When you're a Zorro Sponsor, you are entitled to a time period of free technical support by email. Otherwise you can post your question on the user forum, or subscribe a support ticket in the web store. For technical support please email your question to support (at) opgroup.de, and give your support ticket number or your user name that is displayed in Zorro's startup message.
General questions about financial trading are answered on the Trading FAQ page. The most frequent technical questions are listed below.
Q. I am
a C programmer and have read the Zorro tutorial. Does it still make sense for
me to get the Black Book
or take the Algo Bootcamp?.
A.
Depends on your experience with strategy development. The Black Book
and especially the Algo Bootcamp cover
all details involved in writing a trading strategy.
Q. How do
I search for a certain topic in the manual that pops up when I click on [Help]?
A. Click on [Search].
Q. Can I copy the Zorro folder on a
USB drive and run Zorro from there?
A. Yes. Make
sure that you have full access rights to that drive.
Q. How can
I add another asset
to the
Asset scrollbox?
A. Open the History\AssetsFix.csv spreadsheet
with Excel or with the script editor, and add a new line with the parameters of
the new asset. The details are described in the manual under
Asset List. For backtesting that asset you'll
also need to download its price history.
Q. Why
do I get different results
for the trading systems from the tutorial / the Black Book?
A. Because you're testing them probably with different
asset parameters. Margin, leverage, and transaction cost change from
week
to week and from broker to broker.
Q. Why do I get
different backtest results
with Zorro than with my other trading platform?
A.
Read here why.
Q. How
can I get historical data
for training and backtests?
A. Recent data for the Z systems is available on the
Download page.
Forex, index, or EOD data can be downloaded with the
Download script. M1 data for US stocks and EOD options data can be
purchased from
info@opgroup.de.
Q. How
can I use an MT4 expert advisor with Zorro?
A. Read here how to convert MT4 indicators or "expert
advisors" to Zorro scripts.
Q. I
have the C source code of an
indicator. How can I
use it with Zorro?
A. Coding indicators is described in workshop 4a
and in Petra's articles on
Financial Hacker. The
plain C code can normally run unchanged, but you need to remove its framework, such
as main() functions, DLL export declarations, or C library headers. You can find
an example here. Read here
about the differences between standard C code and Zorro's "lite-C" code.
Q. Sometimes I edit a strategy, but the changes I made are
not reflected in the test. Sometimes I can't even
save my changes, and cannot find the
.log file or the .csv trade history in the Log
folder. What happened to the changed files?
A. You have probably
installed Zorro not in the recommended folder, but in a folder with only limited
access (such as Program Files).
Q. How can I compile my script to an
executable for avoiding to have its source code on a server?
A. Select Compile to Exe in the [Action]
scrollbox. Your script will be compiled to a machine code .x file from which
the source code can not be retrieved anymore. You need
Zorro S for this.
Q. I have
my own set of signals in an Excel file with time stamps. How can
I test them with Zorro?
A. Export them from Excel to a .csv file.
In your Zorro script, import them in a dataset with the
dataParse function. Then use the dataFind
function at any bar to find the record matching the current date/time, and retrieve
your signals from the record.
Q. I
made a small change
to my script, but now get totally different results
in the backtest. Surely this must be a Zorro bug?
A. You can quickly find out by following the procedure under
Troubleshooting. Generate logs from both script
versions and compare them. Especially, compare the first two trades from start
to end. You'll normally see then immediately the reason of the different
results.
Q.
My script does not work. I
get: "Error 111 - Crash in run()". I don't know what's wrong - how
can I fix it?
A. Finding and fixing bugs is also described under
Troubleshooting.
Q. It does not still work. I have a support ticket - please
fix my script!
A. Zorro Support can answer technical questions, help with technical issues, and
suggest solutions. But we are not permitted to write, modify,
analyze, debug, or fix user scripts. If you need someone to debug and fix your
code,
we can put you in contact with a programmer.
Q. What's
the price for coding a strategy?
A. Depends on the strategy.
Development fees start at EUR 170 for a simple indicator-based strategy.
Complex options trading strategies or machine learning systems can be in the
EUR 1000 or 2000 range.
Send a description of your system and you'll get a quote for the development.
The simpler the system, the smaller the cost. If you want, download our
NDA before.
Q. I'm using global variables in my
script. When I run it the second time, it behaves differently than
the first time.
A. Static and global variables keep their content until
the script is modified or compiled. If necessary, set them to their initial values
on script start, like this: if(Init) MyStaticVar = 0;. Read more
about local, global, and static variables here.
Q. How can I find out
if the last trade
was a winner or a loser?
A. If
LossStreakTotal is > 0, the last trade was lost.
Q. How do I place two pending orders
so that the order that's opened first cancels the other one?
A. Place the first pending order, and check in its TMF
if the entry condition of the second order is fulfilled. In that case enter the
second order at market, and close the first while it's still pending.
Q. How can I count the
number
of winning trades within the last N trades?
A. Use a
for(all_trades) loop, and count the number
of closed trades. As soon as the number is above the total number of closed trades
(NumWinTotal+NumLossTotal) minus
N, start counting the number of winning trades.
Q. How can I place two different profit
targets so that half of the position closes when the first one
is hit, and the rest on the second?
A. The best and simplest solution
is opening two trades with two different profit targets, each with half the lot
volume. If your broker does not allow opening several trades at the same time, use
OrderDelay for delaying the second trade a few seconds.
Q. How can I run a function
on every price tick of a certain asset?
