I don´t get any historical data

Nothing wrong here. Your Broker simply doesn't sent more historical data.

Hmm. Thanks.

But I have the option to download quotes, which will lead to the database of MQ and I get a warning message. But this does not download anything else anyway.

Isn´t there a third party solution? I found TickStory, but backtesting works only when MT is started via their application, which simply does´t work when I am programming same time same installation. This is what I call "hassle".

So what´s the reason?

Doerk 

When you say using the tester are you online? Also have you clicked the checkbox for "use date" from -> to etc in the tester. Any pictures would help

Of course, actually I am totally familiar with this stuff, but never backtestet more than just a few months. The "funny" thing is, yesterday I had M5 data until July 2015, today, after I played on the history center, i have only data for 1-4 weeks. In the meanwhile, I reinstalled MT4 fresh and got the error message: "Cannot connect to history.metaquotes.net" .... when it´s trying to download data starting from 1990. So it seems, the data for 1-4 weeks comes with the installation and the rest needs to be downloaded. Could that be? Is there a server problem today? Can anyone download data to the history from MQ?

Another question to the strategy tester: When it´s startet, MT "collects" data for the tester. Does this mean, the folder Tester/history is emptied, and all the tester quote files are generated newly based on the available data of the given account? I mean, the ticks are not real, they´re just randomly created anyway. But I don´t need the ticks, i just need the OCHL data, but I would like to understand the process.

You can find some answers here:

http://www.backtestmarket.com/how-to-import-data-in-metatrader/

Thanks. I will have a look at it.

Done. Sorry, but this explains how to import CSV files, and does not answer the question. Furhtermore, this guy writes "Click on “BROWSE” –> then find in your PC the referring file “EURUSD 1M” and Double Click on it (or OPEN)." ... nice idea, when you have valid CSV files, but I don´t. And ... CSV files do not contain ticks which are necessary for strategy tests based on ticks. Thats were my  second question came from, how the processing of the tick generator works.

Thanks anyway. 

Hi there,

now the solution for those who are interested too.

I mentioned that I tried TickStory, and this is at least a solution for the historical data outside - real - backtesting. TickStory is actually made for backtesting with real ticks and the generation of the .hst files is just a kind of an add-on. But, when you export the data with the MT4 settings, you can copy the .hst files manually to the history folder of your broker/server. This leads to the possibility of strategy testing with modeled ticks based on this data.

Steps are:

- Download TickStory

- Select the symbol that you want to use

- Download the historical data

- Quit MT

- Right click on the symbol in TickStory and select "Export to MT4"

- In the tab "MT Settings" you choose the timezone of your broker

- In the export tab you select the .hst option and the timeframes you need

- Uncheck suppress volume data

- As destination select your desktop or any other folder, but not MT

- Choose the time range that you need

- Format is "Bauen 545+"

- Export

- Search the directory in MT4 program folder where history data is located

- Search the subdirectory of your broker/server

- Copy the .hst files to this directory and overwrite all files

- Start MT4

- In history center (F2) you double click on the timeframes that you want to activate

- Do not and never use the download button here

- Exit

- In options, search for maximum amount of bars in history and type "9999999" or any bigger which makes sense

- close options

- Quit MT

- Start MT

- Check if the data is present in the chart for the specific symbol

- Start any backtesting for the symbol in the time range you downloaded

- You should be done

Cheers

Doerk 

good to know!