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Strategies & Market Trends : Befriend the Trend Trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: smchan who wrote (8186)	6/10/2000 2:16:00 PM
From: Ken Adams	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39683

Sam, I can't say you've changed my mind about the real value of backtesting. But, you definitely pointed out some flaws in my line of thinking about them. Hindsight is always a part of looking at these charts after the fact. Each weekend I put up a Timely chart of all the "best" prospects I believe are in my stable. Now, I'm at that hard right edge you mentioned. I ask myself what I'd do with this chart right now, this moment, if the market was open. Tough question! I don't do backtesting on hourly data, as I don't have access to it. I've done quite a bit of it though on daily data using Windows on Wall Street. I've set those tests to buy at the open the next day. This is more realistic than trying to buy at the close, but not by much. I think you and CatLady are right in that backtesting at least gives you something to compare with. But, as I said earlier, for me, the most valuable thing I do with these volatile charts is to actually eyeball them. If I see them throwing off pretty decent signals, I'll fall in love with them... for a few days <g>. Ken