Build a Moving Average Pullback Backtester in 35 Minutes

[@justtrade9903]

I'm speechless. This is incredible. I'll be having lots of fun playing it with several tickers and actually reduce the time frame to start from early this year when we started to have the reversal to see how SPY, etc., are now reacting to the EMAs. Thank you!!

[@TOSIndicators]

My pleasure, and sounds like an awesome backtest idea! I'd be curious to learn any insights you find along the way.

[@DA33_718]

great stuff teacher 🙂

[@MrWetnutz]

Thank you Thank you Thank you. I have been struggling for so long to get TOS to "capture" price at the time of purchase for exits. This is a tremendous help.

[@TOSIndicators]

My pleasure! Glad to hear it helped.

[@lorensaunders5772]

Holy shit this is one of your best videos ever and shows the true power of the TOS feature set. So nicely explained thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for as well... so I can build my own backtester for a strategy I'm working on. Thank you thank you thank you.

[@TOSIndicators]

Thanks Loren! I'm glad you found it helpful for your own strategy, as well... that's awesome.

[@scottellsworth284]

I accidentally stumbled upon your video googling strategies. Absolutely amazing video! Thank you!

[@TOSIndicators]

Welcome Scott! And thank you, I appreciate the kind words.

[@GrimmReapa]

Thanks for all you do especially The How To Thinkscript. To this day, I stare at the VWAP script and don’t understand it or how to make a copycat if possible. Keep up the Great Work!

[@TOSIndicators]

Thanks Tyronne! I'm sure you're much better than you think you are at thinkScripting.

[@darckfire]

This is Magnificent !

[@TOSIndicators]

Thanks Abisai!

[@RangesRider]

Thank you so much! Always love to see your videos, very helpful.

[@TOSIndicators]

Thanks Imran! Hope you're doing well.

[@abrahamfriedman4320]

Good stuff - love the back testers

[@TOSIndicators]

Thanks Abraham! They're usually the most fun to tinker with, as well.

[@abrahamfriedman4320]

@@TOSIndicators agreed - I'm your biggest fan

[@abdulmohsen7132]

hi bro thanks for these videos it helps us can you please explain how to create scanner for breakout and retest strategy thank you for your time.

[@TheJustinjet]

You guys are great!

[@TOSIndicators]

Thanks Dan! Appreciate your kind words.

[@peterneckermann1494]

good stuff! with the retracement though, it seems like the buy/sell to open price is being retrieved within the signal candle itself at the retracement level rather than at the next instance of retracement.., am i missing something here?

[@TOSIndicators]

Hi Peter - I think you have it correct; the backtester will take an entry at the first pullback to the chosen EMA. If you'd like it to be the next instance, you would need to create a variable that stores the appropriate EMA price value, which you can then reference (and update, if necessary) for future candles.

[@peterneckermann1494]

@@TOSIndicators thanks for the reply. yes, that makes perfect sense... only, its beyond my current skill level at present! Any chance you have another backtester from which i could copy such an expression?

[@TOSIndicators]

Hi Peter - don't have anything you can copy/paste, but you can find examples of creating a variable that stores a value for future reference in our Opening Range Breakout indicator tutorial: tosindicators.com/indicators/opening-range-breakout

[@peterneckermann1494]

@@TOSIndicators brilliant, thank you so much!

[@SRUSeal]

Looking forward to playing around with this. Is there a way to combine it with the Squeeze back tester? For example, positive stacked EMAs + squeeze + pullback = entry. Might reduce trade triggers but would be great to determine ATR targets/stops for squeezes in different markets.

[@TOSIndicators]

Hi Jesse - We have something similar already built -- our Slingshot Squeeze and Squeeze Signals backtesters, with incorporates squeeze conditions and more robust entry/exits. You can find both of them here: www.tosindicators.com/squeeze-course

[@SRUSeal]

@@TOSIndicators I really dig those backtesters actually. I noticed however that when those populate the price has usually already started it's move (great for last minute entries). I was mainly asking because a pullback for a squeeze usually means getting a "better" entry as long as the price doesn't consolidate forever. I got bored at work and did some playing around with the Squeeze and Pullback backtesters and I was able to create a strategy that looks for entries at the EMA pullback after a five bar squeeze and the EMAs a stacked appropriately for the direction of the play. Since I also use ATR for my exits I took that from the Pullback Backtester as well for the Squeeze. Thanks for these videos! I never would have thought I'd get into coding. If you'd like to take a look at what I was able to jumble together let me know...it's only my second attempt at coding however.

