Newbie Question about test run

Hi all,

Another newbie question for anyone who has the experience. I gave my best effort at finding an answer on my own via navigating the manual, but sometimes it's easier just to ask the community before I sign up for tech support.

I have tried testing z1 and z2 in 1.66 in a demo Oanda account (attatched screenshots) with EUR/USD as the display currency. and both times they returned a significant net loss. I have seen articles about loading historical price data, but it seemed to imply that the broker loads it automatically in Oanda. I have not changed any basic functions of the system, am I missing something here?

I also tried training the system after reading up a bit and it comes up with an error message.

I'm in this for the long haul, not a quick scheme, so any advice will not go unappreciated.

Cheers,

Tom

The significant loss is an automatic feature of any Z system. It counts the read manual pages. The less you read, the more you lose. That's clearly stated in the manual.

Hi Tom ,

see attached png , hope helps .

Cheers
Wolfgang

Thanks for the responses. That does help a bit. I have already followed the procedure closely for downloading price history before trading.

I used the download script for an asset, ran the M1 download then saved the download to history folder as "asset new".

The manual states, " For trading the Z systems live, you'll probably also need to rename or exclude some assets, dependent on what your broker offers (brokers often have different names for the same assets). "

Now if I am trading say a z1 or z2 system with USD/EUR, do I need to worry about price history or renaming any other assets in the history folder, or does it only execute USD/EUR data?

I think maybe I am simplifying the process too much. Here is another line from the manual,

"Earn virtual money: Open a demo account with your preferred broker. Five minutes later you should have a $50,000 demo account and can log in and start trading. Start Zorro, select the broker, enter the user ID and password that you got, select a Z strategy or one of the Workshops, and click [Trade]. Wait a couple of months and observe the money (hopefully) accumulate on your account."

Following these exact directions and then testing it nets me a much different result than the Z system est. performance stats.

I keep reading over the manual and trying different things but to no avail of turning a profit in back-tests. This system might be too sophisticated for someone with little experience like myself.

I have attached more screen shots documenting my exact steps.

Thanks again, and sorry for all the questions.

Result

Hi there .... perhaps "do not push too hard" at the beginning :-) . I walked through the same couple of days ago .

Read first through the steps in the manual so that you understand what has to happen first and how TEST TRAIN and RUN corelate .

Today and tomoorrow no need to consulte your broker , testing and training Z you can do just within ZORRO .

Use ZORRO download page to download and install all history ( carfull : only M1 n o Ticks needed yet ) and install them in the respective folder of your ZORRO installation .

If it fails, do some debugging yourself ... its fun . Use keywords and other stuff to find tips in the manual . The manual until now had answers to any of my questions and it is written by somebody who also has a sympatic sense of humor .
So if the author writes "Wait a couple of months and observe the money (hopefully) accumulate on your account." he perhaps was not 100% serious and not necessarily was expecting me any you to wait a couple of months .... :-)

SO , long short and in response to your screenshot : Too early to bother for your broker, you can do it all with the download history of Zorro and your Zorro instalation .

Enjoy it :-) .... assuming you want to develop yourself and not just hop into the Z´s , than be prepared to learn the entire Zorro tool first to a significant degree .

Until now, only 3 weeks of experience though , for me it turned out very benefitial to study the black book , the blog (! if you speak German) and use the workshops described here in the manual of the software .

Good night
Wolfgang

When I may add something, there is an approach that almost never works, and that is randomly starting scripts and clicking buttons. When you want to test Z1 you need to select "Z1" and not "ConvertCSV".

When you get an error message, don't say "Oh my God an error", the message just tells what you need to do. When it says that historical data is missing, you know that you need historical data. Its on the same web page where you downloaded Zorro. Put it in the history folder and the error is fixed.

If you do not want to read the manual, then read only the page about Z1. This will already tell you all for getting started with Z1 and right on top in bold letters you can read that you need historical data for testing, or else it will not work.

Sprit and Lobo. Thank you for the kernels of wisdom.

I read through everything in the manual for the second time, and I must have missed some notable steps. I finally got the system up and running properly.

-I did not setup the Z.ini file.
-I downloaded historical price data from the download page instead of fiddling around with the download script.
-I renamed the assets in the assetfix file

I did all of those actions this time around and it tested perfectly.

Thanks again for the help. Really supportive community.

Happy trading.

Cheers,

Tom