Been trading for years, but have not been able to go systematic. i worked with tradestation a few years ago but didn't get very far. i have some ideas that i would like to seriously backtest but don't know where to start. Please advise the best way to go about getting this done. thanks
I will share my experiences with you. I backtested for years using purely technical data with very little success. After that I started testing by hand using catalysts and technicals which helped me find my niche. I used Excel to log in the trades and chart my performance, and Interactive Brokers papertrading simulator for execution. Make sure the vehicles you test have enough liquidity and relative strength to justify taking a position. The hard part is filtering through candidates and narrowing down the selection. If you trade one vehicle then you should not have that problem. Good luck.
You can write Expert Adviser in MetaTrader4 and then backtest it in historical data. If you know C++ programming language it will be easy for you. If you see that backtesting results are good you can use the Expert you wrote for regular trades without your interaction.