Backtesting properly

Hey everyone ! I’ve been backtesting and journaling the 200 SMA strategy (buy over the 200 and sell under the 200) on GBP/AUD for a few weeks now (over 150 backtests) but I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere with what I’m doing . I just feel like I’m wasting time instead of actually improving my strategy .

any tips on how to journal and review effectively ? tips on how to properly backtest ?

The 200 is used by financial institutions as a trend direction for their positions on Daily or higher TFs, and usually only the major pairs. This is long term swing trading, which is sometimes duplicated by retail traders. No Nonsence YouTube state that their backtesting of TFs makes the Daily TF trades as being the most profitable.

As far as retail traders are concerned, if trading lower TF’s it is unlikely that the 200 would materially affect price movement. What has been adopted is the 50 & 20 crossover, particularly the 50 which US traders consider to be a price pivot point, which is also a key price number to consider when setting S/L and TP.

Hope that helps.

So what you’re saying is that for smaller time frames (1 hour and less - which is what I usually trade) it would be better for me to use the 50 & 20 crossover at key support and resistance levels ?

No. I am saying that the 50 and 20 could be used profitably on the higher TF’s. On lower TF’s scalpers use whatever suits their strategy best.

If I am scalping indices I use heiken ashi candles on the 5 and 1 minute charts. That’s all. Apart from ALWAYS setting a P/L before entering a trade.

Ohhhh , ok . Thank you for the clarification , and I’ll also look into the Heiken ashi even though I don’t trust my skills enough to scalp on the 1 minute it’s definitely something I’d like to have a broad overview of once I master the basics of price action .

another thing , you sound like you know what you’re doing , so got any tips ?