Hi guys, I will try to keep this as concise as possible. I have a trading method which is as simple as "if price is moving confidently we take a position and when price is no longer moving confidently we close a position", there is a strict set of rules for "moving confidently". This is not the point of the topic so won't go into much detail. I backtested it previously in a discretionary way (with slightly less strict rules) and it works. I need to do an automated backtest of it, which I have already tried using Excel, but I quickly realized I won't be able to implement it efficiently due to lack of knowledge of things other than basic IFs, ANDs and ORs... Furthermore, Excel is very slow, even with what I have managed to implement so far. I use a candle aggregation method to create more trading opportunities (where we use smaller TF candles to construct a variety of larger TF candles with different opening times, i.e. M1 candles to produce M5 candles opening at 9:00, 9:01, 9:02 etc) and so there is a lot of data as well. Does anyone know where I can find a decent programmer who has background in trading as well? I have already had bad experience with a website called Fiver, got a full refund that time. I saw some people recommended upwork.com, but others were saying it is pretty rubbish for this kind of things. Any further advice on this? Many thanks.
I'm a programmer myself, I make a lot of money thanks to my algo. I am confident that ALMOST ANYONE can learn just enough to backtest a system in ~12 months. Learn how to code, it will be the best investment you'll ever make. Sure, it'll take some time, but you'll be able to tweak your algo anytime, anyway you want. Please don't get me wrong, this is my honest opinion. It's possible to find a programmer who can do the backtesting for you, but why would you want to do it while you can do it yourself while retaining all control?
I had a similar need in the past. Finding a programmer proved to be a serious challenge. Finally found a capable one and he was honest that he could do it but would require a lot of programming time and he said that would cost thousands of dollars. So depending on how important it is to you, I would just "Forward Test" for many trades and discover the risk/reward of your method. If you ever find an easy way please PM me. Thanks
step 1 get an idea step 2 get a programmer to code it. step 3 YOU test it. step 4 if it turns out to be a weiner go dammit because you didn't include non-disclosure/non-compete in step 2
I second forward testing. The algorithms of the pros move the markets so forward testing will show whether your algorithm is in sync with the pros. If it's not, then move on to a new trading rule.
That is everybody's method! You can hire a programmer, learn to code, back test, forward test, look at charts, study candles, learn the patterns, use screeners, and all the rest of it to try to predict the outcome, but you won't know what's going to happen until you put your money on the line. Have you done any actual trading?
I would suggest using same back testing platform as you will use for live trading. Once you know the platform, you will look for developer familiar with that specific platform.