Data Center serves as the manager of the historical quotes. You can:

• Add/delete currency symbols.
• Look through/edit the properties of the currency symbols.
• Download minute historical data from the server.
• Import historical data from files.
• Download tick data from the server.

• Group the currency pairs and change settings for multiple pairs at the same time.
• Export data into CSV files.

You can open Data Сenter dialog window via File → Data Center menu:

Or click on this toolbar icon:

The window of Data Сenter has the following view:

The indicator at the top (the one that is green on the screenshot) shows the quality of the imported 1-minute data. You can download free medium-quality data directly from the data center in Forex Tester or from our page: datasources.

If you want to get the most accurate results, then you can purchase paid data at an affordable price.

Please note that using the lower quality data will most likely lead to less accurate testing results, which, in turn, may adversely affect the subsequent results of trading on the live accounts in case if you choose to use your backtested trading system on the real market.

The indicator at the bottom (the gray one with oblique lines on the screenshot) indicates the absence of tick data in this example. Tick ​​data is extremely important for testing short-term and scalping strategies. If you are trading on M1-M30 time frames, then subscribing to the paid historical data will be a good investment.

Please see the description of the main elements of the window below.

1) The list of currency symbols:

With the help of this list you can:

• Select the currency symbol for further work. On selecting the symbol its detailed information and available actions are displayed in the right part of the window.
• Delete the symbol(s) (Delete - button under the list). On clicking this button, all selected symbols will be deleted.
• Add a symbol (Add - button under the list).
• Select or deselect all symbols in the list for applying the group settings. For example, you can select all symbols in the list and download historical data for all symbols at the same time.

You can also activate necessary pairs by checking the box to the left from the currency pair name and then apply group settings (download data, change leverage, etc.) for multiple pairs.

2) The description of currency symbol properties:

You can change currency symbol properties with the help of the Change Properties button.

In the Symbol properties dialog window you can see 2 tabs: Common and Commission.

On the Common tab you can change the following settings:

• Symbol name - name of the symbol.
• Symbol type - symbol type (Currency pair, Stock, Index or Futures).
• Group - a group of the symbols list which the symbol refers to.
• Lot currency - the currency of the lot.
• Base currency - base currency.
• Lot size - the cost of 1 lot in the lot currency.
• Leverage - the ratio between the Lot size and Margin for 1 lot. Each brokers uses different leverage so we recommend to use the leverage that is used by your broker.
• Post decimal digits - the number of digits after point. For example. 1.2500 is a 4-digit value and 1.25001 is a 5-digit value.
• Spread, points - spread in points. Spread means the difference between Bid and Ask prices.
• Min distance to price - - a minimal distance to the current price in points where you can place pending orders. Min distance to price” defines two options:
  1. Minimal distance from a current market price where you can place pending orders. If you set 20 there and try to place a pending order 15 points above/below a current price, you will see a message indicating that open price is too close.
  2. Minimal distance of SL/TP levels. If you set 20 there, you can’t set SL/TP levels lesser than 20 points.
  When placing the order and defining SL, Stop Loss needs to be equal or bigger than “Min distance to price”+”Spread” value, in this case order will be placed without any problems.
• Margin currency - - the currency of the margin.
• Margin for 1 lot - the margin for 1 lot.
• Hedged margin - the margin that will be calculated for hedged positions for 1 lot. You need to disable the Use leverage info option if you want to enter the margin values manually.

On the Commissions tab you have the ability to set up the next properties:

• Commission per lot, USD – brokers commission when open and (or) close positions. Here you can choose the option when to apply the commission during testing (according to your conditions): when open and close positions, only when you open order or only when you close order. Please note that when you close the position partially, the commission will be calculated from the part of the position that you want to close. The amount of commission after position close you can see on the Account History tab at the bottom of the screen.
• Swap long - the swap for a long position in points.
• Swap short - the swap for a short position in points.

After you change necessary options please click Ok button.

3) Information about downloaded data:

The following dialog allows getting the information about downloaded data and change some import properties.

You can see the elements of this dialog in detail below:

1. Time shift:

This message shows the time zone of historical data. By default, our data are provided in GMT+0 time zone; you will be able to change the time zone when creating a new project.

2. Data quality indicators:

This part of the window gives the ability to evaluate the quality of historical data:

• Green areas displays the quality data without gaps.
• Red areas mean missing data.
• "Darkened" parts indicate the presence of small blanks.
• Oblique lines show that no data have been downloaded

4) Data management buttons:

These buttons allow you to perform the following actions:

1. Update from server button allows you downloading historical data from our server. You can find more information about downloading the data here.

2. Import data from a file button allows you importing historical data in files from other sources. Files can have .txt, .csv or .hst extension. You can find more information about importing data from a file here.

3. Export button allows exporting historical data from a Forex Tester program into a text file for further processing by another application (for example, Excel). Forex Tester allows exporting data with any timeframe.

4. Clear History button allows to delete historical data for selected currency symbol(s). By clicking this button you can delete minute or/and tick history.

5) Information line:

This part is located in the bottom left corner of the Data Center window. Information line displays the connection state to the data server. While connecting to the server, you will see the following message "Connecting to the data server", and in this moment, we do not recommend doing any action with data. Also in information line you can see the type of the Data Subscription you are subscribed to. You can find more info about the types of data subscription and subscribe here.

6) The News tab:

On this tab you can find information about available historical news, download them manually or find the link for upgrading your subscription.

To learn more about News please click on this link