Dislikedone question: From your initial idea conception to live trading, what steps do you personally take to validate a trading idea before trading real money?Ignored
MT4/MT5 EAs/Indicators/Alerts coder
Free Expert Advisor with positive backtest results 5 replies
Visual backtest result different from non-visual backtest 0 replies
MT4 EA - strategy tester - backtest results inaccuracies 15 replies
Unhappy Weird results in backtest build 200.. need help! 7 replies
Backtest results! 7 replies
Dislikedone question: From your initial idea conception to live trading, what steps do you personally take to validate a trading idea before trading real money?Ignored
Disliked{quote} It's now few years that all my testings are on LIVE account (real money). Of course the risk taken for testing isn't like when I trade ...Ignored
Disliked{quote} Thanks for your comment FerruFx. Although I understand the benefit of doing this I'm just a little uncomfortable about going directly to a live account (albeit a small account trading smallest possible lot sizes) simply due to the amount of time needed to provide any useful results as to whether an idea is worth pursuing further.Ignored
Disliked{quote} You didn't get it ... Even 100% automated in Live like in the backtest, the results will be different. Don't need human intervention ... just that the market conditions are far different. You can use the EA on Live for 1 month ... then backtest this exact same period, you won't have the same results.Ignored
DislikedThey are useful. From them you can get several indications: If the system can generally be profitable What the profitability would be( winning v.s. losing trades) See your drawdown However, you cant rely on backtests 100%. In backtesting you get the best possible results, for instance, if one currency works better than other - it was just the best in that period, if the best results are in london session, again the same thing. Basically if the system was -15% over the year, but in december and july +40%, by adding the right filters, you would get,...Ignored
Disliked{quote} ...are you guys saying that would not have happened on a live account?Ignored
DislikedHey guys, I need some help here. I just don't understand what is wrong with this tester in mt4? Here is what happened: I'm doing some simultaneous tests (backtesting for the last 16 years), multiple algo systems (over 30 systems) each with hundreds of unique patterns, all with different variables. It's basically data mining operation using the default optimization feature in the tester........So as you know this takes a lot of processing power even on multiple CPUs, so I left the simulations to run for several hours...... And when I came back to...Ignored
DislikedBack testing can be a very useful exercise...but you do need to know what you are doing. Remember, during the back test, you want to simulate a live environment as close as possible. You should simulate price...you should simulate different market conditions...you should simulate slippage...you should simulate internet connectivity issues...you should simulate rapid price changes...you should simulate periods of low/high volatility...you should simulate latency. The more of these "intangibles" you can simulate, the closer to the live environment...Ignored
Disliked{quote} This is precisely what I have been doing with my EA. I spent considerable time back testing, but didn't know if I could trust the results. I decided to start running it live and then back test the same period and compare the results - it's the only way I could determine if the back test results were accurate. The results aren't exact due to slippage and what not, but trades that won, won, and trades that lost, lost. That is all I need to know. A few pips difference here and there don't bother me. The fact the live results produce profitable trades when it is supposed to gives me confidence in the back test results. Now, if there were discrepancies between the live and back test results like a winning trade on back testing that wasn't a winning trade live then I could not trust the back testing. So far 100% of my live results - in terms of trades won and lost - match the back testing results for the same period.Ignored
DislikedBack testing can be a very useful exercise...but you do need to know what you are doing. Remember, during the back test, you want to simulate a live environment as close as possible. You should simulate price...you should simulate different market conditions...you should simulate slippage...you should simulate internet connectivity issues...you should simulate rapid price changes...you should simulate periods of low/high volatility...you should simulate latency. The more of these "intangibles" you can simulate, the closer to the live environment...Ignored