A. Use a
tick function. It will be executed every time when a new
price quote arrives. Note that the tick execution frequency will be different in
real trading and in the backtest, due to the fewer price ticks in M1 price data.
If this is an issue for the particular strategy, use t1
price data.
Q. My candles appear
time shifted compared to
the same candles in another trading platform.
A. The other platform
probably uses a different time zone, and/or timestamps from the candle open
prices. Zorro uses UTC time and timestamps from the candle close prices. Read
here about bars and time stamps.
Q. How can I skip all bars that fall
outside market hours?
A. Bars are normally added whenever price
quotes of the traded assets arrive from the broker API, regardless of the market
hour. For skipping them, either set the BR_MARKET
flag, or use the TimeFrame mechanism with individual
AssetMarket time zones. If you only want to skip
bars for a certain indicator, you can use a static series
and shift it during market hours.
Q. How can I
store variables
so that a new trading session automatically starts with their their last values?
A. Use AlgoVar or TradeVar
variables. They are preserved among sessions. If you have to store a lot more data,
save and load them with file functions.
Q. How can I
evaluate online
data that is available on a website?
A. Use a
http function (for accessing data directly from a website)
or the dataDownload or assetHistory
functions (for retrieving data from a web service). Google, Stooq, AlphaVantage,
Quandl, CryptoCompare, and many other services provide historical or current data
for most existing assets and indices, so you can use them for live trading as well
as in the backtest.
Q. How many
Zorro S instances can
simultaneously trade on a PC or VPS?
A.
The
number of
parallel
running programs on a PC is limited by the
available
memory, the internet bandwidth, and the CPU performance. In the case of Zorro, on
an
average
PC the limit is about
8..10
instances.
Q. I'm getting
error messages
when I try to connect to IB / Oanda / FXCM / MT4.
A. Read the manual about
IB / Oanda / FXCM
/ MT4 etc for learning how to connect to your broker
and which assets are available. The 3 most frequent reasons for connection failure
are wrong login data (user / password), a
wrong account type (demo / real) or a
server outage (at
weekends or holidays). The reasons of the errors are printed in the Zorro log or
in the case of MT4 or MT5, in their "Experts Log".
Q. I want
to trade with the MT4 bridge, but my MT4 has no Zorro EA.
A. You must install the MT4 bridge as described here.
Please also read the
remarks that cover all known issues of MT4
or MT5.
Q. Ok, I
have now installed the
MT4 bridge, but
it doesn't work. I'm getting error messages.
A.
You made a mistake with the installation.
Just try again. You will succeed when you follow the instructions in the
manual – we guarantee that. You can repeat the
MT4/MT5 bridge installation as often as you want.
Since installing the bridge involves
an unzip and copy operation on
your PC, some basic PC knowledge is required.
If you cannot do it, ask someone for assistance. Alternatively, oP group offers a
Zorro/MT4 installation service
by remote access. This, also, has 100% success guarantee.
Q. I've
set the stop loss in my script, but it does
not appear in my broker's trading platform.
A. Zorro won't tell your
broker about your stop loss unless you set it up to do so. Read under
StopFactor how a stop loss differs in Zorro and in your
broker's platform.
Q. My system does
not close
trades in live trading. It worked in the backtest.
A. In the
US, NFA compliant brokers do not allow you to close Forex trades (no joke!);
instead you have to
open a position in opposite direction. Zorro handles this
automatically in NFA compliant mode.
Q. My live system does often
not open or close trades - - and I'm sure that I don't live in the
US.
A. There can be many reasons for rejecting orders, but unless
you're trading outside market hours or with a very illiquid asset, it won't happen often. You can see the reason of the rejection in the
error message from your broker (such as: "No tradeable price"). If an open order failed,
enterLong / enterShort return
0.
Q. Where is the
live chart?
How can I visualize the price curve and the trade entries and exits in real time?
A.
For live charts use your broker's trading platform. Zorro is purely for automated
trading and does not display live charts, aside from the profit curve on the
trade status page.
Q. The candles on the Zorro chart are
different to the candles that I see on the
MT4 chart, and the
prices in the Zorro log are also different to the open/close prices in my platform
log.
A. Zorro displays generally ask prices in logs and on charts, while some
platforms, f.i. MT4, display bid prices on charts by default. And your live chart
is usually based on a different time zone and thus will display different candles.
Check the help file of your platform about switching it to ask prices and UTC time
zone.
Q. How can I
change the sounds
for entering, winning, or losing trades?
A. In your Zorro folder you'll find sound
files with names like "win.wav", "loss.wav",
or "open.wav". Replace them with your own sounds in
.wav format. Use Mute in Zorro.ini
for permanently disabling sounds.
Q. I run the same strategy with the
same broker on two different VPS. Both versions open different trades
although they should be identical.
A. With the same broker and account you'll
normally get rather similar trades. But they are not necessarily identical, especially
not with Forex or CFDs since any trade entry and exit is based on a individual price
quote. Differences in latency can also contribute to different trade entries and
exits.
Q. I'm a Zorro S owner and use two
Zorros for trading two strategies on the same real money account. In the moment
when the second Zorro logs in to the account, the first one
logs off
and the server indicator gets red.
A. Your account is limited to a single
session by your broker. Contact your broker and ask for activation of multiple sessions
for your account.
Q. Sometimes my system opens
trades
that do not appear in the broker platform.
A. Those are
phantom trades, used for equity curve trading or for
virtual hedging. You can distinguish them in the log from
real trades by their winged brackets {..} as opposed to the rectangular
brackets [..] of real trades.