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To: Fred Weiss who wrote (29320)	11/24/1997 6:48:00 PM
From: Tom Trader	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 58727

Hi Fred -- re your questions re TradeStation >>I have never been happy with the results of backtesting with regard to exiting strategies. I've tried all sorts of combinations of the built in stops and targets. What usually happens is a large amount of exits on the day of entry that seem to ignore what I think I'm instructing the program to do<< I know exactly what you are saying because I have had the same problem at times. Not so long ago I worked on a couple of promising systems based on Kevin's formulas. I was going to share the signals with the thread but I found that the system was exiting trades in a way that it was not supposed to -- and despite every effort to find out where I had gone wrong in writing the system, I was not successful. Now I do believe that the problem lies with my lack of expertise with EasyLanguage--because some time ago I was part of an Omega user group which seemed to have a lot of gripes about TradeStation but our problem was not one of them. I am not a programmer by background and have basically learned EasyLanguage from the manual and through trial and error. I have found that a reversal system is easier to write and is less prone to the problem of instructions not being followed. >>In fact, I have found that I can get a backtest on any variable to be 100% profitable by using just a trailing stop, which, of course, simply indicates that I'm not doing it right<< I think that the problem in this instance is that the tighter the trailing stop one uses, the greater the likelihood that the trades will all be profitable -- but will be profitable for very samll amounts. Now from a practical stand-point the slippage and commission costs will negate such small profits. >>Do you use any of the automatic exiting features of the program or do you write your own instructions?<< I use the profit target feature and the stop-loss feature when testing systems and for the system that I use for trading futures--though the latter is more to avoid a catastophic type of loss--in other words my stop-loss is large. >> Would you mind sharing some examples with me when you have time? Not sure what you have in mind--but I will be pleased to assist you anyway that I can. Regards