Hello guys - I've spent some relevant time during my summer holidays in backtesting my system, so to improve my trading practice and the system itself with the help of data. So, no personal bias, just numbers. As my preferred mentor in my early professional days used to say: "Numbers tell no lies. They are the only thing you can always trust".

I manually backtested thousands of trades for this year, 20k bars for each instrument, and the results are quite interesting, and worth sharing. To help the understanding of the figures this is the legenda:

-Pair (self explanatory, I hope)
-Best TF, it's the best timeframe for performance, I tested 1M/5M/15M/30M and 1H
-2ND Best, it's the second best timeframe for the pair
-Buy WR / Sell WR, it's the win rate in % related to all the trades backtested
-PF Buy/ Sell/ All, it's the profit factor for the longs. the shorts and the overall trades backtested.

Now let's take a look at the aggregated data:

Insights
-The majority of forex pairs and indices showed the best performance in 30M/1H timeframes
-Some GBP pairs and the Nikkei performed super well in the 5M TF
-Gold, BTC and Brent did their best in the 15M

I often read of new traders charmed by the 1M timeframe, my advice is to stay away from 1 and 5M for at least the first year of trading. Numbers here say that higher TFs bring less stress and more success, this is true for the Alkemix Trade System, but can bet my left hand that any other trend following system would score similar results.

Adrenaline is a great motivator, but also a poison, expecially if we are not experienced in managing the subsequent psychological states. I trade usually the 5M, but will think to switch to higher TFs in the next months. Numbers bring me in that direction, and we are here to make profit, not for the adrenaline. If this works good, I'd spend my extra time away from the charts playing squash or running, perhaps a better way to embrace some adrenaline rush.

Hope this helps some of you in your trading journey, for sure it is helping me to re-think my approach, after a decade of trading.

+C+

Hello Cagliostro, thanks for the time you spent on testing those instruments on different time frames, it's very useful information!

May I ask a few details about your strategy:

1. How do you get information regarding the entry point, do you get an alert from MT4 or do you just sit in front of the monitor and wait for the right set-up?
2. How do you calculate your SL and TP, is it a fixed number based on your personal risk management, do you use special calculation tools (like Fibo) or do you just take the last candle/swing?
Thanks in advance.

Hi there, EMAs have alerts, that is the signal that trend has started to follow your setup. You need the alignment of all the indicators and this requires you to monitor the chart. This is a manual system, I also have my personal automatic algo that helps for entries/ exits but it's something very complex that required years to be developed, and I would not share on a public forum for obvious reasons.

Regarding SL, they always go on the 1st or 3rd previous dot of the zigzag + some extra pips. If I feel super safe with the trade sometimes use very tight SL as well. You need your own analysis each time.

For TP, if I enter on small zigzag dots I exit at big dots.
If I enter at big dots, I exit at opposite arrows.

Classical Xard exits, there is nothing more profitable than this in my experience.