Basic backtesting in Excel: Conditions, logic, and stats
Pat yourself on the back if you've come this far in the little backtesting mini-course. After many posts, we've basically gotten data into a spreadsheet and calculated some moving averages.…
The beginning of another trend in Nasdaq stocks?
A few months ago I wrote a post on a certain kind of trending pattern I have called "slide along the bands." This pattern is characterized by a market that…
Basic backtesting in Excel: graphs and first calculations
Continuing on with the short series on backtesting in Excel, let's look at some tools to visualize data and make some simple calculations. Excel is a good tool for quick…
Basic backtesting in Excel: issues with data
If you've been following along with the short Excel course, you've created a spreadsheet using SPY daily data, and added daily TLT data to the sheet in another column. I…
Surfing the market waves: the nested pullback
Patterns are important in trading; you might even say that trading is basically a game of recognizing the right patterns and doing the right thing when they happen. Most of…
Basic backtesting in Excel: More data
Today, we will add another data series to our file we created yesterday that had daily SPY data in it. It's not quite as simple as pasting the new data…
Basic backtesting in Excel: Getting data
Continuing from yesterday's post, let's roll up our sleeves and get into the process of managing data in Excel. The purpose of this short series of posts is to give…
Basic backtesting in Excel: Introduction
I've received many questions about how to do basic backtesting in Excel. I think I wrote in my book that we all have a love/hate relationship with Excel: it's a…
No, it’s not all the same
I'm convinced that one of the biggest lies of traditional technical analysis (TA) is that "you can apply any tool to any market or any timeframe with the same results."…
Five charts to start the week
I thought it might be useful to star the week with a look at trends and possible inflections in a number of major markets. Here's a quick look at stocks,…
Trading for a living: how much do you need?
The idea of "trading for a living" has, no doubt, motivated an army of new and developing traders over the years. Perhaps people look at their current jobs, and think…
Five steps to mental strength
A reader sent me a question this week on how to develop mental toughness in discretionary trading, noting that his own toughness seemed to be getting less tough as he…
MarketLife Ep 31 – Get tough: how to develop mental strength
I received a good question this week from a reader, Vladan: Adam, can you please talk in one of your podcasts about mental strength when it comes to discretionary trading…
It’s not what you think
I've been in this business for about two decades, and I've seen some... let's say... "stuff". One of the most interesting things is that everyone, in developing their process or…
What matters more than your process?
So, we live in a world in which investors are nervous. Everyone knows the Fed is going to raise rates, it's only a question of when and how much. Everyone…
Biotech: buy the dip?
Short answer: probably not. The long answer is more instructive, so let's get started. Context matters, but what does that mean? What is context? In this case, the longer-term relative…