How to backtest a trading strategy step by step: define objective rules, choose data and software, read the key metrics, and stress-test before risking money.
Adrian Reid
Adrian is a full-time private trader based in Australia and also the Founder and Trading Coach at Enlightened Stock Trading, which focuses on educating and supporting traders on their journey to profitable systems trading. Following his successful adoption of systematic trading which generated him hundreds of thousands of dollars a year using just 30 minutes a day to manage his system trading workflow, Adrian made the easy decision to leave his professional work in the corporate world in 2012. Adrian trades long/short across US, Australian and international stock markets and the cryptocurrency markets.
His trading systems are now fully automated and have consistently outperformed international share markets with dramatically reduced risk over the past 20+ years.
Adrian focuses on building portfolios of profitable, stable and robust long term trading systems to beat market returns with high risk adjusted returns. Adrian teaches traders from all over the world how to get profitable, confident and consistent by trading systematically and backtesting their own trading systems. He helps profitable traders grow and smooth returns by implementing a portfolio of trading systems to make money from different markets and market conditions.
Stock Trading Courses in Australia: How to Choose
How to choose a stock trading course in Australia: what a course should teach, what AFSL licensing means for you, and the questions to ask before enrolling.
Jim Simons: Lessons From a Systematic Trading Legend
Who Jim Simons was, how Renaissance Technologies and the Medallion Fund worked, and what systematic traders can and cannot take from the greatest quant record.
Risk Of Ruin Calculator | Free Monte Carlo Tool For Traders
Most risk of ruin calculators assume your trades happen one at a time and have nothing to do with each other. Real portfolios hold several correlated positions at once. This one models that, and the difference is usually large.
Risk Of Ruin In Trading: Why The 2% Rule Fails
Risk of ruin is the probability your account falls to a level you cannot recover from before your edge pays you. Here is what 100,000 simulated accounts show about position sizing, and why the 2% rule is weaker guidance than it looks.
Trading Psychology Books: 9 Worth Reading (And 1 Warning)
I have read more than 150 trading books. Maybe 5 to 10 genuinely changed how I trade, and most of the psychology ones did not make that list. Here are the 9 worth your time, and the one problem none of them solve.
The Hedge Fund Graveyard: 62 Blow-Ups in 20 Years and What They Teach You
Every major hedge fund blow-up from 2005 to 2026 classified by cause. 62 funds, five charts, and the risk lessons every private trader should take from them.
Sharpe Ratio Explained: What It Tells a Systematic Trader (and 4 Things It Hides)
The Sharpe ratio is the finance industry’s favourite risk metric, and it quietly misleads traders. Here is what it measures, what a good value is, and the four things it hides, plus the drawdown-based metrics that tell you more.
What Is a Trading Edge? A Systematic Trader’s Complete Guide
Most traders think they have an edge. Almost none can prove it. A real trading edge is a backtested, positive-expectancy advantage that lives in your rules – here is what it is, where it comes from, and how to quantify it.
Portfolio Construction for Traders: How to Build a Portfolio of Trading Systems
One trading system is fragile. Learn to build a diversified portfolio of uncorrelated trading systems, allocate capital across them, and smooth your equity curve.
I Tested the Buy the Dip Strategy for 36 Years – Here is what happened
Buying the dip is the oldest advice in the market. So I built it into a rules-based system and tested it on every S&P 500 stock since 1990, including the ones that later went bust. Here is what the data actually said.
Introducing Brokers: What They Are and Why They Could Be Costing You a Fortune
Thousands of traders sign up through an introducing broker without realising it, and pay a hidden markup on every trade. Here is how to spot it and go direct.