Has anyone here programmed a strategy and have ran it for at least a year?

Hello.

I have been programming for twenty years, and studying the markets for about four years now. I have been programming a single strategy for the past few months ( I have a full time job and family, so time to work on this is not as much as I would like to devote to it ). My question is;

Have you programmed a system, and have you ran it live for a substantial amount of time ( a year or more )?

If so, can you give me some insight on the following:

My system, when back tested generates about 22% with about a 5% DD , this is true for the last 35 years. Is this a good goal?

I have avoided over optimization, but of course have spent many hours trying different combinations including watching it run while paying attention to any kind of variable I can focus on ( volume, top down, time of day, etc,.... ). Does this seem right, or am I basically over optimizing it?

Thank you for any insight you may be able to provide.
 -- THE FSM

Sure,

I am trading with my EAs for years.

Great, Thank You. Looking for insight into the process and what you are trying to achieve. I have been programming for years, but only been doing mql4 and trading for about four.

Thanks in advance

dkilmer posted:
Great, Thank You. Looking for insight into the process and what you are trying to achieve. I have been programming for years, but only been doing mql4 and trading for about four.

Thanks in advance

I use following setup
Have a trading idea --> code it --> run BT --> test on demo 3months --> test on small real 3 months --> put on bigger real --> make money. It takes about a year to get stable income from idea so you need to have many ideas:)

That is great to hear, Thank you.

What kind of percentages ( return, profit factor, DD ) are you aiming for?

Nowadays, the vast majority of trading platforms have powerful strategies optimization tools. Both the popularization of these tools (especially genetic algorithms), as well as the strong development of hardware for average users, with efficient machines with powerful processors and high calculation capacity, have been key factors in the spread of automatic trading.

togr posted:
Have a trading idea --> code it --> run BT --> test on demo 3months --> test on small real 3 months --> put on bigger real --> make money. It takes about a year to get stable income from idea so you need to have many ideas:)

I agree with this advice strongly. Always build up your system in small steps...move to the next phase only if it passes the expected performance or criteria.