At StratGeeks, one of our core philosophies is simple:

What’s the point of automation if you can’t trust the backtest?

The purpose of an automated strategy is to execute a set of rules consistently and without emotion. But if the testing behind those rules is inaccurate, unrealistic, or misleading, then the strategy itself becomes difficult to trust.

That is why we spend so much time discussing backtesting accuracy.

In fact, ask yourself:

How many other strategy vendors have you ever heard talking about backtesting accuracy?

Very few spend much time explaining why their backtests should be trusted in the first place.

Candlestick Charts Only

All StratGeeks testing is performed on traditional candlestick charts.

We do not use:

❌ Renko Bars
❌ Heikin Ashi Bars
❌ Other synthetic chart types

While these chart types can be useful for discretionary analysis, they often create significant distortions in backtesting because the bars themselves are not actual market prices.

Simply put:

If the bars are not real, the backtest is not real.

By using traditional candlestick charts, our testing is based on actual market movement rather than artificially constructed price data.

Realistic Order Execution

Our strategies utilize a combination of LIMIT orders and MARKET orders depending on the needs of the strategy.

The goal is not to force one order type everywhere.

The goal is to use realistic execution methods that can reasonably be expected to perform similarly in both testing and live markets.

No Misleading Trailing Stop Optimizations

Although some of our strategies have the ability to use trailing stops, we generally avoid using automatic trailing stops in our published backtests.

Why?

Because many trailing stop calculations cannot be accurately reproduced using historical data alone.

In many cases, trailing stops can produce backtest results that appear significantly better than what could realistically be achieved in live trading.

For that reason, we generally prefer:

✅ Fixed Stops
✅ Fixed Targets
✅ Clearly Defined Exit Logic

This helps ensure that the results being presented are as realistic and repeatable as possible.

Our Philosophy

Our goal has never been to produce the most impressive-looking backtest.

Our goal is to produce the most believable one.

By focusing on:

✅ Traditional candlestick charts
✅ Realistic order execution
✅ Conservative assumptions
✅ No synthetic chart types
✅ No misleading trailing-stop optimizations

we strive to build strategies whose historical performance has the best chance of reflecting real market behavior. No strategy has ever been 100% accurate in it’s backtesting, but we get close.

Because at the end of the day, a beautiful backtest is worthless if it cannot survive contact with the real market.