Track Record

[marishkac]

I am trying to conduct consumer research and understand how valuable building a track record based on forward performance testing is?

• Would you use verification or audit of paper trades to demonstrate how effective a certain strategy is ? Let's say if you combine in with other things like technical analysis.
• Will it be useful if you could test your idea with any initial investment amount across different markets?
• Was there a time in your career when you thought this kind of service would be useful, what were the circumstances?

If you can give me any feedback it would be greatly appreciated and very valuable to me.
Thanks

 

[switchblade]

Hi, Am currently paper trading 4 indices,3 commodities.Been doing it for over 5 months.Might continue doing so for another 2-3 more months till I get a grip on HOw/WHEN to trade effectively.THough,it's a more effective way to trade microlots on the live markets and I do employ the service of a an agency that gives me good BUY/SELL/EXIT signals compiled with a discussion forum/live chat which helps in trading together.Cheers.

 

[tomorton]

I never look at records of other traders' P&L per trade or per strategy or per calendar period. I never post my own either.

If I see a strategy or a modification to a strategy that appeals to me, if I can get hold of the guidelines / rules I will back-test it myself and then either demo trade it or trade it using tiny position sizes.

 

[drcruz]

I've finally dialed in my strategy. Now I continue back testing to optimize how much to risk per trade and to practice adjustment strategies. I eventually want to start an incubator fund w/ public 3rd party auditing to see if I can get funded. I have linked a couple of places on how to start a fund. I also listened to a Trend Following podcast on how important it is to develop marketing skills as well; I have links on how to get coaching in that area

 

[TWI]

There is paper trading and then there is real money trading. In my experience paper trading gives results which have a big skew to the upside vs. real money results. The reason being that paper trades often under estimate costs and slippage and also the psychology of running the system with real money where losses have a different effect on how you balance the portfolio risk vs, when it is just a test. I know there are people who will tell you this is not true and they can run a system just like paper trading and run it through big drawdowns. Well, I do not think that is the case with the vast majority of traders. It is why investors are only really interested in real money track records.