# Metastock system tester dates



## Herlequin (2 July 2009)

Hi Guys,
is there a way to specify the start date for a systems
test using the metastock system tester.
ie i want to test all data starting from 1/1/09


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## LeftRightOut (22 September 2009)

Not sure what version of MetaStock you're using, but on the advanced system tester (I still use v10.0), click "new simulation", add your securities (CTRL+A for all of your data) then click next, you'll then see the "dates" button. You can run it through x number of periods (daily/weekly/monthly etc etc) or between specific start/end dates.

It should be right there in front of you.

Just curious, what data are you using with MetaStock?


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## Richard Dale (28 September 2009)

Note that many indicators have predefined "spool up" periods.  eg. a 30 day moving average requires 30 trading days (about 1.4 months) of data to start giving any values, so ensure your simulation start date is set to an appropriate date before you want to start your trading simulation.  

However, other indicators such as ATR use a smoothing function across all previous data points, so beware when just testing an ATR with a limited set of data.  It will show slightly different results to that on your chart.   You can get around this by simply setting the number of data points to be tested to a high number (eg. 50000) but then add a further condition on the date.

In your case you would add:

```
Year() >= 2009
```

eg if your entry condition was the price crossing above a 30 day moving average:

```
CROSS(C,MOV(C,30,S))
```

then use:

```
CROSS(C,MOV(C,30,S)) AND Year() >= 2009
```


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