Thank you so much for this, I really need to hear this over and over again. I think I've been a sponge for quite some time, so I need to decide which one to pursue now and master it well. Appreciate it!
Agree! I've been doing backtests continuously, though I am not sure how to properly quantify what a good enough positive expectation is. Like there's always more to test, and I usually end into that spiral of making backtests more and more complex. I also doubt myself at times, and is constantly bugged by shiny new objects, instruments, and tools. As one person mentioned above, I'm kinda all over the place, and I need to be more intentional and specific this time. Hearing yours and others' comments on how to keep it simple and focused help a lot. Will keep on testing until I find what works for me
I'll start paper trading, and I won't be putting in a large capital for now until I get it right. I also read about trading sufficiently large $-volume assets when starting out, so I'll stick with those first. Hopefully I won't run into liquidity-related issues but thanks for the tip!
I tried backtesting something like this, e.g. when 3 out of 5 indicators are hit, etc. It's very complex to test, so I did not go further until I have a good automation platform to test combinations. I like that simple approach though! For sure easier said than done, so I need to practice some more.
It also makes sense into latest computer hardware. When you have a kind of double platinum xeon processor with at least 128 GB RAM and fast harddisks you can save a lot of time when you do your backtests. More computing power can help you a lot when doing research and backtests. That money invested here is a very good investment in your time.
Yeah, well that's why I didn't go for Wave59. Though "computer does it all" except place your trades, it bothered for its complexity. Here's what you do... Get a basic book on TA. Learn about "Support" and "Resistance". That's all you need. Simple to understand. Lots of trader wannabes poo-poo TA, but they don't understand. (And ETers don't want to listen to me, I think, because I say it's simple and they don't believe it.) I looked over the entire thread. Almost everything said, except for my posts, is either misdirecting or entirely wrong. One exception was YOUR statement... "Before I would usually backtest using previous lows as stop losses, and reward-risk ratios based on them." You were using "support" consideration as a stop loss. That is correct Price TA strategy!
You study history. Go through a thousand setups, Across all possible place and time. Become the master of, at least, one setup.
A trader could make a good living by being good at only one of the major "often occurring" setups. (Wouldn't do much to be good at only the 50 day and 200 day setups... they don't occur often enough.)