Quote from maos:
Morgan, thank you on your reply, it was just the kind I was hoping for.
I believe that , at least in this context, by results you mean profit or %return...
Profit figures are one of the things I pay least respect to because I believe that they are influenced by so many different uncontrollable elements that they are all but unpredictable in any way.
During development I focused on measurments like %win, payoff /winloss ratio, %drawdown as well as robustness of overall strategy in the terms of keeping those figures as constant as possible over different stocks and market cycles.
I am aware of that, but what I wanted to accomplish when I finished developing this strategy is to see how it could cope with everything I could ''throw'' at her in terms different price data, changing market conditions, cycles, volatility and so on
I designed this strategy with all that in mind, trying to accomplish that the strategy checks the history of each stock it trades(on a year by year basis) and adjusts to that particular stock and it's characteristics. Which, I believe, is why it performs well over any portfolio i test it...So, I'm not entirely sure that I understand the effects the absence of entirely independent tests could have on my system performance.
I know for certain that what the overall market does affects the performance of my strategy, because it forms an index of stocks in a portfolio it trades and blocks certain trades in respect to what that index does...considering that every portfolio has 130+ stocks, the index that is formed resembles the market index(in some cases closely)...here again pops out the question of independent tests...suggestions?
Yeah, that is the main problem. I initially planned on developing three systems that would later be combined into one master system: one for rising markets(long), one for declining(short), and one for sideways markets(long)...the first two are finished and I plan on developing the third as soon as i get started trading what I finished because I can't afford to wait for six more months...
So, to answer your question, I believe(hope) I know the reason. The market stopped rising and went into a kind of sideways mode after an uptrend which is the ugliest period for the strategy at this stage.
Long strategy is still signaling trades( that after entering just keep falling...it isn't the pullback the strategy belives it is, but down move during sideways action which tend to be larger ) because the downtrend hasn't really started, which is the reason the short part of the strategy isn't making enough money to account for the losing long trades...the part where the sideways part of the strategy would fit in nicely.
tried already... both break down completely...
Systematic pullback buyers out there are welcome to share their experiences...
Your priority should be to minimize the losses in this directionless market.
Is their anyway you can test your strategy from 1965-1980, that may help you.