Backtesting Trading bots

Cryptocurrency markets have witnessed phenomenal growth in recent years, attracting experienced traders and new investors. A well-defined trading strategy becomes increasingly critical for success as the market evolves. One effective way to achieve this is by using backtesting. In this article, we will delve into the concept of backtesting, its benefits, and how you can use it in Gainium to optimize your crypto trading strategies.

What is backtesting?

Backtesting is the process of testing a trading strategy back in time to see how it would have performed on historical data and to find any potential improvements that could be made. This technique has been widely used in traditional financial markets, and its application in the crypto trading sphere has proven equally valuable.

Benefits of Backtesting in Crypto Trading

• Risk Management: One of the most significant advantages of backtesting is its ability to help traders manage risk. By analyzing historical data, traders can identify the potential drawdowns and gains associated with a strategy, allowing them to make informed decisions on risk exposure.
• Strategy Optimization: Backtesting enables traders to fine-tune their strategies by identifying the most effective parameters. This process helps optimize trade entry and exit points and other aspects such as stop-loss orders and position sizing.
• Performance Evaluation: Traders can gauge the effectiveness of their strategies by measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as the win rate, return on investment (ROI), and risk-reward ratio. This information is crucial in determining whether a strategy is worth pursuing.
• Emotional Control: By simulating the trading process using historical data, traders can gain experience and build confidence in their strategies, leading to better emotional control and decision-making during real market conditions.

Backtesting considerations

Keep the following in mind:

1. Past results are not indicative of future results. Just because a strategy performed well over some time, it doesn't mean that it will continue to do so in the future. Markets are dynamic, and the conditions may change at any time.
2. Backtesting tends to give better performance than real trading. This is because there are certain things the backtest will not be able to emulate, as they are related to the exchange itself. For example, when trading volume spikes over a short time, exchanges may be unable to fill your order. 
3. Backtesting software uses ohlc candles to backtest, but this can be problematic because it does not consider the order book and how different orders would have been filled at different prices. The greater the time frame, the greater the chance of inaccuracy.

Backtesting will never be able to replicate real-world trading conditions perfectly, so there is always a risk that your strategy may not perform as well in the future as it did in the past. With that said, backtesting can still be a valuable tool if used correctly. Backtesting can help you improve and optimize your trading strategy, giving you confidence before using it with real money. 

Moreover, while backtesting can sometimes give better results than actual trading, it does not give worse results than actual trading. If a strategy performs poorly on a backtest, it would have performed poorly in actual trading. Therefore, backtesting is a good first-pass filter, helping you avoid using underperforming strategies.

When backtesting a crypto trading bot, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Make sure to span a wide enough period encompassing different market conditions.
• Be aware of backtesting biases. Overfitting is a common bias that can occur when backtesting. Overfitting occurs when the strategy has been over-optimized to match the backtest data too closely, and therefore it will be very different of future performance. To avoid overfitting, it is important to test your trading strategy on a variety of data sets and to not make any assumptions about how the market will behave in the future.
• Take into account slippage and fees. Most people do not consider slippage and trading fees when backtesting, which can eat into your profits. When backtesting, make sure to factor these in to give you a more accurate idea of how your strategy would perform in the real world.

Performing a backtest in Gainium

With Ganium you can backtest your bot configuration right from the bot creation page to get a sense of past performance. This way, you can make the necessary adjustments and deploy your bot when satisfied with the backtesting results.

To backtest a trading strategy, click “Trading bots” on the sidebar and “+ New” to launch the new bot page. Here you can set the desired configuration for your bot, including deal start condition, Take Profit, Stop loss, DCA, etc. Then click the “Backtest” button at the bottom. The backtesting results will show in the panel underneath. 

Upcoming backtesting features

At Gainium, we understand that backtesting is essential for every trader. Our goal is to create the most reliable backtesting system in the market. So, while we are happy to launch the backtesting module, much work remains to be done. 

Stay tuned for more updates soon!