Guide for the desktop platform. Feature names and availability depend on language, version and licence. Your custom robot files and rules remain private; these tutorials only cover general procedures.
Step by step
Open View > Strategy Tester or press Ctrl+R in desktop MT5. You can also right-click an EA in Navigator and choose Test. Historical testing is separate from live trading.
Choose the Expert Advisor, symbol, timeframe and date range. Review simulated deposit, currency, leverage and tick generation mode. History availability and quality affect the analysis.
Set Inputs. Begin with a documented single test without optimisation. Consider costs and execution assumptions; simulation cannot perfectly reproduce liquidity, latency or real slippage.
Start the test and wait. Review the report, trades, drawdown and error logs, rather than profit alone. Use visual mode where available to understand entries and exits.
Compare different periods and check behaviour on demo. Save the EA version, inputs and test conditions. Avoid selecting settings solely because they performed best in one interval.
Continue with related tutorials
Official documentation consulted
This content is also available in:
