We reveal how to analyze an equity curve for a group of trading systems and write a trading system for our trading system and take a look at the backtest. We export the end of day P/L for each of our strategies from Tradestation. Those equity curves are imported into Microsoft Excel and combined to do combined equity curve analysis for our trading system portfolios. We can then also export that combined equity curve and import it back into Tradestation to do equity curve analysis by testing different trading systems strategies.
We go over the statistics for our combined trading systems portfolio Stock Index Portfolio 26. The goal is to find a better way to "time" exits and re-entry into the portfolio to improve our returns by reducing risk. We test a long list of ideas.
There are three conclusions that stand out in this analysis.
1.) It is difficult to improve a trading systems portfolio by trying to time exits and re-entries.
2.) Since you start a set of strategies at some point, it is better to start trading when the strategies are in a hypothetical drawdown. The tests that start on equity curve breakouts are much worse than the strategies that start on a drawdown.
3.) There has been an obvious pattern since April where Monday's almost always lose. We show how the strategies perform better Wednesday through Friday in the short term but in the long term, trading every day is better.
As markets change, seeing strategy adjustments based on market observations can override this analysis. If a strategy or portfolio degrades, some of the ideas could improve out of sample results for this portfolio even though it doesn't improve the backtests.
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