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General instructions
Run the tester over the specified range of years. Available data
runs from 1986 through 2007 for most screens. You may start at any
month of the year, but other than January can only run through 2006/2007.
Stocks are picked from the screens every holding period (between
1 and 24 months) and held for that period.
Instead of selecting from the available screens, you may choose to
enter codes from any of the backtesters to create hybrid
tests. Simply copy the link listed at the top of a run & paste into the form.
Also see the backtester code guide.
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Trading simulation
Start with an initial investment. You may also add more
money periodically. You can also subtract from the portfolio by adding a
negative amount.
Instead of adding or subtracting a fixed amount, you can elect to keep the
portfolio at a fixed allocation. This is useful for testing costs
without considering the effects of compounded growth, to see what your money
might do this year.
Normally, the stocks held in a screen are rebalanced on every trade.
You can also specify to never rebalance, which may allow one stock to dominate
a screen as it grows, or rebalance at a fixed interval (which must be a
multiple of the holding period).
You can pay a fixed commission (which is applied to every buy and
sell) as well as a percentage spread (half applied on buy, half on
sell).
Capital-gains taxes can be applied, both short-term and
long-term. Taxes may be taken out on every trade, quarterly, or
annually.
Screen rankings come out on Friday, and backtests are typically done with
the closing prices on the next Monday, one day after the rankings.
This lag between ranking and trading can be varied from zero days (trade on
Friday) and upward.
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Screen of Screens Backtest instructions
Choose which screens to select the stocks from. You may limit choices
to stocks that appear on some minimum number of screens or unique screen
categories (i.e. Keystone, RS, etc.). Note that the concept of "unique" only
applies to a limited subset of the predefined screens.
The stocks in each screen are ranked, counting down from the first stock to
the specified position (or all stocks if no position is
specified). The first stock gets max points (max defaults to
position), the second max-1, and so on. The totals for each
stock are then sorted, and the highest limit stocks are chosen. In the
case of a tie, a secondary sort is done by looking at each screen in sequence,
and selecting the stock that appears first.
Another popular SOS tool is the Saucer, which allows you
to generate a list of current rankings for SOS combinations.
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