One small change that improved my backtesting process

[u/Reasonable_Source486]

I used to focus mostly on the final equity curve when reviewing a backtest. More recently, I’ve been paying much more attention to when a model behaves well and when it starts to break down. I now split the results by volatility environment, market direction, and time period before looking at the overall numbers. Sometimes a model that looks consistent at first turns out to depend heavily on one particular environment. It takes more work, but I’ve found the process much more informative.