due to the volatility in the emerging markets, a simple trend follow scheme would give a profit factor >1.6, however the overall return still does not compare to buy and hold. I don't buy the argument that a trading strategy beats buy&hold with a lower return because it is in the market for less time. What are you doing with the ETFs? e.g. EZA, EWZ, EWY..... are you beating buy&hold?
I think the key variable is how far back you go to calculate returns. Of course buy and hold looks good right after a sharp run up. Go back to the emerging market disasters of the '90s and buy and hold would kill you.
Yes be careful of the time period that you're testing against... can end up with a lot of funny numbers But I trade them like any other vehicle.. charts look the same as anything else Although oft they are less volatile than some of the stocks I'm trading.