Index futures back testing?

Discussion in 'Strategy Building' started by farmerjohn1324, Oct 27, 2022.

  1. rb7

    rb7

    The trick is to backtest with tick data.
    But I guess, none of the available commercial solutions support that.
     
    #21     Oct 27, 2022
  2. good to know -thanks
     
    #22     Oct 27, 2022
  3. Bad_Badness

    Bad_Badness

    Yeah the engines are not able to deal with per tick resolution. In fact they barely deal with then Open-Close-High-Low resolution consistently. To wit you can play forward bar by bar, go back one bar and it recalculates resulting in "finding" new OCHLs that were always there. Just something you have to work around.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2022
    #23     Oct 27, 2022
    mason macgregorson likes this.
  4. lmseldin

    lmseldin

    What I do, is look at the associated ETFs. Not the same, but does not need to roll over. So for S&P 500 I use SPY. Years ago, when I used eSignal, they had symbols for futures that were combined into a single asset symbol. Have not used them in years, so not sure how current this is.
     
    #24     Dec 17, 2022
  5. lmseldin

    lmseldin

    "Is there any software that allows for backtesting if index futures? And any good platforms for algo trading index futures?"

    As far as back testing software, I recommend looking at WealthLab. Can be used for easy building of basic strategies with canned indicators and can do complex programming. It has been around for many, many years. It has full set of metrics for analysis, etc.
     
    #25     Dec 17, 2022
  6. Is WealthLab also a brokerage? If not, what trading platforms can it be used with?
     
    #26     Dec 17, 2022
  7. ph1l

    ph1l

    https://www.wealth-lab.com/Software/Features
     
    #27     Dec 17, 2022
  8. virtusa

    virtusa

    I backtest based on tickdata. But I do this manually in NT8. Takes a long time but gives most accurate results. I need 4-6 hours to test one week of data/trades. Years ago I tested over 10,000 trades to build a good system. And after 20 years that system still works.

    An additional, but for me very important advantage, is that I saw in slow motion what happened. From that slow motion I learned alot about how the markets work and how my system reacted on it. At least for my trading system.

    I don't like the "IT" approach where you write code, run it and receive a summary without even seeing how your system created that summary. Kind of a magical blackbox. Most people then try to optimize the parameters. And a few days later have to optimize the parameters again, and again...

    A well build strategy does not need a second optimization as that strategy would adapt automatically to changing market conditions.
     
    #28     Dec 18, 2022
    rb7 likes this.