Tick replay not working

[Chris747]

Hi Folks,
Has anyone had any luck with the tick replay using one of the Forex symbols? I've reported it not working a couple of times and was wondering if it was a problem with the formatting of the downloaded file. Perhaps someone is aware of the particular issue and can give me a solution even if it requires re-formatting the symbol's downloaded file structure manually.
Sounds like a really powerful tool for testing strategys if I could get it too work for me.
Thanks in advance,
Chris

[JayF]

Hi Chris,

This is a known issue, and is caused by Tick Replay only using Trades as chartable data (with the exception being Tick Charts that chart Bid/Ask.) Since Forex doesn't have trades per say and just use the Bid prices to simulate trades, then the exported tick data from the Tick Downloader that just contains Bids and Asks won't display during the replay.

In theory, you could manually edit the files, changing the quotes to trades using the following formats to convert.

Quotes
[Use 'Q' for Quotes][Date][Time][Bid][Ask][BidPrice][AskPrice][BidExch][AskExch]

Trades
[Use 'T' for Trades][Date][Time][Price][Size]

[ACM]

Chris
To illustrate what Jay has suggested here are two charts of JPY A0-FX one of which is running on Tick Replay ($PLAYBACK) and the other for comparison.
All I did was replace the Q, at the beginning of each line with T, with the resulting epf file looking like this
; Symbol=JPY A0-FX
; Date=02/02/04-02/03/04
T,040202,000030,105.61,105.65,0,0,CMSN,CMSN
T,040202,000032,105.6,105.65,0,0,SBD ,SBD
T,040202,000035,105.6,105.64,0,0,SBD ,SBD
T,040202,000044,105.59,105.69,0,0,SF ,SF
T,040202,000052,105.57,105.67,0,0,SF ,SF
Hope this helps
Alex

[rsea]

Hello
I read your post from 2004 on editing the Tick Replay for Forex.
“…replace the Q, at the beginning of each line with T…”

I can’t figure out how to edit an epf file. Can you help?

Thanks,
Rand

[ACM]

Rand
You can use any text editor (such as Notepad or Wordpad, etc).
Then in the text editor use the Search and Replace function (usually under Edit)
Alex

[rsea]

Tick Replay

Alex,
Thanks for your help on the Tick Replay. I was able to edit the data in EFS Editor. This was a long process for a (4) hour replay. After I completed the Edit (replacing the Q with T), I was not able to get the Tick Replay to play. I got a blank screen that said loading data. It never loaded. I think I will wait until eSignal programs the Tick Replay for Forex. It would be a fun tool to use. Thanks again for your quick reply.
Rand

[ACM]

Rand
After you edited the file (which btw took me just over a minute for a 10 day file using WordPad) how did you save it?
I just downloaded 10 days of EUR A0-FX and it is working fine in Tick Replay after being edited (see enclosed image)
Alex

[ACM]

Rand
I have uploaded here a sample EPF file of EUR A0-FX for yesterday (approximately 5MB) which was edited using WordPad. Download it and run it in Tick Replay and you should see it will work.
Alex

[rsea]

Tick Replay

Alex,
Thanks again for your help. I saved your sample EPF file of EUR A0-FX for yesterday. It worked fine.

I downloaded 5 days and edited it in WordPad. I used Edit, Replace, to Find Q, & Replace with T,. This worked but I had to put a weight on the Enter key and alow about 50 mins for it to replace the Qs with Ts. I tryed to use the replace all button but each time it caused Wordpad to "Not Respond".

You stated that you edited 10 days in one min. Can you explain how you did the editing? I don't have any pryor experience with WordPad.

Also wondering if the Tick Replay is limited to the most recent past 10 trading days?

Thanks, Rand

[ACM]

Rand
Sorry I misspoke. The program I used to edit the file was Word and not WordPad. WordPad can still do it however it will take much longer. To edit the file I just used Replace All Q, with T,
If WordPad is not working for you and you do not have Word then I would suggest using either EditPad Lite (which is free) or EditPad Pro (which comes at a marginal cost) which are available here.
You can only download the last 10 days with the Tick Downloader but you can Replay more than 10 days if you stitch together multiple download files.
Alex

[rsea]

Tick Replay

Alex,
Thanks. I used word to edit. It worked perfect!
Rand

[mikejody]

How To Save?

Greetings, I have followed these directions, and was able to change all the q's to t's in Word.

How do I then save the file so as to be able to open it as a replay file? Word does not give you an option to save the file as an ".epf" format. I can only save it as "plain text" or "doc" or a works file.

So how do I save this file once it is edited so that I might use it in playback?

Thank you.

[ACM]

Mike
Save it as a CSV file and enclose the name and extension in quotes ie "myfile.epf"
Alex

[mikejody]

Originally posted by Alexis C. Montenegro
Rand
I have uploaded here a sample EPF file of EUR A0-FX for yesterday (approximately 5MB) which was edited using WordPad. Download it and run it in Tick Replay and you should see it will work.
Alex

I downloaded this file and ran it in tick replay. The indicator showed that the file was indeed playing, but there was no chart on the screen.

What do I need to do differently to get this file to actually show the chart it is replaying?

Thank you.

[mikejody]

Originally posted by Alexis C. Montenegro
Mike
Save it as a CSV file and enclose the name and extension in quotes ie "myfile.epf"
Alex

Alex, thank you for the quick reply.

I edited this file in Word, and so when I click "save as" there is no option to save as a "CSV" file. I can only save it as a "plain text" or "Word" file, or "XML" file. There is no "CSV" option.

What am I doing wrong?