I suppose the underlying reason I have been trying to use the formulas with pip values and the different lot factors is that they seem redundant in some way. Since I'm writing code here I don't want to make too much related stuff a parameter, because I'll really cause trouble if I mix them up. Of course I haven't gotten them all sorted out yet so I'm screwing up real bad doodling all this out. I suppose it didn't help that what I was initially using when doing forex experiments was this Amibroker tutorial: http://www.amibroker.com/kb/2006/08/09/amibroker-for-forex/ I might have to bring that up on my computer again, but I'm pretty sure the sizes its trading in the backtest aren't correct as a result of this. Funnyguy_2nd, since you are using Amibroker I wondered if you noticed anything like this. I suppose to compromise I would take the core numbers/relationships and derive the rest from them. Things like the leverage, the price relationship, and the number of units in a lot.
I didn't have the settings right in AmiBroker: Code: Symbol EURUSD Trade Short Date 7/2/2012 12:13:59 AM Price 1.2637 Ex. date 7/2/2012 12:23:59 AM Ex. Price 1.26318 % chg -0.04% Profit 5143 % Profit 5.19% Contracts 99 Position value 99000 Cum. Profit 5143 # bars 11 Profit/bar 467.55 MAE -0.03% MFE 0.06% Scale In/Out 0/0 I was basing off this page: http://www.amibroker.com/kb/2006/08/09/amibroker-for-forex/ There it was claiming EURUSD was denominated in USD. So that must have been where I heard it. In the instrument's information pane, I saw a "Currency" row, which I filled in with EUR. That seems to have appropriated adjusted things.
leverage = 50 ; pointvalue = 10000; // lots of 10,000 units margindeposit = close * pointvalue / leverage;
I'll have to take some time to do this. I'm still recovering from this cold. I found I do the most horrible math after taking Mucinex so I might step back for a day or two. I did check the pastes and will run them through Amibroker when I have the concentration back to soak it in.
I'm a little more sane today, but it wasn't like I could smash through the scripts in Amibroker yet. What I was wondering though from inspection is if there's a way to get the bid/ask spread represented in Amibroker's backtester. I figured I'd look this up, but this thread itself, of all things, was the third result. The top two didn't seem to apply. I was thinking of taking it to their mailing list at this point.