Is the floating profit/loss (FPL) accurate?

[Goblintrader21]

I've been backtesting strategies on futures and am curious how accurate this number is? Obviously, I know in live trading this number won't be realistic but does it at least give an accurate estimate? It also seems like the further back the timeline, the less the return makes sense. Does FPL not work over a long period of time? Appreciate any insight. Cheers.

Here's my code for buy orders in case anyone was curious.

# Bullish Orders
AddOrder(OrderType.BUY_TO_OPEN, condition = BuyTrigger,
price = close, 1, tickcolor = Color.GREEN, arrowcolor =
Color.GREEN, name = "BUY");
AddOrder(OrderType.SELL_TO_CLOSE, condition = SellTrigger,
price = open, 1, tickcolor = Color.RED, arrowcolor = Color.RED,
name = "SELL");
# Bearish Orders
AddOrder(OrderType.SELL_TO_OPEN, condition = SellTrigger,
price = open, 1, tickcolor = Color.RED, arrowcolor = Color.RED,
name = "SELL");
AddOrder(OrderType.BUY_TO_CLOSE, condition = BuyTrigger,
price = close, 1, tickcolor = Color.GREEN, arrowcolor =
Color.GREEN, name = "BUY");

 

[MerryDay]

I've been backtesting strategies on futures and am curious how accurate this number is? Obviously, I know in live trading this number won't be realistic but does it at least give an accurate estimate? It also seems like the further back the timeline, the less the return makes sense. Does FPL not work over a long period of time? Appreciate any insight. Cheers.

Sometimes accurate not real life. You didn't provide the buy / sell conditions or time frames so it isn't possible to provide more of an answer.
You need to fix your price= statement:

If you're testing the strategies in thinkscripts, the most accurate P&L is when the AddOrder entry time is set as "open[-1]". Meaning that it will mark the price of the open of the candle after the signal is fully met.

So the strategy will only ever mark a price as an entry if a candle closes with all the conditions met. Then once that candle has closed, the entry is marked as the open of the next candle. Having followed strategies live, this is the most realistic.

The following are never accurately portrayed in backtesting:
Repainting Indicators
MTF Indicators
Aggregations under 3-5min (dependent on strategy)

 

[Goblintrader21]

Sometimes accurate not real life. You didn't provide the buy / sell conditions or time frames so it isn't possible to provide more of an answer.
You need to fix your price= statement:


The following are never accurately portrayed in backtesting:
Repainting Indicators
MTF Indicators
Aggregations under 3-5min (dependent on strategy)

Thanks for taking the time to reply, that was helpful. I had one more quick question. The signals on my chart show up as BUY 1(50) when signaling a long entry for example. Could you break down what that means? I have my global settings set to 1 contract so I'm confused as to where 50 is coming from? Is it one order of 50 contracts?

 

[MerryDay]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, that was helpful. I had one more quick question. The signals on my chart show up as BUY 1(50) when signaling a long entry for example. Could you break down what that means? I have my global settings set to 1 contract so I'm confused as to where 50 is coming from? Is it one order of 50 contracts?

AddOrder
Adds an order of specified side and position effect for the next bar when the condition is true.

Input parameters​

Parameter	Default value	Description
type	OrderType.BUY_AUTO	Defines order side and position effect using the OrderType constants.
condition	-	Defines condition upon which the order is added.
price	open[-1]	Defines price at which the order is added.
tradeSize	-	Defines the number of contracts traded. Note that this value overrides the trade size specified in Strategy Global Settings.
tickColor	Color.MAGENTA	Defines the color of tick marking the trade price.
arrowColor	Color.MAGENTA	Defines the color of signal arrow.
name	Color.MAGENTA	Defines the order name which will be displayed on "Orders" tabs in strategy settings, in strategy report, and as captions to the Buy/Sell signal arrows on chart. By default, all orders use the same name as the strategy itself.

Example​

AddOrder(OrderType.BUY_AUTO, close > close[1], open[-1], 50, Color.ORANGE, Color.ORANGE, "Sample buy @ " + open[-1]);
If the current Close price is higher than the previous, the code opens the long position or closes the short one at the Open price of the next bar. The trade size will be equal to 50, signals will be colored orange, and each signal will display the buying price.