Lessons Learned From Profitable System Development

Quote from acrary:



There's been a dropoff in both trendiness and volatility this year.
That's usually bad news for profits.

Here's something that shows the trendiness and volatility for the past 5 years, last year, and this year. It can be used for comparing one period against another but not for saying things like trendiness dropped 20% this year compared to last.

Interesting, I'm always looking for methods to messure ...

How did you calculate trendiness and volatility ? What did you use ?
 
Quote from TriPack:

5) If the results look too good to be true, double and triple test everything. If it still looks too good to be true, forward test it. It is usually about that point when you figure out why it looks better than it performs.

Hmmm, I would state: Only take roll-forward results, never take in-sample for "real".
 
Quote from acrary:



My production models are in two broad categories: money flow and breakouts. The money flow is one model based on inflows/outflows to mutual funds with a 1 week hold timeframe.
The breakouts are split into many sub-categories like (volatilty breakouts, opening range breakouts, trend continuation breakouts, daily reversal breakouts, mid day continuation breakouts, time of day based breakouts, trend day breakouts). I've tested just about every other kind of system I can think of. In all I track the results of about 25 models on a monthly basis. I'm trading against 8 of the models (which I found is all I can handle). The easiest way I've found to come up with ideas is to take a blank piece of paper and draw two or three bars. Come up with all the different ways the bars can show up and classify the description yourself. For instance, two rising bars could be a continuation, or if the first bar is smaller than the second, it could be a volatility breakout.

So far this year volatility breakouts have been the best and most consistent performer for me. Trend day breakouts have also done very well. Opening range breakouts didn't have much followthrough earlier this year. Continuation and reversal breakouts have done well, but there haven't been many of them.

Now..that's really food for thought this weekend:)

I also took a similar approach to use different breakout models to capture different market behaviour, but I was only able to discern three categories of breakout, volatilty breakout, opening range breakout and reversal breakout. Base on these concepts , I then create variation models using different measures of volatility or reference points.

I hope we are talking about the same thing when I use these terms:) ). I have looked at the performance summary of prod5 you posted on another post and the it really kick my system 's ass .:)

Some of your other sub-catorgories (mid day continuation breakouts, time of day based breakouts, trend day breakouts)
seem to be pattern-based( definition of a trend-day?) , from my relatively little experience, these system seems to trade less (less overall profit) because the patterns act as stict filters and they also "seem" ( I am being very subjective here) to be less robust due to the increase in the number of parameters to discern the patterns.

I had some success in developing such system( their profit factor always beats the plain-jane breakouts) but they have never made into my arsenal because I always thought I was curve-fitting. But you have really made me think again. Are such system less robust to a extent than other breakouts systems?

My other question is how do you allocate capital to these system.
Because the trading frequency/overall profits of the models differ, do u give different weights to system to balance it out or do u risk the same 0.5 percentage( I remember you said this somewhere) on all models?

As another complication, do u use a seperate equity curve for each model or lump them together for position sizing purposes. So that if a system does better, the profits are invested back into the system?
 
Quote from 0008:



True! However, it depends on the market. Sometimes you can enter the market without rush. But you need to be quick in other situations. Of course, you can decide taking the signals or not but this may lead to cherry pick, a very dangerous practice.

What if one develops a method which will always gives him 5-10 min to enter , so there is no need to enter rather quickly ?
Walter
 
I think I can share some experience here on systems designed for index future ...

1. Different stage of a trader (beginner, experience, pro) requires different types of trading system. One size does not fit all :)

2. Beginners with less capital tend to need systems that trade more often, smaller targets and most important of all, very tight stop. Percentage winning is not that important. Key is to grow the account slowly and safely.

3, Most beginners like to widen their stops to increase the P/L and/or the winning percent. Due to curve fitting, they will likely experience the worst drawdown of the systems they've created when they go real-time. Use monte carlo simulation to check out the worst possible drawdown, that is usually bigger than the one reported from your backtesting program.

4. Worst case analysis - what if you do not get fill because your trades depend on limit prices, check out the worst case scenerio using your backtesting software - if it does not support that, do it by hand.

5. After successfully trade a low risk system real-time for a while, a beginner will acquire the basic skill set in terms of execution, reality check of a system comparing to real life condition, and some basic ability to analysis a system. Most important of all, ability to stick with the system rules :)

6. When you are ready for higher risk model, you can then design your new higher risk taking systems based on discoveries you've gathered trading the first few low risk ones.

To summarize it all, it is like learning to ride a bicycle. Most people cannot learn by jumping onto a real bike and start riding a steep down hill slope. It is easier to take it one step at a time.
 
Quote from droth:



Interesting, I'm always looking for methods to messure ...

How did you calculate trendiness and volatility ? What did you use ?

I wrote the programs myself. The idea for trendiness came from a article in TASC. Here's the link

http://store.traders.com/-v10-c01-futures-pdf.html

The volatility idea came from measuring a rolling mean and standard deviation. I'd have to go through an old notebook to find out the formula. It's simply measuring the dispersion around the mean for any given period.

I use the trend rating to rank the futures markets for a given period. It helps with researching trading methods. Here's the ranking for a 30 day holding period for this year.
 

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Quote from acrary:



I wrote the programs myself. The idea for trendiness came from a article in TASC. Here's the link

http://store.traders.com/-v10-c01-futures-pdf.html

The volatility idea came from measuring a rolling mean and standard deviation. I'd have to go through an old notebook to find out the formula. It's simply measuring the dispersion around the mean for any given period.

I use the trend rating to rank the futures markets for a given period. It helps with researching trading methods. Here's the ranking for a 30 day holding period for this year.

Thanx for sharing ... :)

Dierk
 
Quote from mail2smitty:


2. Get yourself a solid backtesting platform and use the hell out of it! You'll be amazed at how much of the stuff out there DOESN'T work. IMHO that's the most important feature of a backtesting platform - demonstrating that something doesn't work. This will also provide much needed exposure to the market's workings.

SO, SO TRUE, Smitty. Having spent several years woodshedding with the wonderful TechnifilterPlus (EOD only, darnit) has been such an eye opener. I am amazed at all the conventional TA wisdom that is still so highly touted that is just worthless. So many newbies get screwed up by believing this stuff. Testing is the great truthteller.

g
 
Amen to testing any system, Paper Trade in a realistic fashion until you can produce CONSISTENT results before tossing cash on the table. Good trading to all.
 
Quote from ges:



I am amazed at all the conventional TA wisdom that is still so highly touted that is just worthless. So many newbies get screwed up by believing this stuff. Testing is the great truthteller.

g

Some of the truest words I've ever read on ET
 
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