In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we discuss market data for backtesting.

Topics covered:

• Data for backtesting is far different (and easier) than for real-time trading
• Like "free" commissions, you typically get what you pay for when it comes to market data
• Choices come down to whether you need intraday data
• Avoid overengineering - no premature optimization!

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!

In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we interview Trent Smalley with DTN and IQFeed.

We discuss:

• Why it makes sense for traders to pay for market data when brokers offer it for free
• Where bad ticks you see in your charts actually come from
• What happens to market data before it hits your feed
• When you know you're ready to upgrade to a high quality feed

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!

In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we continue the discussion of using AI agents for strategy creation gruntwork.

Topics discussed:

• Delegation skills are important - the more specific, the better
• How Dave's approach differs from Michael's regarding Claude use
• How to implement "unit tests" for your trading strategy
• Developers always want to build - here's why you shouldn't
• Starting points for developers

Much more...

I think this was the best one yet on AI.

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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 continue last week's discussion on using Claude and OpenClaw to automate strategy creation.

We touch on:

• How to get AI to do the grunt work so you can be the CEO of your trading
• Why Michael switched from OpenClaw to Claude Code
• Teaching Claude to automate Amibroker (hint: point it here)
• How giving Claude Prop Firm constraints helped focus its work
• Auditing its work is critically important - the more you understand, the better

Much more, including the next steps of using the Cruncher in this process...

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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 discuss Michael's project for having OpenClaw create and run backtests from his list of research ideas for trading strategies.

• His agents have created over 200 backtests
• How they've primed the backtests to be used in the Strategy Cruncher
• SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) have paved the way for this workflow
• AI as a research assistant/intern for your trading business

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 cover:

• Making mistakes early when they're relatively cheap
• Focus on scaling wide versus scaling up
• Learn R-multiples - it normalizes your performance as your account grows
• Become the best in the world at a very specific strategy (it's not as hard as you think!)

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!

In this week's episode of Line Your Own Pockets, we discuss trading with a small account.

Topics discussed:

• Don't wait until you have "enough" money to start learning
• How trading with a small account is an advantage
• Funding options: an overview of the prop trading landscape
• No matter how big your account is, your trading strategy is paramount - focus on that
• Lessons learned at this stage will be valuable to your trading forever

And much more... including my rant about a trading mistake I made just before we recorded this.

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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!

If you've ever wondered if you're curve fitting with your trading strategy, this episode is for you.

We discuss:

• Curve fitting is a continuum, not a binary yes/no condition
• Every strategy has a little bit of curve fitting
• Let's say you wanted to maximize curve fitting. What would you do?
• Easy ways to avoid curve fitting

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!

Michael and I discuss how to think about improving your column library over time.

We discuss:

• How your column library is like a shared software library: build once, reuse everywhere
• Continuous variables are better than binary variables (e.g. Above/below a moving average)
• The MACDV case study - MACD normalized by ATR
• How intra-trade columns allow testing multiple concepts with a single backtest

And much more...

Here's a link to the previous episode mentioned: The Key to Backtesting - Your Library of Columns

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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!

Topics discussed:

• Profitable traders don't follow the crowd - or any particular trading guru
• Healthy attitude towards trading and risk
• Making great trades is the goal - ironically, the money is almost secondary
• Day trading is key (don't believe me? Just do the math)
• Automation is a massive trading edge

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!