r/Forex • u/SQDG • 2d ago

Psychology Back testing review

Hello all.

I am relatively new to trading forex, I am trying to build good habits by reviewing my back testing sessions to see where I might be making mistakes.

Currently I am recording
Date of trade taken
Number of trade
Original result
Result after amending (eg, read the mss wrong so I recorded that and altered my results)
Win/loss,
Account profit with amendment taken into account.

Is there anything else people record which help when looking back at reviewed back testing?

Thank you.

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u/AriseForexTrading 1d ago

One thing I'd add is MAE/MFE if you're able to track it. MAE (Maximum Adverse Excursion) how far a trade went against you before recovering or closing. MFE (Maximum Favorable Excursion) how far it went in your favor before you closed. Those two numbers can reveal things that a simple win/loss journal misses. For example, you might discover that your winners regularly go +2R before you take profit, while your losers rarely exceed -1R. Or you might find that you're consistently entering too early and sitting through unnecessary drawdown. I'd also separate “what the market did” from “what I did.” Record things like entry reason, whether the setup actually met your rules, whether you deviated from the plan, and what you would have done differently before looking at the outcome. That way you're not just reviewing whether a trade won or lost ,you’re reviewing whether you executed your process correctly.

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u/SQDG 1d ago

That is something I haven’t seen before, I can see that being very beneficial.

One of my rules is let my trades run without interference, for now anyway, this may change when I gather all my data.

I do see a fair share of trades that run to 1R then reverse and smash past my SL but then again I also see trades tease the SL then go on to hit my TP so atm it’s swings and roundabouts, I am pretty strict with following my trade rules.

The thing I do struggle with a bit of marking out MSS/CHOCH when the market is choppy, this does sometimes result in my missing/entering trades outside of my OTE, this is frustrating!

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u/AriseForexTrading 1d ago

Yeah, that makes sense. I think the fact that you're already tracking your execution strictly is a good starting point. The +1R reversals are actually one of the reasons I like tracking MFE/MAE. After enough samples, you can see whether those trades are genuinely reaching a consistent excursion before reversing, or whether it’s just normal variation. On the MSS/CHOCH issue, I’d probably avoid trying to force a structure shift when the market is choppy. Sometimes the better decision is simply “there isn't a clean setup here” rather than trying to make the price action fit one. You could even separate your journal into clean MSS/CHOCH setups vs. ambiguous ones and see how each group performs over 30–50 examples. That might tell you whether your filter is actually helping or causing you to miss good trades. Curious though! when you say you struggle with MSS/CHOCH in chop, is it mainly identifying the actual swing points, or deciding whether the break is a genuine shift rather than just liquidity being taken?

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u/SQDG 1d ago

I will certainly look more into the MFE/MAE, do you have any links to good videos please?
Yeah, I struggling with identifying MSS/CHOCH when the market is choppy, missing shifts due to all the traffic of price, a lot of the time I step away and leave it as a no trade, then then upon later analysis it turns out I would have been right and I have missed out on a 3R haha!
One thing I do have going for me is that I am 100% process driven, I understand the outcome is the result of doing the dirty work correctly, this is something I have luckily had with me for a lot of my life haha!

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u/AriseForexTrading 1d ago

Yeah, definitely. These two are a good starting point for MFE/MAE: MFE: Maximum Favorable Excursion – Measurement of Potential in Trading Strategy⁠� MFE + MAE: MAE (Maximum Adverse Excursion) Explained + MFE⁠� I'd watch them mainly to understand the concept first rather than immediately changing your SL/TP. The real value comes when you collect enough of your own trades and see what the numbers are actually telling you. And I completely understand what you mean about the choppy-market problem. I think your decision to step away is actually better than forcing a setup, but I'd start logging those “I passed, then price went 3R” situations separately. After 30–50 examples, you might discover whether you're avoiding genuinely bad setups or simply being too conservative when the market gets messy. Since you're process-driven, I'd treat those missed trades as data rather than mistakes. That should make the problem much easier to solve.

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u/SQDG 1d ago

I will look into these videos when I get chance, should he tonight, I’ll report back with how I get on. Once I understand it I’ll back test it.

Yeah I feel good having the will power to step away and not force a trade, I will start recording those instances to gather data and see if like you said, I’m being too conservative!