Starting Simulation

New Simulation

You can start a new simulation by choosing Start Simulation button.

 

Simulation Settings window will appear. It lets you set up all basic and advanced settings before starting a new simulation.

Source Settings

1. Provider

Choose the source of data to use for this simulation:

• Dukascopy
• TrueFX
• HistData
• Metatrader

2. Instrument

Choose the instrument to simulate. If you can’t find the instrument on the list, it means that you need to download it in Historic Data first.

Settings

3. Start simulation from

Choose the starting day of the simulation

4. End simulation on (Optional)

If you want, you can choose to end the simulation on selected day. If you do not select this option, the simulation will run until it reaches the end of data.

5. Account currency

Choose the currency that will be used throughout the simulation. It will be used to display balance/equity, profit/loss, draw-down and all other statistics.

6. Starting balance

Set the amount of money to start with.

7. Time on charts

Forex Simulator supports two time modes:

During the summer, selecting the GMT option will display three extra hourly candles compared to selecting the New York close option.

This implies that the New York close option provides ticks or bars based on these time zones:

GMT+2 during the winter
GMT+3 during the summer

On the other hand, selecting the GMT option will always provide ticks or bars based on GMT time.

The New York close option aligns with the broker server time of popular brokers like IC Markets or Pepperstone, corresponding to New York time plus seven hours.

8. Pip size

Set the size of 1 pip. Default value should be good for currency pairs, but you may want to adjust it for other instruments.

9. Lot size

Set the size of 1 lot. Standard lot size in Forex is 100,000 units of currency, but it may be different in case of other instruments.

10. Leverage

Set maximum leverage available when taking trades. Bigger leverage lets you take bigger trades with less money (smaller margin requirements). Leverage is the inverse of margin required for taking a trade.

11. Spread

Spread is the difference between Ask and Bid prices. You can choose which type of spread you would like to use:

• Real (variable, floating) – Use real spread supplied by data provider (Dukascopy, TrueFX, HistData).
• Fixed – Set your own fixed size of spread. It won’t change throughout the simulation.

 

12. Commission per lot (Optional)

Some brokers charge commission for taking trades. You can simulate this and decide how much you want to be charged for every traded lot.

13. Initial history on charts

By default, the simulator will start with a 31-day lookback. It means that at the beginning of simulation charts will show only 31 days of history (of course, they will grow with time). You can change initial lookback with this setting.

Please remember that lookback may also be constrained by the amount of downloaded data before the starting day.

Chart Settings

14. Chart settings

You can choose the type of the chart, period of the chart and bars. Further explanation of charts in particular charts section of this knowledge base.

15. Restore last used settings

Bring back settings used in the last simulation. It will overwrite all settings in this window with last simulation’s settings.

16. Start simulation