In the world of algorithmic and retail trading, the phrase "garbage in, garbage out" is the ultimate commandment. The quality of your backtest is only as good as the data you feed into your strategy. For serious traders—whether you are a quantitative hedge fund manager or a dedicated retail Forex scalper—one name consistently rises to the top when discussing tick-by-tick accuracy: Dukascopy .
While many brokers offer free historical data, Dukascopy stands apart. Known primarily as a Swiss online bank and Forex broker, Dukascopy has inadvertently become the world’s largest public repository of high-frequency Forex historical data. But what makes their data so special? How do you download it? And crucially, how do you avoid the common pitfalls of timezone misalignments and data gaps? dukascopy+historical+data
# Example pseudo-code from dukascopy import Dukascopy downloader = Dukascopy() data = downloader.get_instrument_history( 'EUR/USD', 'tick', '2010-01-01', '2023-01-01' ) data.to_csv('eurusd_10_years_ticks.csv') In the world of algorithmic and retail trading,
Open the CSV. You will see columns: Timestamp (GMT) , Open , High , Low , Close , Volume . Note the column headers. Dukascopy includes ASK and BID data separately by default. For backtesting, you usually want the Mid price ( (Ask+Bid)/2 ) or Bid price (for long entries). While many brokers offer free historical data, Dukascopy
| Feature | Dukascopy | Oanda | Yahoo Finance | Forexite | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Yes (2003+) | No (Only daily) | No | Yes | | Minute Data | Yes (M1) | Yes (M5+ only) | No | Yes | | Forex Depth | 60+ pairs | ~40 pairs | ~15 pairs | 30+ pairs | | Time Zone | Swiss Local (CET) | GMT | EST | GMT | | Cost | Free (Manual) / Paid (Bulk) | Free | Free | Paid after 1GB | | Reliability | High (Institutional) | High | Medium (Delayed) | Low |
Login to JForex. Press Ctrl + H or navigate to View > Historical Data .
MT4 uses the FXT format. You will need a third-party converter like Tick Data Suite or Forex Tester to map the Dukascopy CSV to MT4’s proprietary structure. Part 6: Comparing Dukascopy vs. The Competition To understand the value, you must compare Dukascopy against the other "free" giants.