[@markkennedy5955]

If you find through the back tester a list of stocks that work well, can you apply this as a working strategy to a watchlist that gives you signals to take real trades?

[@TOSIndicators]

It should be possible, but you would need to adapt the code a bit, removing the AddOrder function, exit signals, etc., and only output the entrySignals as your label output.

[@neuvocastezero1838]

This is great, but I don't understand why it's necessary to add another "entry price" parameter between the conditional statement and order quantity in the exit orders.

[@TOSIndicators]

Hi there, the entryPrice() function lets you reference the price used by the backtester for the entry, and is useful for exit orders (ie. target 5% gain from entry or 2% stop from entry).

[@neuvocastezero1838]

@@TOSIndicators OK, Thanks for the reply!

[@57Carlibra]

Can you see any errors? I followed you as meticulously as I could but I'm still getting red lettering when I get back to the "Added Studies and Strategies" area, meaning the scroll script has errors. Ideally, all your code could be put under the "More" area, so that I wouldn't have to follow along and playback the video repeatedly to type what you've just done. Sort of a frustrating 2 hours for me here. Hope you can spot the error. I tried to go to the link you gave but that's a zip file and I really don't see why a couple of lines of code would need to be in that format and zip files make me a bit suspicious. Here's the code I believe you taught. If I try to open up the sprocket to change the variables, nothing appears as shown in your version. input longEntries = yes; input shortEntries = no; input entryMA = {default EMA8, EMA21, EMA34, SMA50, SMA200}; input sentryType = {default pullbackOnly, Confirmation}; input targetMultiplier = 2; input stopMultiplier = 1; input quantity = 10; def EMA8 = ExpAverage(close, 8); def EMA21 = ExpAverage(close, 21); def EMA34 = ExpAverage(close, 34); def SMA50 = SimpleMovingAvg(close, 50); def SMA200 = SimpleMovingAvg(close, 200); def entryPullbackMA; switch (entryMA){ case EMA8: entryPullbackMA = EMA8; case EMA21: entryPullbackMA = EMA21; case EMA34: entryPullbackMA = EMA34; case SMA50: entryPullbackMA = SMA50; case SMA200: entryPullbackMA = SMA200; } def bullishStackedMAs = EMA8 > EMA21 and EMA21 > EMA34 and EMA34 > SMA50 and SMA50 > SMA200; def bearishStackedMAs = EMA8 < EMA21 and EMA21 < EMA34 and EMA34 < SMA50 and SMA50 < SMA200; def bullEntrySignal; def bullEntryPrice; def bearEntrySignal; def bearEntryprice; switch (entryType){ case pullbackOnly: bullEntrySignal = bullishStackedMAs and low = entryPullbackMA; bearEntryprice = entryPullbackMA; case Confirmation: bullEntrySignal = bullishStackedMAs and Lowest (low, 2) high[1]; bullEntryPrice = close; bearEntrySignal = bearishStackedMAs and Highest (high, 2) >= entryPullbackMA and close < low[1]; bearEntryprice = close; } def ATRvalue = if (bullEntrySignal and !bullEntrySignal[1] or (bearEntrySignal and !bearEntrySignal[1] then ATR(14) else ATRvalue[1]; AddOrder(OrderType.BUY_TO_OPEN, longEntries and bullEntrySignal, bullEntryPrice, quantity); AddOrder(OrderType.SELL_TO_CLOSE, high >= EntryPrice() + targetMultipler * ATRValue, EntryPrice() + targetMultiplier * ATRValue, quantity); AddOrder(OrderType.SELL_TO_CLOSE, low

[@TOSIndicators]

You can download the backtester from our website and compare with your version. Looks like you have open paranthesis, without a closed one. Here are instructions on how to unzip a ThinkOrSwim file and import into your platform, if you need help with the process: tosindicators.com/thinkscript/how-to-import-thinkorswim

[@57Carlibra]

@@TOSIndicators I appreciate your reply.