
Arena Blog
Data-driven insights on trading strategies, backtests, and market analysis.
1–12 of 18 posts · page 1 of 2
Backtest baseline: how our comparison value broke — and what 20 flipped verdicts show
The baseline in a backtest is what everything else is measured against. Ours was 62 % runs with a filter switched on. What that shifted, and what we changed.
Leverage Backtest: Why More Leverage Rarely Means More Return
A leverage backtest rarely shows more return – often less. Why effective exposure = position × leverage decides, and where 5× would have liquidated your strategy in 2018.
The Wyckoff Spring, Backtested: We Locked the Rules First — Here's the Result
We pre-registered a Wyckoff spring backtest: rules locked first, 10 pairs, placebo control. The result is a clean nothing — and short-term even negative.
Stacking More Sats With Altcoin Rotation? 45 Tests, One Answer
Stacking more sats by rotating between altcoins, BTC and stablecoins sounds compelling. We measured it across 45 test cases. The result: less BTC than doing nothing.
The Wyckoff Method Explained — What the Research Says, and the Rules We Lock Before Testing
The Wyckoff schematic is among the best-known models in trading. Under its own name it is barely tested — the mechanism behind it is, and it contradicts the Spring at one decisive point. Here is how it works, why phases cannot be counted, and the exact rules plus control group for our test — published before a single number exists.
Why Honest Backtesting Looks Different
A backtest showing +900% is usually an illusion — built from one lucky entry, too few trades, and the wrong benchmark. Four principles we hold ourselves to: the average of all entries, the 30-trade line, Average Buy & Hold, and out-of-sample testing.
Backtest Tokenized Stocks: How Equities, ETFs and Gold Returned to the Arena
acktest tokenized stocks — without a market-data licence. Why the on-chain price opens the door, and where the limits are.
The Coinbase Premium Index: What It Measures, What It Doesn't, and How to Test It
The Coinbase Premium Index is read as a thermometer for US demand. It measures a price gap, not a flow — and its denominator is not a dollar. What it can carry, where it breaks, what the Korea premium reveals about it, and the six tests a backtest needs.
When Simulations Lie: What Persi Diaconis Actually Said About Convergence and Proof
Persi Diaconis shows a simulation can run for thousands of hours, look stable, and still be wrong. What he actually said about convergence and proof.
Look-Ahead Bias in Macro Data: Why We Rebuilt Our Regime History
Look-ahead bias corrupts backtests when macro data is revised after the fact. Why we rebuilt our regime history to be strictly point-in-time — and proved it.
The Gap Tax: Your Daily Backtest Fills at a Price You Can't Trade — How Big Is the Error Really?
Daily backtests compute the signal from the close and fill at that same close — a price you can no longer trade. We recomputed 7,000+ trades twice (close fill vs. next open) to size the distortion. Result: smaller than the myth.
40,000 Backtests — What the Data Says Now (and What Changed Since 10k)
Five weeks ago it was 10,000 backtests; today it's over 40,000. With 4x the data, the "beats Buy & Hold" rate falls from 64% to 52%, four in five runs land below 50% win rate, and one memecoin still holds its 197,923% record. What selection bias does to sample size — on real numbers.
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