Gold: "When you know, and you know that you know, your confidence changes what some people might deem as high risk, into a simple matter of probabilities. You have learned through the pass of pain, to train your rational mind to consistently execute a predefined systematic response, when your emotional mind may be trying to compel you into doing something else. You are the discipline, you are consistent,â¦you do not need to look outside of yourself to find them in any method, or in any person. You carry them with you,...wherever you are." Thanks KDA for sharing this.
Question: why do people backtest? It seems to me that market participants (buying and selling) change all the time. So what's the need to back test? Sorry if this is a dumb question.
Not a dumb question. It might look like it changes all the time, but it really doesn't, price makes reoccurring patterns all the time, usually based on either emotions or group like same signals. Ninety percent of what I test now has to do with money management, what to do after I have entered. I have steadily gone to over forty "patterns" and have developed rules of how to exit or possibly exit. So much information is gained thru backtesting, how much to risk, reward, how long to stay in, when to disregard a signal, when to double/triple up, average down. It can alter what you once thought was a good trend identifier, testing can show that slower indicators work better than faster for my style. How one triangle breakout early in trend is great to take while deeper in trend might offer less chance of being profitable, slope of trendlines. As many ideas you can dream up, best to test them out before putting your money to risk.
All patterns are the result of buying and selling. Wouldn't it be more worthwhile to study the buying and selling, rather than searching and back testing for patterns? Patterns might look the same yet different.
As to the OP, i like trading because i like to discover (about myself. life, and the world), learn, and find the truth.