Mechanical Forex

If you have read my posts during the past few months you will notice that I have become increasingly interested in the analysis of trading portfolios and the effect of trading several different systems together. After I was able to implement a solution that made the balance of Asirikuy experts independent it became possible to trade systems without their balance calculation becoming dependant on the other systems’ trades, something which in turn opened the door towards the merging of backtesting results to accurately evaluate joint performance of the different trading systems. Up until now all this analysis had been made through the use of SQL scripts and VBA macros which were implemented by several Asirikuy members. Thanks to their effort we were able to do accurate calculations on the draw down and profit characteristics of portfolios. However it became evident that these solutions to portfolio analysis were not very comfortable needing backtesting statement manual reorganization in excel followed by loading into an SQL server and then loading onto a separate excel spreadsheet to run VBA macros. For this reason we decided to start a project with an Asirikuy member (named Gábor) who offered some of his free time to do all the coding of this new draw down/profit analysis program. On today’s post I have the pleasure to introduce this little Asirikuy-exclusive utility, our own profit and draw down analysis tool :o).

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What is so great about this program, what does it do ? The program has many virtues that make it exceedingly good for backtesting statement analysis. The application allows us to load one or a series of backtesting statements joining them together automatically and calculating a series of very important characteristics which are not calculated on the metatrader backtester (not even the MT5 backtester). The program automatically calculates draw down periods, their length, their depth, yearly profits and monthly profits. Having all this information “a click away” is extremely important since it will allow us to do very fast Asirikuy portfolio analysis without having to through the cumbersome process needed to use SQL scripts for this purpose.
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The image above shows you one of the main characteristics of this software, displaying the equity curve for the loaded backtests (in this case three) plus the addition of their results to show you the “portfolio equity curve”. This instant snapshot of the equity curve is important since it allows you to see which systems were losers and which ones winners through the testing period you are evaluating. This in turn allows you to gauge the contributions to the maximum draw down and the overall risk level of the different systems, letting you know which system causes the most loses or profits.
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The above picture shows you perhaps the most useful feature of the software, the ability to display draw down period lengths and depth of a given portfolio with great easyness. This allows you to know the average extent of draw down periods and how long you would have to be prepared to wait if you want to use a given trading strategy. It gives an overall realistic picture of a system’s trading characteristics showing you why it is evidently hard to trade and what you should be looking forward to regarding eventual loses and losing periods. This draw down period analysis has become a very important part of system analysis within Asirikuy, letting us evaluate accurately worst-case scenarios and largest draw down period lengths.

Besides the features I have commented here, the software also has the ability to display monthly and yearly profits, important characteristics that are useful for determining the overall trading character of a given system. How profitable is the average month ? How many months are winners vs how many are losers ? What is the average yearly profit ? All these questions are answered by our new Asirikuy tool and its ability to dissect trading results into yearly and monthly statistics.

As time evolves we will be able to implement new features and correct bugs that may appear but currenlty this new profit and draw down analysis tool is a very nifty and welcome addition to Asirikuy. From later today, Asirikuy members will be able to download this piece of software from the Expert’s section of the website. If you would like to learn more about my journey in automated trading and how you too can start to design your own long term profitable systems based on sound trading tactics please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !