Blog

Notes on backtesting, indicators, and building systematic trading strategies.

Education

What Is MACD and How Do You Use It Effectively in a Backtesting Strategy?

Learn how MACD is calculated, what its signals mean, and how to test it without overfitting. Includes practical settings, rules, and pitfalls.

Education

Trend-Following vs. Mean-Reversion: Choosing the Right Strategy for the Market Regime

Trend-following tends to work best in persistent directional markets, while mean-reversion often fits range-bound conditions. The key is matching the strategy to the regime.

Education

RSI Explained: Overbought, Oversold, and Why the Naive RSI Strategy Usually Fails

RSI is useful for spotting momentum extremes, but simple buy-low/sell-high rules often break in strong trends. Learn how RSI works and how to test it properly.

Education

Monte Carlo Simulation for Trading Strategies: What It Is and Why It Matters

Monte Carlo simulation stress-tests a strategy by reshuffling or resampling returns to estimate the range of possible outcomes, not just the average backtest.

Education

What Slippage and Commission Drag Mean in Backtesting

Slippage and commissions can turn a profitable backtest into a weak live strategy. Learn how to model both realistically and avoid optimistic results.

Education

Correlation and Diversification: Why Five Similar Strategies Aren’t True Diversification

Diversification only works when strategies behave differently. If five systems all lean on the same market regime, you may just be multiplying the same risk.

Education

What Is Overfitting in Backtesting, and How to Avoid Curve-Fitting Your Strategy

Overfitting happens when a strategy is tuned to past noise instead of repeatable market behavior. Learn the warning signs and practical ways to reduce it.

Education

What Is a Macro Regime Filter, and How It Improves Trend-Following Strategies

A macro regime filter helps trend systems trade only when market conditions are favorable, reducing whipsaws and improving risk-adjusted returns.

Education

Do Fibonacci Retracements Actually Work, or Are They Self-Fulfilling?

Fibonacci retracements can help frame pullbacks, but their edge is often weak unless combined with trend, volatility, and risk rules.

Education

ATR (Average True Range): Using Volatility to Size Stops and Targets

Learn how ATR measures market volatility and how traders use it to place stops and targets that adapt to changing conditions.

Education

What Is Position Sizing, and Why It Matters More Than Your Entry Signal?

Position sizing controls how much you risk per trade. A mediocre signal with disciplined sizing can survive; a great signal with oversized bets can fail fast.

Education

Understanding Max Drawdown: The Risk Metric That Matters More Than Returns

Max drawdown shows the worst peak-to-trough loss in a strategy. It helps you judge whether returns are worth the pain and capital risk.

Education

Bollinger Bands Explained: Mean-Reversion vs. Breakout Strategies

Learn how Bollinger Bands work, when they favor mean reversion or breakouts, and how to test both approaches without overfitting.

Product

From Backtest to Paper Trading: How to Validate a Strategy Before Risking Real Capital

Learn a practical validation workflow from historical backtests to paper trading so you can spot weak strategies before putting real money at risk.

Education

Backtesting 101: Why a Great Backtest Doesn't Guarantee Live Returns

A strong backtest is useful, but it can still fail in live trading due to overfitting, costs, regime shifts, and execution gaps.

Education

What Is a Sharpe Ratio, and What Counts as Good for a Trading Strategy?

Learn how Sharpe ratio measures risk-adjusted returns, how to calculate it, and what “good” looks like in real trading strategies.

Product

What Is Algovex? A Visual, No-Code Way to Build and Backtest Trading Strategies

Algovex lets traders design strategies with drag-and-drop nodes, then test them on historical data before risking real capital.

Product

Walk-Forward Analysis: Why In-Sample Backtests Can Be Misleading

In-sample backtests can look great and still fail live. Walk-forward analysis helps test whether a strategy adapts to changing market conditions.

Product

How to Build Your First Trading Strategy Without Writing a Line of Code

Learn how to turn a trading idea into a testable strategy using visual tools, backtesting, and validation methods—no programming required.

Product

How Algovex Turns a Plain-English Strategy Idea into a Tradeable Backtest with AI

See how Algovex can take a simple strategy idea in plain English and help you shape it into a testable, backable trading system.