Live Test Bench: automated checks of an EA on a demo account

Experts MetaTrader 5 Free

The Strategy Tester cannot check what happens on a live chart: a terminal restart, Expert Advisors that start before the account is connected, a second copy of the same EA on another chart, the account history on the server, or a click on a chart button. This bench checks these automatically on a demo account and writes a PASS/FAIL report.

Report of a real run: 26 checks passed in three phases

Files

  • LiveTestDriver.mq5: the test driver. It reads the phase (A, B or C) from MQL5FilesLiveTestBenchphase.txt, runs the checks of that phase and closes the terminal with TerminalClose(). It refuses to run on anything but a demo account.
  • ExampleDailyLock.mq5: the example EA under test, a daily loss lock that keeps its state in global variables, allows one copy per account (GlobalVariableSetOnCondition) and has an Unlock button.
  • ExampleDailyLock_DemoTest.mq5: a demo-only build of the example. It defines DEMO_ONLY and includes the EA, so the source of the EA does not change.
  • run_live_test.ps1 (in the zip): a PowerShell launcher that writes a start-up configuration, starts the portable terminal for one phase and prints the report.

Phases

  • A: start, one copy per account, the lock, how fast a locked EA closes a new position. Ends by closing the terminal.
  • B: after the restart: the chart is restored from the profile, the saved state is identical, the lock is still enforced, the day-start balance is rebuilt from the history.
  • C: a person clicks Unlock on the chart. Chart objects ignore posted mouse messages, so this step needs a real click; the driver shows an instruction and waits up to 10 minutes.

The bench: driver, EA under test and launcher

Phase C on the demo chart. The EA under test is locked after the daily loss (top left: day start 3489.93, daily loss 3.20 of 1.00, LOCKED), and the driver asks a person to click Unlock. In this run the click came after 146 seconds and the phase passed (last lines of the report above).

Phase C on the demo chart

How to use

  1. Copy terminal64.exe to a new folder, start it with the /portable key and log in to a demo account with the password saved.
  2. Put the three .mq5 files in MQL5ExpertsLiveTestBench of that terminal and compile them.
  3. Close the terminal, then run: .run_live_test.ps1 -Terminal “D:MT5_demo” -Phase A , then B, then C.

To test your own EA, add the demo-only check to its OnInit(), create a second file with #define DEMO_ONLY and #include, and change EA_NAME, EA_PATH, the inputs written by Attach() and the checks in the driver.

A real run on a demo account passed 26 checks in three phases (picture 1). Phase C found a real bug in the first version of the example: after Unlock the EA locked again within the same second, because the loss of the day was still above the limit.

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