Dave continues helping Michael create a first backtest in Amibroker. You might think "backtesting is backtesting," but we cover many of the differences between RealTest and Amibroker, as well as their implications.

We discuss:

• What makes AI so bad at generating good AFL code for a backtest in Amibroker
• The better you get at understanding how AFL works, the better your use of AI gets
• How a column library makes all the difference in creating P&L
• Quick backtests can promote bad habits

And much more...

Dave also announces the new MabeKit AFL Generator tool.

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!

Dave offers advice and feedback to Michael, who is learning to use Amibroker for the first time.

He's coming from RealTest, so we go over the similarities and differences between the two platforms.

We discuss:

• How RealTest is great for daily data, but hits a wall for most intraday trading strategies
• Amibroker is not just a backtester; it’s a full charting, analysis, and execution environment.
• Backfilling with IQFeed versus Polygon (there is really no contest)
• Best practices for databases in Amibroker

Much more...

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!

We discuss the actual nuts and bolts of what running your trading like a franchise means:

• Systematize everything
• A process for eliminating low-value work
• What makes sense to outsource and what you should keep in-house
• Make your trading survive without you

And much more...

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!

As traders gain experience, the problem shifts from not having enough ideas to having too many ideas competing for limited time and mental energy. Without a system, this abundance quickly becomes overwhelming and leads to paralysis or procrastination.

We discuss the ICE method - a simple scoring method to determine which ideas to work on first.

Spreadsheet Link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iWG87jZ7KiANQzH9O8KwgtRRl5Wcd60Q/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112987133391354450813&rtpof=true&sd=true

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!

In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we take on a topic submitted by Isaac, a trader I work with.

We discuss:

• When timing/speed matters and when it doesn't
• The types of trading strategies where latency is likely the bottleneck
• How rushing to solve problems can be counter-productive (waiting can reveal simpler solutions)
• Concrete steps to determine if latency is really an issue and how to address it

And much more...

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!

We butt heads in this episode, arguing about the value of portfolio-level backtesting, one of the key feature differences between RealTest and Amibroker.

Is portfolio-level testing essential, or simply premature optimization?

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!

We discuss:

• How to optimize so you have to re-optimize as little as possible
• How better columns directly translate into more robust strategies
• Hold a rule "in reserve" so you can apply it when needed without full re-optimization
• Documenting previous optimization decisions will make the next strategy better
• And much more...

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!

We discuss:

• Similar to taking partial profits, moving a stop to breakeven is more about psychological comfort
• Profitable trading requires tolerating discomfort, as difficult as that is at times
• It seems like a simple idea to test, but it quickly adds significant complexity to a backtest
• How to actually test this in a backtest

This is a great example of the platitudes you often hear from people who are good at talking about trading, but don't actually trade.

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!

You didn't get a fill on your original entry.  The trade would have been profitable for a bit, then it comes back to your original entry price.  Do you take the trade?  We go in-depth, answering this common dilemma.

• Your default should be to take the trade if it still matches your system
• There's more information to decide on - what can you add to your backtest?
• What are post-entry columns, and how can they help?
• How deep thinking about the issue can help you create brand new strategies

Here's the original article Dave wrote on this topic.

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Before you go!

The next time you find yourself in a drawdown, I want you to stop what you're doing and head on over to betterbacktesting.com to sign up for my free backtesting email course.

I hope to see you there!