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Honest report: I've been using it wrong

DDrawdownDave· Jun 2026 ago· 👍 3· 💬 8
Not a complaint about the software. A complaint about me, posted in case it's useful. I've been treating the backtest as a way to justify ideas rather than test them. I run, I don't like the result, I change something, I run again. Eventually I get a number I like and I call that research. The tool didn't cause that and can't fix it. But it did make it fast, and fast is what let me do it forty times instead of four. Not sure what the product answer is, if there is one. Posting it because I suspect I'm not the only one.
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DrawdownDave
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8 replies

BacktestBetty· Jun 2026 ago· edited Aug 2026 ago
You're not the only one. The variation counter idea from my thread is the closest thing to a product answer, just showing how many runs you've done on one idea would make it visible.
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QuietVol· Jun 2026 ago
A run counter per strategy would be a genuinely clever intervention. It costs nothing and it changes what you know about your own process.
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DrawdownDave· Jun 2026 ago
I would hate that counter, which probably means it would work.
TraderWeTraderWe Team· Jun 2026 ago
Noted, and thanks for writing it up plainly. We've seen the counter idea in Betty's thread too and it's on the list to look at — no timeline promised. The honest limit is that we can show you the count, we can't stop you from ignoring it. Anything that hard-blocks reruns would just push people to duplicate the strategy and start fresh, which is worse because then the history is gone.
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LurkerLee· Jun 2026 ago
Do you write down what result you expected before you hit run? Curious if that changes the itch to re-run.
GrandpaGrizzly· Jun 2026 ago
Forty runs on one idea. Son, back in the day I paid for data by the month and re-testing an idea meant a weekend with a legal pad, and I can tell you the pain was the feature. You'd sit there and think hard before you spent the weekend. Speed took the thinking-time out and nobody replaced it with anything. Stay humble.
SlowSwing_Sam· Jul 2026 ago· edited Aug 2026 ago
The counter you'd hate is usually the number worth looking at. Also, forty runs sounds exhausting. I'd have gone outside somewhere around run six and the idea would still be there when I got back.
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DrawdownDave· Jul 2026 ago
@LurkerLee no, and that's the whole rot right there. I write down what I hope for after I see it, which is not the same thing. Tried a version of this once with a pairs idea — swore I had an edge, then found I'd quietly moved the lookback three times to get there. Lost real money on it and only understood why months later, going back through my notes. The notes were the only honest part.
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