders