Portfolio Backtester does not manage a Portfolio
Posted: Nov 04 2011
I have a question/concern about the Portfolio Backtester
Despite the signal stating "if marketposition=0 then…." , the Backtester allows multiple open positions to occur. The marketposition statement seems to only hold true for the same stock, but if backtesting on a basket of stocks it allows a number to be open at the same time should conditions be met.
To me this does not help with portfolio management at all.
It simply saves time testing the signal against many stocks or commodities, doing them at the sime time, rather than one after the other.
It does not help answer the question,....... If I had 100k to invest, what would the outcome be after x no. of trades or y amount of time , knowing that the maximum I could trade was starting with a total of 100k spread across all open positions, not just each different one.
Ideally the Portfolio Backtester would then use the new account size (Total Acct = Acct + netprofit) represented by the sum of the profits and losses to-date, but sadly it only seems to do this in respect of each individual stock.
Hence, in my opinion the portfolio backtester should be renamed more simply as Backtester.
I would love to see true portfolio testing available in the next enhancement.
BTW, I have looked up a number of threads about changing Max Potential Loss to 100% and a few other tweaks in Portfolio Settings, but the basic outcome is the same ……..it does not appear to limit trades to a COMBINED value as set in the signal or portfolio settings.
Please tell me if I have overlooked something (Backtester documentation currently = 0)
else
MC Please provide the enhancement.
In my opinion, and I have met some truly awesome traders, money management and portfolio management is where the real dollars are made. If Multicharts can do something spectacular with that I believe many more traders/investors would be interested (appealing to MC's commercial interests here).
Despite the signal stating "if marketposition=0 then…." , the Backtester allows multiple open positions to occur. The marketposition statement seems to only hold true for the same stock, but if backtesting on a basket of stocks it allows a number to be open at the same time should conditions be met.
To me this does not help with portfolio management at all.
It simply saves time testing the signal against many stocks or commodities, doing them at the sime time, rather than one after the other.
It does not help answer the question,....... If I had 100k to invest, what would the outcome be after x no. of trades or y amount of time , knowing that the maximum I could trade was starting with a total of 100k spread across all open positions, not just each different one.
Ideally the Portfolio Backtester would then use the new account size (Total Acct = Acct + netprofit) represented by the sum of the profits and losses to-date, but sadly it only seems to do this in respect of each individual stock.
Hence, in my opinion the portfolio backtester should be renamed more simply as Backtester.
I would love to see true portfolio testing available in the next enhancement.
BTW, I have looked up a number of threads about changing Max Potential Loss to 100% and a few other tweaks in Portfolio Settings, but the basic outcome is the same ……..it does not appear to limit trades to a COMBINED value as set in the signal or portfolio settings.
Please tell me if I have overlooked something (Backtester documentation currently = 0)
else
MC Please provide the enhancement.
In my opinion, and I have met some truly awesome traders, money management and portfolio management is where the real dollars are made. If Multicharts can do something spectacular with that I believe many more traders/investors would be interested (appealing to MC's commercial interests here).