Zorro records trades and other events in two files in the Log folder when the LOGFILE flag is set: a .log event log and a .csv trade spreadsheet. The .log file records the profit and price at every bar, and all events such as opening or closing a trade, adjusting a trailing stop, or a printf message by the script. If Verbose is at a higher level, it also records the daily state of all open trades, the daily profit or loss, and the current drawdown depth. Event logs are normal text files and can be opened with any text editor. Their content looks like this (the messages are explained under Log):
--- Monday 03.08. - daily profit +363$ --- [GER30:EA:L7407] +684.97 / +685.0 pips [GER30:HU:L7408] +684.97 / +685.0 pips [UK100:EA:L7409] +580.55 / +464.4 pips [USD/CAD:LP:S7612] +136.29 / +851.8 pips [USD/CAD:LS:S7613] +68.15 / +851.8 pips [AUD/USD:LP:L8412] +115.92 / +483.0 pips [AUD/USD:MA:L1511] +42.50 / +265.6 pips [USD/CAD:HU:S5412] +14.63 / +182.9 pips [AUD/USD:HU:L5413] +28.05 / +175.3 pips [GER30:EA:L7407] Trail 1@4746 Stop 4907 [5770: 04.08. 04:00] 6: 9289p 143/299 [GER30:EA:L7407] Trail 1@4746 Stop 4914 [AUD/USD:MA:L1511] Exit after 56 bars [AUD/USD:MA:L1511] Exit 2@0.8406: +38.71 07:36 [5771: 04.08. 08:00] 6: 9773p 143/299 [GER30:EA:L7407] Trail 1@4746 Stop 4920 [5772: 04.08. 12:00] 6: 9773p 143/299 [GER30:EA:L7407] Trail 1@4746 Stop 4927 [USD/JPY:LP:S7308] Short 1@94.71 Risk 8 [USD/JPY:LS:S7309] Short 2@94.71 Risk 29 [USD/JPY:HU:S7310] Short 1@94.71 Risk 13
The name of the log file is the script name with appended .log extension. If the script contains no asset call or if the first printf message precedes it, the name of the selected asset from the scrollbox is added to the log file name. Optionally a number (LogNumber) can be added to the file name, for comparing log files generated with different script versions. New log files overwrite old log files of the same name. For preventing that the Log folder gets cluttered with thousands of log files, Zorro can be set up in Zorro.ini to automatically delete old files.
Three exported spreadsheet files - testtrades.csv, demotrades.csv, trades.csv - contain a description of every trade in comma separated format for import in Excel™ or other spreadsheet or database programs. They can be used for evaluating trade statistics or for the tax declaration. testtrades.csv is exported in [Test] mode when LOGFILE is set. demotrades.csv and trades.csv are exported in in [Trade] mode, dependent on whether a demo or real account was selected. The latter two are perpetual files, meaning that they are never overwritten, but their content is preserved and any new trade sent to the broker is just added at the end. So they will grow longer and longer until they are deleted manually or moved to a different folder. Depending on the Comma setting, numbers are exported with either a decimal comma or point, and separated with either a semicolon or a comma; this is because German spreadsheet programs require CSV data to be separated with semicolon. A trade spreadsheet (generated with Comma) looks like this:
Meaning of the fields:
| Name | Algo identifier (see algo), or the script name when no identifier is used. |
| Type | Trade type, Long or Short. For options, also Put or Call. |
| Asset | Traded asset. |
| ID | Trade identifier number, also used in the broker's records. |
| Lots | Number of lots. Multiply this with the asset's lot size (see above) to get the number of contracts. |
| Open | Date and time when the trade was opened, in the format Day.Month.Year Hour:Minute. |
| Close | Date and time when the trade was closed., in the format Day.Month.Year Hour:Minute. |
| Entry | Trade fill price. If the fill price is not returned from the broker API, the ask or bid (dependent on Type) market price at trade entry. Not identical to TradePriceOpen, which is always the ask price. |
| Exit | Trade exit price. If the exit fill price is not returned from the broker API, the ask or bid (dependent on Type) market price at trade exit. For in the money expired or exercised options, it's the executed underlying price. 0 for out of the money expired options. |
| Profit | Profit or loss in units of the account currency, as returned from the broker API. Includes spread, commission, and slippage. |
| Rollover | Interest received from or paid to the broker for keeping the trade open overnight, in units of the account currency. |
| ExitType | Sold (by exitTrade), Reverse (by enterTrade), Stop (stop loss), Target (profit target), Time (ExitTime), Expired (options), Exit (by a TMF that returned 1), Cancelled (cancelTrade) or Closed (externally closed in the broker platform). |
The print(TO_CSV,...) function offers an easy way to
export backtest data or indicator values to a .csv spreadsheet in the
Log folder. Under Tips & Tricks some more examples can be found for exporting data to .csv files or for importing data from an external text file, for instance to set up strategy parameters.
When LOGFILE and a Curves file name is set in [Train] mode, the P&L curves of all optimize parameter steps are exported to a file with the given name. The same happens in [Test] mode when NumTotalCycles is set; the P&L curves of all cycles are then exported. The curves can be evaluated for research purposes, f.i. for a White's Reality Check. All curves are appended to the end of the file, so previous training or cycle runs from different scripts can add curves to the same file. The file can be deleted or renamed for getting rid of old curves. Any curve is stored in the following format in the file:
Here's a code snippet that reads all curves from a file and prints their identifiers and end values:
byte *Content = file_content("Log\\Balance.curves");
while(*Content)
{
string Name = Content;
Content += strlen(Name)+1; // skip the name
int *Size = Content;
Content += 4; // skip the size
var *Values = Content;
Content += *Size; // skip the balance array
int Num = *Size/8; // number of values
var Profit = Values[Num-1]; // end balance
printf("\n%s: %.2f",Name,Profit);
}